WWJD - What would Jefferson do?

One of the problems is that the Bush administration has compleatly hijacked our langage.

We have not been "at War" since May or June 2003. We are in an occupation. The war was brilliantly executed and lasted about a month. The occupation has been botched beyond belief.

The neocons want it both ways.. they want to stiffle decent by being at war, but they dont declare war because that complicates things for them. This has worked out really well for them and almost noone critisizes their mastery of orwellian techniques.

Bush loves being the "war president" He started calling himself that shortly after 9-11 and he says it with a gleam in his eye. But it is just another lie in order to stiffle decent and give him more power.

Vietnam was more of a real war. Still undeclared but there was a real governement on the other sides of the lines.

I dont know if you remember, but it was unfashionable in "hawkish" circles to call vietnam a war. One way to rattle the establishment was to call it a war. That didnt become popular until later. It was a "police action" as was Korea.

What if you brought back a founding father... say Jefferson and tried to explain current events to him. You tell him we are in the 3rd year of a war in Iraq. He would ask who is the leader of this Iraq and how many troops do they have. He would be dumbfounded that we are still "at war" with a country with a leader thats been on trial for a year and which has had no army in the field for 3 years.

He woud be dumbfounded. I know I am....

(BTW.. later I would have to explain how last week our senitors comprimised with the president to allow officially sanctioned torture. I am pretty sure his head would explode at that point.)