Wouldn't It Be Nice ?

If the Republicans are "addicted" to 9/11 like Thomas Friedman insists in his insane op-ed piece in the NY Times, then Democrats are still having frequent flashbacks related to post-traumatic stress disorder from 11/00.

Let's take a look at Friedman's delusional rant. He says, "I don't know about you, but I dream of going back to the days when terrorism was just a nuisance in our lives."

When was that, Mr. Friedman? Was the Iran Hostage Crisis "a nuisance" lasting 444 days of the Carter Administration? How about the Lebanon bombing in 1983 during Reagan? Or, was the 1st WTC bombing a "nuisance" in 1993? And the 17 sailors who died in the USS Cole bombing in 2000? Were their deaths "nuisances"? The last two bothersome events occurred during the Clinton Administration. (Yes, wouldn't it be nice to go back to these days when we were still in a war, but hadn't realized it yet?)

Friedman is not saying anything that I don't hear in some variant every day of my professional life. It is the kind of thing patients say when they don't want to face a particularly unpleasant reality and prefer the blissful state of denial. (If only we were older and didn't have to wait so long !)

Yes, indeed, if only 9/11 hadn't happened, and if only those darn Republicans would pretend like us Democrats that it didn't really happen--we'd all be better off. If only Bush would STOP POLITICIZING 9/11! If only Bush would stop the fearmongering. (Then we could live in the kind of world where we belong).

My God, what has to happen in this country for people like Friedman to understand what is going on in the world? Do we have to have a suitcase nuclear bomb explode in Houston? Do MILLIONS have to die before they understand that THESE PEOPLE WANT TO KILL US? That they HAVE been killing us for 25 years while we have been pretending they were "just a nuisance"? (But oh, the happy times that we've been spending....)

While Friedman whines about having to listen to "code orange" vs. "code red" alerts and being forced to stand in line or fill out a form and be terribly inconvenienced; we have soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan putting their lives on the line every second of every day to protect the likes of him.

While the Democrats continue the disgusting temper tantrum they started on 11/00 because they didn't get their way and feel that the election was "stolen" from them (it's called "losing"); while they are still fixated on chads and lawsuits and trying to get "objective" UN observers to monitor our voting next month (it seems that if the Dems aren't elected and in power, we revert to being a 3rd world country); they have missed the obvious: we are at war for our very existence. (But its gonna make it so much better if we pretend that everything is the way it was)

It isn't George Bush who has divided this nation. It is the part of the population that won't play if they don't get their way. They are standing in a corner with their backs turned away from the rest of us, pouting because the world isn't the way they like it anymore. They want to blame George Bush for that; or a Republican conspiracy, or the omnipotent Karl Rove--anyone but the terrorists. They have the absolute audacity and gall to claim that Bush is living in a FANTASYLAND; while, in reality, they are the ones desperately trying to play "Let's Pretend" and closing their eyes--and minds--to the real world. And in that real world, there are consequences to believing that pre-9/11 everything was just hunky dory. (Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true?)

And, as long as we're daydreaming:

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long
And wouldn’t it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong?

You know it’s gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through?

Happy times together we’ve been spending
I wish that every kiss was neverending
Wouldn’t it be nice?

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do
We could be married
And then we’d be happy
Wouldn’t it be nice?

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn’t it be nice?