"You say: It ain't ours anymore to win."

Yesterday's Senate vote actually gives me heart. (Not denial of the Dream Act provision that would lift non-citizen students, brought here as children, out of legal limbo.)

No, I'm talking about the vote that denied we need the services of trained and qualifed soldiers serving honestly in wartime. What the Republican politicians are really saying here is, "Wrap it up in the Middle East."

They may pretend it's about a December Pentagon report, but look further at what their vote is really telling the country. As Althouse puts it, "there isn't even a small fragment of the party that would support fighting the war with a serious commitment to victory. How damning! "

(To be fair, she was opining on another topic, but her words are indicative of the lip-service hawks.)

If the creaking W.arrior party leftovers in the Senate, led by Sen. McCain, actually believed we were in an important fight, they'd want the backing of every qualified soldier. This fight we're in now, over there?

There's a war outside still ragin' ;
You say, "It ain't ours anymore to win...
~Bruce Springsteen

Remember WWII? (the Big One?) Kids pulling wagons collecting cans and scrap metals, and mapping out from news and radio reports the fight's progress in foreign lands, learning the geography of Europe as we advanced; women sacrificing, in the kitchen and in their personals, to free up materiel for the fighting men. Some took jobs out of the home, in heavy industry -- men's work -- and got dirty learning new skills. As a country, we needed everyone to do what they could, in whatever way they can, to contribute to victory. The fight was that big.

And the fighting men, over there? We measured them on how they fought, the ground they gained, and we pretty much took all comers. Let the men sort it out in the bunks who can be trusted, whose sexual behaviors and indiscretions in heading out at night might put the others at risk...

The country was in the fight of its life. What happened in Europe and the Pacific affected us all. And we knew it, were willing to sacrifice together. Give up our own petty prejudices to work alongside others, because winning wars is a collective fight.

This latest war, over there? It's a war of leisure, a war to follow when there's nothing else on. The deaths are just numbers, unless you're personally affected. Even our media has moved on. Of course it doesn't matter, yesterday's vote, if we exclude honest men and women with skills that might prove useful -- leave talent sitting untapped on the sidelines -- because the end score in that war we're playing in over there? It doesn't really matter to most.

Our younger generations -- the ones who don't see equality so much as a loss or victory for "gay rights", just as a matter of fairness or not -- aren't backing this fight. Even the patriotic youngsters, of which every generation boasts its fair share, aren't signing up in droves help free Afghani women to vote and secure their freedoms at home.

If nation building -- changing a culture on their own grounds -- is the answer to setting the table for more democratic societies in the future, this work should be undertaken by private, missionary and charity interests. With support from international and U.S. funds, via diplomatic efforts, if they prove effective.

Recreating the U.S. military role to tackle such missions? The vote yesterday tells us how the country sees these foreign wars.

It doesn't really matter now how much more money we throw at the problem, how long we stretch out the timetable, how many kills or how much ground is gained. It's over.

And no matter what terroristic threats might arise, what surprises are in store, you have to think as a people, we're going to start playing honest defense one of these days. Determine where the system failed, who is responsible, and target -- effectively -- only the evildoers. (Points for efficiency too.)

As Judge Judy says about witness misidentification, generally if you are victimized, you want the proper wrongdoers punished. Letting off steam misdirecting your anger might feel good -- temporarily -- but it's costly, as our young people are learning from their elders' actions.

Next time, if there is a next time, we'll get it right: efficiently targeting, with all the tools we have, those who planned the attack that killed our citizens and others who also lived and worked here. Nevermind getting bogged down abroad. Nevermind promising forced cultural evolution...

If America indeed focuses our monies and attention on making Change happen here at home, we might start playing a strong defensive game, and begin to clean up the messes the W.arrior party has left us.

That's the future hope. That's where the country's going...

Ask the Senate.