Promoting Democracy

You don't have to be a rocket scientist, brain surgeon or as Mr. Bush might say a rocket surgeon to know that the people in the United States are divided on the war in Iraq. There are a lot of different talking points but what it boils down to are two basic camps. On one had you have those who say that we are over there "spreading democracy", "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" and "we need to give the surge a chance". On the other hand are those that say "the thing is un-winable, bring our troops home as soon as possible."

Right now, the polls would indicate that there are more folks that agree with the later than agree with the former. Unfortunately, the highly touted "democracy" that we are advocating does not apply in this case. All that really matters is what the folks inside the beltway do. To date it would appear that in deed if not in word, they are telling us, in the words of Mr. Cheney, to go f*#k ourselves.

Obviously these two sides are not going to reconcile anytime soon. There is an old saying "divided we fall." Since no one wants to fall, we need to come up with a workaround for this impasse. I think I've got one.

What we need to do is print out some cards with the following on them:

****************************************************************************

[ ] Yes, I support the Iraq war and am willing to go over there and fight.
[ ] No, I do not support the Iraq war and don't want to be involved with it.

Signature _____________________________ Date: ________

****************************************************************************

Have the IRS, who knows where everyone is anyway, send a card to every US citizen over the age of 21 (if you ain't old enough to drink, you ain't old enough to fight.) When I say everyone that includes the men and women currently in Iraq, the president, the vice president, members of congress, governors of the 50 states, i.e. everyone. Make it a criteria of service in Iraq that someone has marked on their card that Yes, they are willing to go over there and fight. Anyone who marks no does not have to go or if they are already over there they must be brought home immediately. Load all those who mark Yes on the next available flight to Baghdad. That way, the ones who support the war will do the fighting and the rest of us will do whatever it is that we do. Now that is democracy.