The Dead Will Not Applaud

With El Presidente in Ft. Bragg tonight to use the obedient military as pawns, the N&O has some bad news to greet him: "Our statewide poll shows a dip in Tar Heel support for the war -- and Bush's handling of it."

"42 percent of active voters agree the war has been worth it, but 49 percent say it has not." Notice the target group here as a possible predictor of future elections: they asked "active voters."

Wonder if those hundreds of hand-picked soldiers who will provide El Presidente his patriotic pep squad are to a man/woman convinced that their Commander-in-Chief is the same brilliant tactician he believes himself to be?

Wouldn't it be liberating if just one strong voice was heard to utter, "Mr. President, Sir, I was just wondering..."?

But ... not gonna happen.

"Of Van Wettering I speak, and Averill,
Names on a list, whose faces I do not recall
But they are gone to early death, who late in school
Distinguished the belt feed lever from the belt holding pawl."

--Richard Eberhart, "The Fury of Aerial Bombardment" (Eberhart was already 37 years old when the U.S. entered WWII, but he enlisted anyway in that just war and became a Navy gunnery instructor, training soldiers in the operation of the 50-caliber Browning automatic. Eberhart died a few days ago on June 9th, aged 101.)