MAILBAG:

At long last, with fingers pointing and heated debate up and down the Hill,

The Democrats have with great reluctance finally passed a war funding bill,

The president and his generals wear long faces and are quite glum,

The continuity of funding is now as certain as electricity in a Third World slum.

We may or may not remain in these hostile desert sands,

But like Social Security, we are going to finance our stay on the installment plan.

Sadly, we are a fast food nation, tapping out the seconds served on the quick.

Lifestyle changes?

Way too long — give me the ready pill whether depressed or whether sick.

A long term is only a quarter to plan any earnings’ upward lift,

Miss a quarter and the stock price is in a crashing, downward shift.

While our auto hare weaves and bobs on each quarter’s shifting hunch,

The Japanese auto turtle each day plodding along in long term eats our lunch.

To reflect and solve is only a photo op or passing sound bite.

If not solved today, it’s off the pages, ever removed from further sight.

The only long-term events we seem to be able to endure

are the daily campaigns of those seeking the elected lure.

In such a tableau, it should come as no surprise that our wars all need to be very short,

Otherwise, the span fades in hyper speed and the cries are soon to now abort.

Whether the Great Crusade, Korea, Vietnam or Iraq, we soon tire,

The cries are soon heard to leave, now time to retire.

As a democracy, we are blessed, but we are also subject to a curse:

To end a war, only Congress has the power to close the purse.

But war is not an electronic game or a purchase on the installment plan,

Or to save up the pennies and break the jar to buy the arms at hand.

War is not a layaway plan to keep the weapons in the pipeline or stocked upon the rack,

When the IED is placed, are the weapons paid for so we can avoid and fight back?

When a soldier leaves a foxhole to storm a hill or on a Humvee mount,

Will his clips be paid for or will there be a nagging doubt?

Will the tank be paid for when the soldiers are now pinned down?

With red tracers stitching and lighting up the ground?

Will the warthog leave its lair to bring terror and support?

Or will it be a warthog late and a dollar short?

The time may not call for a new Homer as Baghdad is not the fabled Troy,

This muse does not want to opine whether it was right for Saddam to destroy,

Only to suggest the name-calling and debate might be less personal and less intense,

And once and for all for our soldiers’ sake we now end the daily funding suspense.

We either fund the entire check for unlimited and deadly shock and awe,

Or we turn out the lights and come what may, we stop the parade of graves and withdraw.

MICHAEL P. RIDLEY

Newport Beach

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