The Return Once More Of “Kristol Mess Monday”

The wanker-emeritus-in-residence of The Weakly Standard lamented the “dithering” of President Obama on Afghanistan today (here), linking once more to a poem called “Homage To A Government” written by Philip Larkin in 1969 (and with all due respect to Mr. Larkin, it should be pointed out that he didn’t serve in combat either).

Well, without trying to denigrate Larkin’s work, I think this is the proper response to Kristol, as closely as I can approximate to his inspiration…

Homage To Propagandists

This year we will leave the right-wing pundits alone
For lack of integrity, and it is all right.
Causes they denigrated, like health care reform
Disappeared in the ‘90s, and others outshone
Like PNAC signatories against Iraq. And this is all right?

It’s easy to say who wanted it to happen,
People like Kristol, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle…on all of their minds
They helped to squander our treasure a long way off, not here
This is not all right, and from what we fear
Our soldiers there didn’t make trouble happen
Though they found it anyway because of “chickenhawks” covering their behinds

Next year we may be living in a country
That brought its soldiers home due to lack of money
Their lives spent and ruined in a game
To try spreading democracy to a region enflamed
While at home with deadly stealth
Those war cheerleaders, while we looked far away, concentrated their wealth
At our expense, as our jobs and health care dwindled
In tribute to the architects of the great swindle
Who our media absolves and our religious leaders seeks prayers
And one day, their statues may adorn tree-muffed squares
Our children will not know it’s a different country
And we will be able to leave them nothing, least of all money

It’s easy to hold Kristol up to the ridicule he deserves, but it should be pointed out not only that he was perhaps the foremost media cheerleader for the Iraq war, but he was also the main saboteur of health care reform during the Clinton years. So just imagine all of the lives he has ended up negatively affecting over the last 15 years or more (when you count those who have died because they could not obtain health care coverage in this country or suffered debilitating illness, to say nothing of those in the Iraq coalition forces killed or wounded, as well as refugees from that country – the total number staggers the imagination).

And there are people who still take Kristol seriously instead of treating him like the unrepentant moral cretin that he is.