Petard hoistings

I have my radio in the kitchen tuned to one of the area all-talk stations, and it’s programmed to automatically come on around noon and again at night. In case I’m not home, it makes it sound like someone else is inside the house, so it acts as sort of a security system.

When I’m there and the radio clicks on, I usually let it run. I’ve now gotten quite accustomed to listening to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Matthew Drudge. I’ve come to quite a few conclusions, but I just want to focus on one today.


Why is it when it comes to talking about big government, conservatives like these don’t think government can do anything right. Universal health care? You can’t trust big government with that. Mail delivery? Privatize it, they say. Just about any function you name, they’ll pooh-pooh government’s role in it, claiming private enterprise and fair-market competition can do a much better job.

So it got me thinking, what about war? Where’s their disdain for big government’s handling of military matters? An imbecilic chicken-hawk like George W. Bush can totally fuck up an entire military operation from the get-go -- from disbanding a nation’s military to outlawing the party that ran the country -- leaving us with one unholy shitpile to clean up, and yet these commentators will still pledge their unyielding support for this bumbling commander in chief and a military mission that can never possibly be accomplished. [When Bush was formulating “a new Iraq strategy” during the winter, where was the outrage over the fact that he didn’t have an Iraq strategy to begin with?]

For all my disdain of Halliburton Inc., I think they could probably do a better job in Iraq than the Bush government. Let’s just give them a contract to clean up our mess. Outsource the military. Let some secretive board of directors make the decisions and carry out the business plan. They could probably do it cheaper, hiring non-American labor, thus costing fewer American lives.

Whenever these conservative dittoheads diss the government’s handling of things, don't forget: the military is part of that government.