Speaking Frankly

As those who follow politics may know, the US House of Representatives is currently debating a non-binding resolution opposing the president's "surge" plan for Iraq. Each representative is allowed five minutes to say their piece, resulting in droning speeches long into the night. They've been at it all week, and I believe they are scheduled to finish up tonight. The speeches, Democratic and Republican alike, are, naturally, completely unbearable. Just excrement. What an incredible, masturbatory excerise this is. It's classic Washingtonian hot air--an effort that will have zero effect on what actually happens in Iraq, solely done for political postuering. I can only imagine what kind of Kafkaesque nightmare it must be for the House staff who are required to actually be present for the entire spectacle. But as dishonest and worthless as the Democrats are, the Republicans are absolutely breathtaking.

To wit, last night, as I showered, I flipped on C-SPAN radio for something to occupy my mind. Trent Franks, republican from the 2nd distict of Arizona, was giving his speech. All the usual nonsense was there--if we don't fight them there, we'll fight them here; democrats are Neville Chamberlain-like appeasers; etc. But then he, uh, dropped the bomb, so to speak: do the democrats not remember, he asked, the horrors of world war II? Have they forgotten the Nazi atrocities, the dropping of atomic bombs?

Excuse me? Maybe I'm getting my history mixed up here, but I think there's only one country in the history of the world that's ever used a nuclear weapon against an enemy. And this nefarious country used that weapon on civilian populations in circumstances which historians have come to view as very probably unnecessary. Representative Franks may be closer to the mark with his comments that he knows, though. The nature of US policy may once again see us using unconscionable weaponry for purposes that are less than altruistic, though somehow I don't think that's the point Franks was trying to drive home.