Flag-waving questions beg patriot's reply | courier-journal |

As America gears up for its Fourth of July birthday party without all the birthright optimism of its past, much less being able to afford the ice cream and cake, I'm thinking about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the presidential race -- and the price of gasoline.
Today's flag-waving questions for all automatic patriots:
Unless you have family or friends in the military, what kind of real sacrifices have you made to support the men and women fighting these wars -- as in at least being willing to pay for them?
If it turns out our presence in oil-rich Iraq will help feed America's selfish energy needs, does that help justify its cost in tax dollars and lives?
For those with mixed feelings about the war, is there now a tiny part of you saying, yes, we now need to do whatever it takes to boost our steadily slipping standard of living?
Was this war, as many have charged, really about access to oil all along? Since there were no weapons of mass destruction, and democracy in Iraq remains an ethnic-charged illusion, are you willing to rationalize our permanent presence there if it will help keep gasoline under $5 a gallon?
With four giant oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP -- hovering over no-bid Iraqi oil concessions, have all those soldiers died in part to help keep oil company profits at obscenely high levels?
Just something to think about as you drive to the lake.
The presidential race of late has become bogged down in military rhetoric and symbolism -- but what else is new?
The symbolism thing comes way too easily. Barack Obama never served in the military -- the great majority of Americans do not these days -- but John Wayne never did, either. So which one would be your first choice to lead the country into war -- and why?
Gen. Wesley Clark, an Obama supporter who was seriously wounded and won a Silver Star while a company commander in Vietnam, took some verbal shots at John McCain, who was a tortured POW in Vietnam for 5½ years, by saying, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."
Nobody wins at that level of argument -- and Obama backed away from it. But if military record and experience is so important, how did we end up with our present commander in chief?
He used family influence to get into the Air National Guard during a time when that mostly insured not seeing any combat -- and ended up fighting the Vietnam War in Alabama.
Granted, he is now the lamest of ducks, but where was all the military argument -- unless you consider "swiftboating" military patriotism -- the last time around?
Just something to think about on the way to see the kids.
Which brings us to the cost of gasoline to get there. The news headline that most brought that chicken home to roost went, "Energy experts puzzled over oil prices."
They are not alone. From what I've read, the nation's demand is down just a tad, the availability of oil is steady -- and the price at the pump jumps 20 cents a day.
My fully unscientific theory is that we are being had by oil companies -- who will again reap enormous profits -- cynical politics, market manipulators and greed.
Just something to think about while driving to the Fourth of July parade.
Bob Hill's column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach him at (502) 582-4646 or bhill@courier-journal.com. Comment on this column, and read his blog and previous columns, at http://www.courier-journal.com/bobhill

Flag-waving questions beg patriot's reply courier-journal The Courier-Journal