It's a war on terror, dammit.
Everybody has to tow this line. When, for instance, Barack Obama inadvertently spoke the truth and said that 3000 Americans have died for nothing in Iraq, he was quickly forced to apologize. Or the Democrats in the House, scheduling their tiresome (and no doubt futile) debate on some sort of resolution on the war, have made damn sure they're framing the whole thing as some sort of judgement of Bush's prosecution of the war--in other words, they're criticizing Bush for mismanagement, not for starting the thing in the first place.
Because to do otherwise would, apparently, be too depressing. But some of the unease in the country right now has to do with a gradual national awakening, a realization that, Oh God no, all those deaths really were in vain, that there really was no point to this whole charade.
As sad and depressing as this truth may be, we can handle it. We're adults. Everybody dies, and there is no purpose to cancer, or a car crash, or heart failure. Life goes on, until it doesn't.
Of course, these particular deaths came about as a result of a shameful, needless war, and grieving families might start asking questions, and those questions could--perhaps--lead somewhere, if they were persistant enough, and an ugly truth could emerge, a truth that would lay bare all the lies and hypocrisy on which official Washington functions.
Well, obviously, we can't have that. We can't level with the American people. We can't tell the truth, so we'll continue the Big Lie, the very lie we were denouncing only a few months ago as we sought election. We'll agree that Iraq is somehow part of this nebulous war on terror, or at least won't quibble with the terminology. We'll cover our ears and close our eyes, we'll change the subject, and though we may profess our religious beliefs, we will pray only that we will never he held accountable for our sins.
