A Small Price

The Great Orange Satan thinks we suck because we're not banging the drums day and night about House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-FlyoverCountry) and his comment that 4000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq is a "small price" to pay.

Sadly, Mr. Boehner only spoke the harsh truth. Those dead troops are a small price to pay. They're little people, who don't figure much in the overall political, philosophical or economic system of America— unlike the 3000 or so people who got killed in the 9/11 attacks, who are all so much more important.

Losing those civilians was a huge price to pay. The U.S. troops in Iraq? Not so much.

This is a truth everyone in America knows, but no one can say it out loud. Except, a GOP congressman from Ohio who happens to be the House Minority Leader, of course. He can say it. The GOP won't raise an outcry. They know it's true. The conservative punditry establishment knows its true. Even the Democratic leadership knows it's true.

Sure, a few dirty f*cking hippie bloggers will piss and moan about it, but nobody listens to them. Besides, they also know Boehner is right. Every dead soldier is one less U.S. treasury payroll check that has to be delivered every month to somebody who volunteered to be a target in a shooting gallery. Right? Come on... we all know this. Maybe, we're all thinking, we can replace the ones who get killed with new recruits who will do the same work for lower pay. God bless America. Land of free market competition and entrepreneurial spirit.

We all know that 4000 dead troops is a small price to pay. It's the reason we aren't demanding that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq be repealed immediately, that all U.S. military personnel be withdrawn from Iraq with redeployment beginning immediately, and that all further construction of permanent U.S. military installations in Iraq be stopped immediately. It's the reason we don't really mind that our candidates for President and the leadership of both our major parties in Congress refuse to consider those ideas, much less advance serious proposals to that effect. It's the reason most civilians without any direct interaction with military personnel and their families are pretty much oblivious to the human costs of the war in Iraq.

Not enough U.S. troops have been killed, maimed, broken and their families destroyed for most of us to care. What's another thousand or so every year? As long as more Iraqis are dying than American troops, it's all good for us. Isn't that right?

Maybe, just maybe, this post I've just written offends your sensibilities. What are you going to do about it? I already know your answer to that. You're going to be outraged that I should be allowed to say such terrible things without having to pay any price for it. You're going to say I should be made to pay a price. A huge price. So, what do you have in mind?

And, don't you think that's a price Mr. Boehner should pay as well?