The Democratic National Committee excoriated John McCain because he said on “David Letterman,” in regards to the 3000+ soldiers who have died in Iraq, “Americans are very frustrated and they have every right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.” They asserted that MCain had insulted “our brave troops.” McCain subsequently apologized, believing that “sacrificed” would be the better word.
McCain should have told the DNC to sod off. But since he obviously didn’t want to risk an extended imbroglio, he said he used the wrong word. Okay, I’ll do it for him: Sod off, DNC. McCain’s gut instinct was correct, and furthermore the DNC knows it.
To say that young lives have been wasted isn’t to diminish their sacrifice or to demean them. It isn’t to say that they themselves threw away their lives in an empty pursuit. It’s to say that those who were entrusted *with* their lives, to not put them in harm’s way unless absolutely necessary, shirked their responsibility. They’ve done as crap a job at safeguarding our troops as they did safeguarding the Constitution. McCain’s comment was clearly not aimed at the troops; it was aimed at those who sent our troops into a war where they were assured we would be greeted as liberators and be out in no more than six months…while simultaneously destroying our international reputation at a time when, thanks to worldwide sympathy due to 9/11, we could have transformed that tragedy into some sort of true international coalition to fight terrorism.
Wasted opportunity. Wasted lives. The DNC should be ashamed of trying to spin McCain’s word choice into political opportunity and push him into using one that is less loaded…and less accurate. “Sacrifice” implies nobility, but there was nothing noble in the administration’s actions, nothing noble in lying to the American people, nothing noble in declaring “mission accomplished” while thousands more died.
But if “wasted” is off the table, then fine.
How about “squandered?”
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