Thursday, March 1, 2007

Wasted

The Straight Talk Express is off the rails, for sure. John McCain now apologizes for saying the lives of 3100 service men and women have been "wasted" in Iraq. He claims he should have used the word "sacrificed" instead, after the Democratic National Committee hit out against him for his "calloused" comment.

This is ironic, because Barack Obama was lambasted by the right-wing hit machine for using identical terminology when he announced for president and referred to the "wasted" lives of US soldiers in Iraq.

For once, I agree with both McCain and Obama. Before they were chastised and backpedalled as a result, they were speaking the truth. Those lives have been wasted. Dictionary.com defines waste as "uselessly employed." That's a pretty accurate description of folks who have been sent to the wrong country to fight a war! That's pretty damn useless if you ask me.

If I were McCain or Obama, I'd amplify my comment, not backpedal from it. I'd say that Dubya has TRAGICALLY wasted American lives in Iraq and brought chaos to the Iraqi people.