I was all set to write an impassioned defense of Cindy Sheehan today, noting that exploitation of the dead, when done by Republicans, is A-OK, but when a simple housewife from California does it, suddenly the right-wing chuckleheads (yea, MMalkin, this means you. I know you've been alerted!) get their knickers in a twist.
When along comes a good friend named Ira to say this:
Circus or not, it is about time the media focused on what a farce the "war" -- no, this renamed armed exercise against extremism -- has become. The Washington Post ran an article saying the insider pros in the administration are backing off their aspirations for "transforming" Iraq into a democracy, the outstanding constitutional issues of federalism, role of religion, division of oil revenue seem intractable, and what Sheehan has done, which somehow the 2004 election failed to do, is force us to realize we have committed our troops and treasure for Bush lies. It is more than unfortunate that America's attention span is so short, fleeting, and seemingly apt to follow the travails of the likes of Paula Abdul or Terry Schiavo or Martha Stewart or OJ or Michael Jackson, when we are killing people and being killed for no good reason, and this administration thinks nothing of political retaliation (a la Rove) when someone speaks truth to power. (And not just Wilson, but Clark and O'Neill as well)
So, as simple and perhaps artificial as the Sheehan media event is, at least the focus is on the right thing for once. It seems the only way to get our lazy administration stenographers (that is, the mainstream media) interested in anything that should be serious is to introduce a "circus" -- that is, entertainment -- component into it. So, if that's what it takes, so be it. If the game has to be played to get people to realize America has been disgracefully astray in Iraq for the last 30+ months, let's play.
Cud nae said it better meself...
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