COLUMN: Get in There and Mix It Up

By Tobin Barnes
Holey moley, things are getting contentious in Washington.

People are throwing names around, like “defeatist,” applied to Senate Majority Leader Reid, and “attack dog,” applied to Vice President Cheney. They’re pulling out the stops.

Yeah, it’s getting ugly.

In some ways, that’s regrettable. In others, it’s understandable, maybe even commendable.

Uh huh, you heard me, commendable.

Heck, things SHOULD be contentious when it comes to Iraq. This is serious business. Should we “stay the course” or set a time limit or do something somewhere in between?

Please, someone come up with a policy that works. Fight about it, get a little nasty about it if you have to.

Conflict abroad sometimes necessitates conflict at home, particularly in Congress. That’s what we pay these guys for. Sugar coating is for doughnuts.

Let’s get the issues out there. Time for a rumble.

After all, much is on the line: lives foremost—precious lives. As writer Esmeralda Santiago says, “One person’s story...it’s bigger than you ever imagined.”

We’re losing large numbers of those painstakingly developed “stories.” And then there’s the loss to the people who were dependent upon and intimately involved in those stories—the loved ones left behind.

But all that, though already massive, is hardly all. Consider international respect, long-range effects, global leadership, and, of course, huge amounts of money.

Huge amounts. Should I say it again? Huge amounts.

I shudder to think what those hundreds of billions could have accomplished for health care, stabilization of social security, global warming, education, or energy alternatives, all long-term generational problems that might in actuality dwarf the effects of Iraq.

Particularly energy alternatives. If vigorously pursued since the 1970s when the energy crisis first arose, readily available solutions might have in themselves eliminated those middle eastern priorities we now struggle with. Then we could have left the people living in those countries to their own devices. Or at least have more options.
That was a possibility, if you think about it.

So let’s get after it. Put all the chips on the table. Haggle it out, even when things get a little past heated.

No one wants fist fights in the hallowed halls, but who wants smiley faces pasted on policy robots adept at hiding the truth of the matter. That’s what we got during Vietnam. And that was one heck of a bummer, as they used to say.

Sure, a certain amount of collegiality amongst the Congressmen would be nice, but if it’s at the price of frank discussion about this unholy weeping wound, I’ll take some angry words here and there.

Through the hurly-burly we’ll get to solutions.

That’s the way it works.

That’s the messy beauty of a republic.

Just so long as the debate leads us to the heart of the matter, we’ll dispense, for now, with the back-patting obfuscations we’ve put up with all too long.