Fate adds weight to his argument

Andrew Bacevich (left) has unimpeachable credentials for criticizing the war in Iraq. He went to West Point, served in Vietnam, and held posts in Germany and the Persian Gulf in the 1980s, and describes himself as a 'Catholic conservative.' He teaches International Relations at Boston University, and in 2005, this ineffable 'man of war' wrote a book called "The New American Militarism: how Americans are seduced by war." The book is a scholarly and devastating critique of Americans' lazy, ready reliance on ultimate force around the world, and also of how militarism subtly prevades American society. He called George Bush's war "immoral, illicit and imprudent."

As a result, Bacevich got the usual media treatment: 'traitor,' 'aiding America's enemies,' 'go to hell you fucking liberal,' all this from the amazingly liberal American media which we hear so much about from the media itself and its asshole fascist bosses (and I mean CNN and the networks, not just Fox).

Earlier this month, fate lent its weight to Bacevich's words when a suicide bomber in Samarra Province in Iraq killed his only son, also called Andrew, a first lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, 8th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. You may read his painfully-written opinion piece in the Washington Post.

I say painful for two reasons, because first he feels he failed his son, the good soldier, by not opposing the war more, as a good citizen should. And secondly, he has had to deal with yet more sicko shit: letters, emails from Americans who on hearing that his son was killed, decided to let Bacevich senior know that he deserves to lose his son, he brought this on himself.

Someone once wrote that states fight wars abroad in order to paradoxically conduct another war at home, domestically. So in that sense, George Bush is still winning his war, his war on the home front, a war in which he divides the American people against themselves. When he leered out of your TV screens and said 'if you aren't with us, you're against us,' he wasn't talking to anyone other than the people of the United States.