E Pluribus Unum

(Cross posted on Daily Kos)

This is the headline this morning at MSNBC:

And, in a creative burst of linguistic irony, the first paragraph goes like this:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 14 people were killed and 31 wounded in a series of car bombings in Baghdad on Thursday, the third day in a surge in insurgent violence in the Iraqi capital.

Well.

Let's get one thing straight:

Americans pride themselves for being a practical, businesslike people -- we revere the free market. So when the president, or any leader, declares "Follow me!" we, as Americans, instinctively ask ourselves four questions:

1. What are we being asked to buy?
2. What is it going to cost us?
3. Why should we believe him?
4. What's in it for us?

We might ask those questions unconsciously or, like old Ben Franklin, we might use a pencil and paper. However we do it, that's really all there is to it. We ask those questions reflexively as a kind of protocol before we buy anything. We buy cars this way, we buy soap this way, we buy anything and everything this way.

Perhaps you've never broken it down quite like this, but if you'll stop and give it some thought, you'll know I'm right. We even elect politicians this way. And we definitely buy wars this way. Even Andy Card knows that.

So they can call it a "surge," they can call it an "augmentation," they can call it "reinforcements." Hell, they can call it "a banana" for all I care.

But this time, whatever you call it, the answers to each of those four questions adds up to "no sale."