Two new Democratic Party memes

Watching Tom Vilsack (Democratic governor of Iowa) on Tavis Smiley last night, I recognized a trope I had last heard from John Kerry on Meet the Press. The idea, and I will paraphrase, though if I had more energy I would link to the transcripts, is that Iraq is a mess and the Iraqis aren't doing their job to fix it, have not yet opted for peace, and need to be pressured by Americans who are sacrificing for them while they ungratefully decline to solve their own problems.

Vomit.

The U.S. occupies Iraq. Iraq has no central government. Virtually all of the plagues visiting Iraq to day were inaugurated on the heels of an American-made war. Also arriving in the soldiers' dufflebags were most of the Iraqi exile "leaders" who are dickering for the scraps of political power falling from the mouth of the U.S. proconsul. The U.S., in violation of international law, sponsored a new, godawful constitution and a raft of unjust laws. Its project for most of the occupation has been to arm and train the sectarian battalions that are only nominally distinct from the militias engaged in the growing civil war. Legally and morally, the U.S. is responsible for all of it, not just its guilty acts but its guilty omissions, loosing mere anarchy in the cradle of Western Civilization.

Blaming "the Iraqis" for allegedly not wanting peace and normalcy is about as cynical and grotesque as anything Don Rumsfeld has come up with. Let me call here for Vilsack, Kerry, and all their fellow-thinkers to resign today.

The second meme, this one courtesy of Nancy Pelosi and some other Congressional Democrat I heard today on NPR, is that we should all blame the Republicans in Congress who rubber stamped the last energy bill, and/or the "oil men" in the White House and VP's residence, for the pox of high gas prices on all our houses. It's not that I disagree with the claim that it's no coincidence gas prices have reached historical heights under a big oil president. But I think high gas prices themselves should not be demonized. Windfalls to the price-gouging suppliers who've posted record profits, yes. Hardships upon poor homeowners struggling to heat their homes during the most recent bizarre late-April cold snap, yes. People forced to commute long distances because the regional planners, developers and megamall proprietors opted for policies that undermine neighborhoods and promote sprawl, yes. Let's tax the oil execs and help the commuters and the poor homesteads in the temperate zone.

But high gas prices? All in all, a good thing. We need to encourage conservation, help arrest global warming, encourage better planning, better vehicles, smarter consumption. I won't cry for the guy whose monster pickup, Hummer, or SUV can't make it to the end of his driveway on a gallon of gas.