Antiwar "culture warrior" spooked by marching hippies

Pat Lang has been one of the most astute critics of the Iraq War all along.

But he can't quite stand being on the same side of the issue with those he apparently still thinks of as the dirty hippies.

In An old war "comes home." Sic Semper Tyrannis blog 01/28/07, he gripes about the fact that he saw Jane Fonda demonstrating against the Iraq War and is sure that it's going to hurt the antiwar cause.

You know, if he wants to hang on to his "culture war" prejudices and still oppose the Iraq War, that's better than cheering for the damned thing. And he's certainly not going to listen to me about it. I ticked him off last year by posting a criticism of a guest post at his blog that tried to say that Southern secession wasn't about slavery. Apparently a lot of guys who went throught the officer corps just have a hard-on for Robert E. Lee that won't let go.

But here's where "culture war" spaciness can get you:

Hagel, Webb, John Warner, and ultimately John McCain, are examples of the men who are stricken to their core by the memory of that time and the vision of war without end that is the looming legacy of this administration. These are the men who will lead America out of the wasteland. (my emphasis)

Look, it's nice that Chuck Hagel finally decided to start complaining about the war. Or got in touch with his inner hippie or came out of the peace closet or whatever the heck happened to him.


But if he were going to be the one to "lead America out of the wasteland", he would have been making a stink about this war years before now when his own Party controlled all three branches of government.

And, yeah, Warner is hemming and hawing about how maybe this whole escalation thing isn't such a brilliant idea. But, uh, wasn't he Chairman of the Armed Services Committee for the last four years? Why didn't his inner anguish lead him to hold the kind of hearings we've seen just this month since the Dems took over the Senate?

And that bold Maverick John McCain? The guy who has been a loud-mouthed hawk on the Iraq War all along? The guy who proposed the current escalation? The guy who's pandering like crazy to the hardcore Republican war lovers and Christian dominionists? That John McCain?

If St. McCain is going to be leading us "out of the wasteland" then by Hephaestus I'm staying in the wasteland.

Tags: pat lang, iraq war, mccain, hagel