Baghdad is just like Philadelphia

The unreality W and his administration were said to be shedding hasn't molted just yet. Yesterday, W commemorated the 60th anniversary of V-J Day in a speech at the Naval Air Station in San Diego. For all you youngsters out there we were at war with Japan before they started selling us cars, televisions and dvd players, "V-J" Day is Victory in Japan Day not some reference to MTV "veejays." For all you middle-aged youngsters out there, MTV doesn't have veejays anymore, they are on MTV2. MTV is now home to "Date my Mom" and the new reality show "Underwear Cam - Life inside boxers and thongs."

So the boy who would be war president spoke, in a suit not a flight suit, and said, "Sixty years...Japanese [accepted] surrender" ending World War II. And using the anniversary of V-J Day for policital ends W said, "As we mark this anniversary, we are again a nation at war. Once again, war came to our shores with a surprise attack that killed thousands in cold blood. (and we attacked a country that had nothing to do with it) Once again, we face determined enemies who follow a ruthless ideology that despises everything America stands for. (and who we have strengthened by mishandling our war of choice) Once again, America and our allies are waging a global campaign with forces deployed on virtually every continent. (and where we are sacrificing our sons and daughters to create fundamentalist Islamic states) And once again, we will not rest until victory is America's and our freedom is secure. (When I say "we will not rest" I'm using "we" loosely since I have rested on vacation more than any other president in history spending nearly 1 in 5 days in office on "me time.")

Iraq seems to be like World War II and our own nation's constitutional birth depending on the time of day. The Iraqi constitution, the bedrock of Jeffersonian democracy we were promised and that our sons and daughters are being sacrificed for to help create states, "Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation [and] no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam." Wonder if that will show up in Army recruiting ads? "Army. Defending the freedom of clerics to create Islamic states." Sickening.

And Iraq as the Thirteen Colonies? Baghdad as Philadelphia? No difference in constitutional conventions or militias? Excuse me, but while the period between the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781 and the drafting of the Constitution in 1787 was one of weakness, dissension, and turmoil the worst thing that happened back then was states printing up their own money and imposing taxes on other states' imported goods. Unlike in Iraq where a mix of foreign terrorists, former Sunni Ba'athists now insurgents, criminal gangs and religious militias have made life practically unlivable, the militias of New Hampshire and Massachusetts didn't go on raids slaughtering the good people of Maine or Connecticut unless I missed that in history class. It's more of the unreality W and his band of crusaders will sell until people stop buying it.

And get ready for another historical comparison if Iraq descends into full-blown (no pun intended) civil war. Then W will be endlessly quoting Lincoln and Rumsfeld will approvingly tell us "we had our own civil war and it's just a normal part of the bumpy road to democracy." Like I said, sickening.