Well, it happened. Someone finally called me a “Bushie.”

Do I prefer Bush over Kerry in this election? Absolutely. I’ve made no bones about it. Am I a fan of Bush? In general, absolutely not. In the narrow context of the war, yes. It’s really all about the lesser of two evils, for me. Bush is just as much of a disaster on the domestic front as any democrat, spending like a drunken sailor. I’ve never once equivocated about this fact.

What of the charges of deceit and lying? Well, it pretty much goes with this territory, i.e., this particular context. I think it was strategically critical to take Iraq, and so did they. I also think that laying out all the real reasons for doing so would never fly politically. Pragmatism over principle? Yes, to a degree, but people running planes into buildings and swearing an allegiance to kill you if they get the chance constitutes an emergency situation where conventional morality does not always apply.*

The war against Islamism is the only reason I back Bush. Still, I will not be wasting my time voting.

What of the charges of horrible blundering? Has anyone stopped to realize that we invaded and took over two complete countries on the other side of the world and suffered less total casualties (1,037 total, so far) than in a few days in Viet Nam, and a few hours during WWII?

Perspective:

Revolutionary War (25,324)
Civil War (620,000)
World War I (116,708)
World War II (407,316)
Korean War (54,246)
Vietnam War (58,655)
Gulf War (293)
Afghanistan (130)
Iraq (907)

Try adjusting the Revolutionary War and Civil War for population growth, and see what real horror is. The Civil War lost us 2% of our population at the time. That would be like losing 5.5 million people today.

Oh, I realize there are some generals out there second-guessing everything. They get to be on TV, and they certainly aren’t going to be on TV by saying that the Administration is doing an unbelievably superb and competent job. Having participated in countless complex military exercises, both at ground (sea) level and at staff level, I literally find the casualty rate unbelievable. This is why over 90% of all military personnel are solidly behind Bush.

I’m a single-issue guy right now. Plainly stated, kill as many Islamic nutcases as quickly as possible. I’m dead serious.

This is a religious and cultural war, and it’s not going to go away until a lot more people die. Don’t believe me? Witness the 10 Christian churches bombed in Iraq on Sunday. This is coming, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. It’s critically important that it be dealt with before they get their hands on a nuke or bio weapons, if they haven’t already.

They want to see you and your children dead. What does that mean to you?

Let’s just hope that Bush can keep the fight contained over there, where we’re killing thousands of would-be terrorists—people who could easily walk into any shopping mall in America any day of the week and blow themselves up, along with a lot of others. Just wait until that happens the first time, and it will.

I find the nitpicking—for naked political gain—on the very competent job Bush has done in prosecuting this war to be contemptible at every level.

* (Breaking into a cabin in the woods for food and shelter when you’re cold and starving does not carry the same moral status as breaking into your neighbor’s house when you have no emergency need of doing so. Moreover, a moral person will make good on any damage—just as we are now attempting to do in Iraq by rebuilding and stabilizing it.)