Yep, Neocon Chris Shays (R, CT-04) at a town hall meeting this morning in Greenwich, Connecticut actually said that General Petraeus is "our Peace Corps general." Now Shays is so whacky to begin with, and his reasoning so goofy that I couldn't possibly explain to you why he made that statement. But as a former Peace Corps volunteer myself, I'm offended. And although Shays was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji in the late '60's, he should be ashamed of himself.
It is unfathomable to me what sort of mentality could possibly conflate the killing, bombing and destruction of the Iraq War with the efforts of Peace Corps volunteers in developing countries around the world to improve the lives of ordinary people. Does Republican Chris Shays even understand the irony of calling a general of the United States Army the "Peace Corps" general? I suppose that if Ronald Reagan can name an intercontinental nuclear missile "The Peacemaker", then I suppose another Republican conservative like Shays can make an equally idiotic statement like calling the top military commander in the Iraqi theater of war the "Peace Corps general". But to decent, dedicated, hard-working Peace Corps volunteers around the world, past and present, his expression is inexplicable and reprehensible.
I think that was the dumbest thing Chris Shays said today. He said lots of other stupid things, though. For example, he said, "the Iraqis are beginning to like us." That reminded me of the joke about General Custer: Do you know what Custer's last words were? "I think they're friendly."
But one can be humorous about Shays for only a brief moment. Let's remember that April is on pace to be the deadliest month for American troops in seven months. The number of attacks on American forces in Baghdad has reached a six-month high. In the week after Chris Shays returned from his twentieth trip to Iraq, 125 American troops were wounded. But, hey, "the Iraqis are beginning to like us." Right, Chris. Got it.
Oh yeah, and Shays said he didn't oppose "Broadwater", he thought that we needed the natural gas it would provide. But Shays simply wanted the floating LNG terminal somewhere else, like in the ocean south of Long Island, rather than in Long Island Sound. In the ocean south of Long Island? Is he out of his mind? A floating LNG terminal two times the length of a football field in the open ocean subject to the full force of storms, waves, and hurricanes? Now what sort of dingbat would actually tell people that? Incredible.
And here's another intellectual gem of extraordinary brilliance from Shays this morning: "The iraqi forces are very competent and very brave." Is Shays completely out of his mind? He said this just days after more than a thousand Iraqi troops and at least two senior officers mutinied and went over to the militias rather than fight against them in Basra. Shays said that even after the Iraqi Army had to bargain for a ceasefire in order to extricate themselves from their unsuccessful assault on Basra, using Iranian officials as intermediaries. "Very competent and very brave"? And this is the guy who has been to Iraq 20 times for goodness sake!!!
Let's hope that at least the Returned Peace Corps volunteers in Connecticut and around the country give Shays an earful for his idiotic and offensive characterization. (Let's also hope that Connecticut's Returned Peace Corps volunteer organization comes to its senses and doesn't hold its annual picnic at Shays' house this summer).
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