Supporters of the war in Iraq are quite fond of comparing it to the “Just War,” World War II. If they can only find enough similarities with the war against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, they can justify the horrific mistake made by the Bush administration in going to war in Iraq. They’ve been doing this for over four years now, and fewer and fewer people are buying it.

The logic runs thus: Saddam Hussein = Adolf Hitler; Iraq = Germany; Kurdish Iraqis = Jews. These comparisons, however, are simplistic, shallow and ideological. In short, the United States’ war in Iraq bears very little resemblance to World War II.

1. World War II lasted 1,348 days. As of March 23, 2007, the Iraq War has lasted 1,466 days. For those of you counting that’s 1,348 days between the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in on December 7, 1941 and VJ Day, August 15, 1945. In that time, the United States managed to defeat Japan, Germany, and Italy in two oceans and on three continents. In Iraq, however, our modern, all-volunteer, professional military cannot defeat or even subdue a single country of 26 million, where the “enemy,” even by the military’s own accounting, numbers less than 2,000 foreign fighters and terrorists, and less than 50,000 insurgents.

2. “There were armies to fight in World War II,” said Owen Cote Jr., associate director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program in Cambridge. “It was a traditional war. You basically have a struggle between two armies, and the one that gets defeated gives up.” The United States is fighting a counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq – rather than a standard military conflict such as World War II – which makes it a tougher conflict to win, Cote said.

3. In World War II, American civilians knew the names of their heroes. We knew General Patton in North Africa. We knew General Eisenhower in Europe. In the Iraq War, commanders have been turned over as frequently as steaks on a grill. A profusion of units and commanders have rotated in and out of the country every few months; even close observers can hardly remember their names.

4. Religion plays a role that wasn’t seen in WWII. Now that Iraq is occupied by the United States and has a new government, religious sectarian violence among Sunni and Shiite Muslims has increased. After the WWII, we did not see German Catholics gunning down German Lutherans. Once religion is involved, it is nearly impossible to convince the enemy that they are wrong.

5. Another major difference between the two wars was the cooperation of other nations in World War II versus the unilateral effort of the United States in Iraq. The Bush administration went to war without a serious international coalition. In World War II, the U.S. had committed allies working with us. Many nations came together. In Iraq, we have a few countries that sent a few troops essentially because they wanted to remain in the United States’ good graces. As their own populations have expressed their disapproval, those foreign governments have withdrawn their support.

6. Public support for President Roosevelt remained high during World War II. In early March 2007. President Bush’s approval rating hovered around 36% according to Wall Street Journal. Public support for the war also dropped below 50 percent – a major factor that ousted Republicans from Congress in the mid-term elections, according to exit polls.

7. In World War II, the American public was well aware that we were at war. We bought war bonds, participated in paper, rubber, and metal drives, and rationed their daily goods. The Bush administration is trying to have it both ways. They continue to encourage Americans to spend, spend, spend and enjoy their lives of plenty. It has little to build solidarity on the home front. The fact that the war is very unpopular is a direct result of that. In Iraq, the vast majority of Americans hardly notice we are at war on a day-to-day basis.

8. In WWII, the government spent what they had. They scraped the bottom and sacrificed to earn security. Iraq, on the other hand, is a credit card war. We spend $8 billion a month to fight in Iraq and no one makes a financial sacrifice. No one even notices.

9. In WWII, an estimated 3 million European Jews were murdered in the Nazis’ pogroms and extermination camps. Another several hundred thousand gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents and mentally or physically disabled people were also murdered by Hitler’s forces. Saddam Hussein’s forces are accused of killing approximately 200,000 Kurdish dissidents. All these numbers are devastating, but they are not comparable.

10. Another major difference between World War II and the Iraq War is also seen in the death tolls of the American military. In World War II, more than 400,000 U.S. military personnel were killed, according to military reports. Since the Iraq invasion more than four years ago, almost 3,000 U.S. men and women have been killed in Iraq.

The last point may sound like a positive, but consider this final difference between the current war and WWII. Our grandparents, the “Greatest Generation,” could feel good about their accomplishments in WWII. They eradicated a great evil with their tremendous sacrifices. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration has started a fire they cannot hope to put out or even contain. Neither the U.S. government nor the American people are willing to sacrifice much for a war they know they cannot win. So the bill will have to be paid tomorrow – by our children or our grandchildren. We will never convince these people that their religion is wrong, that their culture is wrong, that their way of life is wrong. After all, could they convince us that we’re wrong?

Citations – Arkin, W., Washington Post, Early Warning, 11/27/2006; McGonigle, B.. Boston University, Iraq War Surpasses Time Span of U.S. Involvement in World War II, 11/28/2006; Murray, M., NBC News, Sex scandal, Iraq book take toll on Bush, GOP, 3/6/2007; United States Holocaust Museum, 3/9/2007; Associated Press, Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial resumes, 12/18/2006

Although this blog has been quiet for a while, I have been thinking about some things I’d like to discuss. One thing I’ve been deliberating on lately is the notion of politically correct speech. I’ve heard some of my right-wing friends and family criticizing the concept recently, and I was considering writing a blog entry on it, but it didn’t seem all that relevant right now.  How ironic that in the midst of my contemplation on political correctness, Ann Coulter would step up to give me something to which I could respond. I suppose I should thank her, but since good manners are lost on her, she would not appreciate the gesture.

Prior to Ms. Coulter’s nasty comments on March 2^nd, I had been thinking about why so many conservatives have a problem with politically correct speech. One thing I’ve noticed is that they just dislike the term. “Politically correct” suggests some kind of federal consequence for saying the “wrong thing.” The idea is unpleasant, like something out of Orwell’s 1984: Say the wrong word, and Big Brother will come for you!

I guess some people have forgotten the genesis of the term. “Politically correct” originally applied to politicians who have to be worried about offending voters. Like many words and phrases in the English language, however, it evolved, adopted by the general public which co-opted it to mean “any expression that might be considered inappropriate or insensitive.” Perhaps we should simply change the term to something more suitable, say “human decency,” “cultural sensitivity,” “social awareness,” or even “Christian morality,” after all Jesus would never have called anyone nasty names.

No matter what you call it, though, rudeness and inappropriate language has historically been and should continue to be punished. When I was little, there was a kids’ show on the local TV station that ended with Cowboy Bob reminding us all, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” And the message was reinforced in elementary school. I got in trouble once for getting mad at my playmates and calling them “faggots,” and I remember being confused when the fifth-grade boys got in trouble for playing a game called “Smear the Queer.” They were allowed to continue playing the game, but they weren’t allowed to call it by that name anymore. Since I didn’t really understand the words “faggot” or “queer,” these situations seemed very strange to me. That was 1981, years before anyone ever spoke of political correctness, but we were still facing unpleasant consequences for calling people rude names.

Now, I grant that our government should not punish us for being rude. We cannot make words illegal. Freedom of speech is too important; however, the First Amendment of our Constitution does not exempt us from being polite; it simply means the government cannot make us be polite. Sadly, no one else wants the job either these days. Parents and society don’t police language much anymore. Cursing in public seems to be far more prevalent than it used to be. In fact, for all the whining and worrying about the dangers of politically correct speech, people seem to be saying whatever they want more than ever. With the advent of cable TV, satellite radio and the Internet, we have infinite outlets for our freedom of expression. Anyone can say anything and get an audience. And they are often rewarded for being rude or outrageous. (See also Rush Limbaugh, South Park, Jerry Springer, Anna Nicole Smith.) Pushing the envelope of acceptable language and behavior has become the great American pastime.

Still, as a society, we do get rankled now and then about something one of our celebrities says. Mel Gibson’s chauvinistic and anti-Semitic tirade got him a lot of bad press and lost him thousands of fans as did Michael Richards’ now-infamous “n-word” rant. Grey’s Anatomy star, Isaiah Washington, faced a similar firestorm for calling a gay co-star a “faggot.” (Sorry, gay friends.) Gibson, Richards and Washington all went to rehab because when a celebrity gets caught being stupid, hateful or criminal, the fashionable thing to do in Hollywood is to go into rehab to show remorse. (See also Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.)  It seems American society does still have a little common sense when it comes to name-calling. Freedom of speech or not, it’s still rude. Just like we learned as kids.

Enter Ann Coulter. As might be expected from a woman who makes her living with hateful language, Ms. Coulter takes issue with people being held accountable for rude speech. So on March 2^nd at the American Conservative Union’s Political Action Conference, she used her prodigious linguistic powers to kill several birds with one stone. In one fell swoop, she managed to be insult liberals, Democrats, homosexuals, John Edwards, Hollywood celebrities, advocates of cultural sensitivity, and anyone with good manners. Pretty slick.

But I have a bit of advice for her and all those who denounce political correctness: Be careful of whose team you’re playing for. Do you really want to speak like a bigot? Like a chauvinist? Like a homophobic gangsta rapper? Like a 10-year-old playground bully? People who defend Ms. Coulter’s right to use the f-word, who support Mr. Richards’ use of the n-word, who bristle at the public reaction to Gibson’s anti-Jewish speech need to beware of the company they are keeping.

Of course, Coulter is not going to change. Like so many people who take freedom of speech to its ridiculous extremes, she’s mean-spirited, greedy, and self-serving. She chose her words very carefully to take on the many groups she hates so much. She does not believe that Edwards is gay. (After all, he has more evidence of his heterosexuality than she has since he is married and a parent, and she is neither.) She wanted to shock people, garner more attention, sell more books. She claims to be smart, and one would assume she must be since she has a law degree and several published books to her credit. With such language skills, one would think she could come up with something more clever than resorting to name-calling that I can hear from any bad-mannered little punk on the street.

Still, I wish we could disarm hate-mongers like Coulter and Limbaugh, Gibson and Richards by ignoring their words. Words do, after all, get their power from those who hear them, not those who speak them. There is nothing intrinsically evil about the sounds “fa,” “g” and “ot.” We use the sounds in lots of decent words like “fashion,” “goblin,” and “hut.” But when we string the sounds together and add a lot of personal baggage and cultural experience, we end up making the resulting word into a potent expression.

When my son was two years old, he started quoting entire speeches from the movie Toy Story. One of his favorite lines was “My ship!” Unfortunately, he had trouble discerning the hard “P” from a hard “T,” so it came out “My shit!” People would gasp and look suspiciously at my husband and me, and we would have to explain it to them. We hesitated to correct our toddler, though. We didn’t want to embarrass him, or, worse, alert him to an inappropriate attention-getter. We just kept repeating it back to him properly, emphasizing the “P” sound at the end. I wish we could do the same with people like Ms. Coulter. Contrary to her behavior, however, she is not two years old.

If we could ignore people like her, if the hearers could pretend words don’t matter, she and the other name-callers would have no ammunition.  But no matter what the little ones say on the playground, words can hurt even more than sticks and stones. Those of us who were lucky enough to have good moms and dads, though, were taught that “If you can’t say anything nice…” I guess Ms. Coulter missed that lesson.

It’s really cold in Indiana right now. We’re anticipating a high temperature of 10 on Sunday.

But you’d never know it was frigid February in the Hoosier state capital. I’ve never seen people so warm. It’s Super Bowl weekend, and everyone around here is feeling the love.

It’s like Christmas, only better because EVERYONE is into it. There are no religious limitations or political ramifications to rooting for the Colts. If you live here, you’re into it. Aren’t sports great?
My 18-month-old daughter and I, decked in our Colts jerseys, went to the grocery this afternoon. Everyone was wearing blue. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was polite to one another. Strangers were discussing their party plans for Sunday. The store was out of blue and white beads. They were out of children’s Colts shirts. They were out of Blue Curacao in the liquor aisle and Berry Blue Kool-Aid in the juice aisle. They were out of blue decorating icing, and I bought the last bottle of blue fingernail polish in the place.

Some other snapshots from around town:

• “Go Colts!” on a sign out front of the Garden Baptist Church and on the signs in front of every business on US36.
• “Happy Super Bowl Sunday!” on the animated marquee sign in front of Bridgeport Elementary School.
• A Colts rally in the frozen courtyard of IUPUI.
• Colts flags flying alongside or below the American flag on most of the skyscrapers downtown.
• Employees at my bank, my grocery, McDonald’s, the party supply store and my husband’s insurance company, all dressed down in Colts paraphernalia.
• A snowman on Raceway Road that had been spray painted with a blue jersey and the white horseshoe.
• Another snowman on a county road in Hendricks County that was wearing a Colts scarf and baseball hat.
• So many jerseys, sweatshirts, hats, and other Colts garb on everyone in town, but I was particularly delighted to run into a colleague of mine, a 60-something English professor, decked out in a Peyton Manning jersey as she lectured her freshman composition class.
• One of my students dyed her hair blue and spent hours at the salon getting blue and white beads braided into it. She also had her nails painted blue with white horseshoes airbrushed on them.
• A crayon-colored picture of a “rocket football,” Peyton Manning, and a Colts cheerleader, created by my best friend’s third-grade daughter and posted on Myspace.
• A battered car, painted in Chicago Bears colors, in front of a dealership on US40. The sign beside it read, “Beat the Bears for Charity.” (You could pay $5 to pound on the car with a hammer!)
• A big, blue horseshoe inscribed with the words “We Believe in Blue,” made out of particle board and hung on the front of a neighbor’s house.

Like everyone else in Indianapolis, I sure hope our team wins tomorrow. But even if they don’t, I have one thing to say to the Colts: Thanks for giving your fans a little warmth and sunshine! It’s been a blast!

Leave it to a conservative Republican to make me miss the Cold War.

I made the mistake of answering the phone at a friend’s tonight. It was her 73-year-old grandmother who proceeded to give me a 10-minute rant on the Muslims who “are taking over Europe,” “already own all the media outlets” and have their sights set on U.S. domination through Barack Obama. She finished her tirade by bemoaning my generation’s naivete. Of course, she sighed, she won’t have to worry about the consequences of our short-sightedness because she’ll be dead soon. It’s we younger people who will reap the devastation for having failed to eradicate the evil that is Islam. (Oh, and the pro-choicers and the homosexuals.)

I handed off the phone as quickly as possible, but I couldn’t help being shaken. Not because I was worried about the terrible danger my children are facing from the Muslims. Not because I was concerned about the gays and abortionists. No, I felt dizzy. As if I’d just been sucked through that phone line into 1935 Germany and then shot back again in an instant. Just replace the word “Muslim” in her rant above with the word “Jew.” I got a serious chill.

Don’t get me wrong. This woman is not a Fascist. She’s not a Nazi. But then, neither were most of the good German Volk who put Hitler into power. She believes that what she’s saying is true. She believes that she is talking about a fight between good and evil, and she wants good to win. Sadly, that can also be said of the Germans of the 1930’s, the residents of Salem during the witch trials and the European Catholics during the Inquisition.

What makes me believe that she’s wrong? It’s the labels. It’s the focus on “otherness.” It’s the us versus them mentality that characterizes most oppressive regimes. It’s the overly simplistic, fear-mongering view of the world that is being put forward. We cannot say, “All Muslims are evil.” Nor can we say, “All Christians are good.” Unfortunately, it’s just not that easy. The world would certainly be a simpler place if we could identify the good by what church they attended, for whom they voted or with whom they have sex. We can’t.

So what makes me miss the Cold War?

Well, religion was not much of an issue in those days. The Soviet Union was an atheist regime. The Cold War was a conflict of political ideologies. Scary, yes, but much easier to debate than religious faith. How can I argue with a woman who’s sure that Muslims are brainwashing Americans into electing Barack Obama through all the media outlets they own? Argh.

I spent most of the night under a blanket.

The game was too intense for me, a 23-year Indianapolis Colts fan. I’d had my hopes dashed too many times. Very often by THAT team, the New England Patriots. A few other times by that OTHER team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. This time we were so close. One minute and four points away from a Super Bowl. One minute and four points away from erasing many years of disappointment. One minute and four points away from reversing Peyton Manning’s reputation as a QB who chokes in the big game.

I had already taken off my Colts t-shirt in agonized desperation during the 2nd quarter. I couldn’t watch many of the plays, opting to clean the kitchen (where I have no TV), do the laundry  (again a TV-free zone), or finally, hide under my blanket. My daughter thought I was playing with her, and she kept pulling off my blanket, exposing me to the anxiety of the last quarter.
And then Marlin Jackson intercepted Tom Brady.

23 years of waiting, and we’re finally in the big game! I get to use my horseshoe cake pan for a Super Bowl party!

GO COLTS!!!