Posing on the Hill

John Winthrop, when starting the Massachusetts Bay Colony back in the 17th Century, proclaimed that Plymouth would be a model city, one upon which all other cities would attempt to follow after hearing about its great success. In exact language, Winthrop said:

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken ... we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God ... We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

Unfortunately, the tales of morality and Christian extravagance preached by Winthrop are being undertaken by our current batch of political leaders. I commented on this standoff a while ago. Everyone was in their home districts talking to people and kissing ethnic babies, so they couldn't get any actual work done. Now, they have. The House and Senate have passed the new Iraq Funding Bill with the dreaded time lines. As we all well know, Bush is unwilling to actually accept the idea that this conflict in Iraq, which did not commit terror against us, must end at some point in the future as it devolves into a sandier Viet Nam.

So, now we are left at a new impasse. Bush got everything that he wanted, but it apparently wasn't what he wanted so he's going to veto it. The Congress gets it back, and they kick the bill around for another month or two until a vacation comes around (either Bush or Congress, doesn't matter). Then the troops will be stuck in an actual bad position because they have no funding. This should not be the situation at all.

And, I am holding both sides to account, but more Bush for him not recognizing the need to stop this occupation. Additionally, with stories like this coming out everyday, we need to do something to get our troops out of harm's way in a war they should not have been fighting in the first place. I hate to sound like one of those overzealous anti-war people, but reasonable is reasonable. No progress is being made in Iraq. We need to get our troops out of danger and working to actually protect America instead of making a liability. But, at the same time, the lives of young Americans are not pawns in a political chess match.

I thought this country was raised on the ideas of civility, discourse, and compromise? Why are none of these things being used? Everyday that passes where this problem does not get solved, Capitol Hill begins to look more like Tombstone while Reid, Pelosi, Bush, and Cheney prepare for the Bell to ring at High Noon.