It's got all the intellectual depth and political integrity of a seven-year-old's plaintiff call outside the door on Halloween: the call that's being sounded by those on the Right, to just "give the commanders on the ground what they need (according to what they're claiming they need) to accomplish the mission."

The difference to me, however, between the youngsters who will make the rounds this coming Saturday and those on the Right who have been making theirs on the cable channels and on the public airwaves is stark: one retains an element of cute and innocent childishness, and the other is morally repellent, and dangerously so.

For the longest time I have been chanting "There is nothing good about a good Republican," and indeed, "There is no such thing as a good Republican." Once there was. Once the GOP was as composed of thoughtful, reasonable, well-intended members whose basic philosophy was laudable (stay away from unnecessary foreign entanglements, wield US force as truly a very last resort, remain out of people's private lives and life-styles, administer the public weal prudently) as was the Democrat's compulsion to use the federal government's power and wealth to ameliorate all manner of social ills and injustices. But that Republican Party is today as prevalent in America as is the woolly mammoth.

Whereas the GOP's featured representatives and senators could once claim genuine heroic military service -- Eisenhower, Bob Dole, Bob Kerry, Chuck Hagel were among those whose names could be found on a long and proud honor roll -- today its ranks are suffuse with those who sought and secured a series of deferments to avoid military service, and the personal perils that accompany such service. In other words, while as bloodthirsty eager as Count Dracula over the prospect of sucking the blood from a victim's neck, they're supremely eager to send someone else and someone else's kids to face death and mutilation. But themselves, and their own . . .. Not on their lives! They've "other priorities."

Thus it is that the only words that should issue from the lips of those who unfortunately find themselves in the presence of a Republican are "Just shut the hell up and go away."

Because, who are they, the ones calling for President Obama to "quit dithering"? Richard Cheney, Richard Perle, William Kristol, Karl Rove, Liz Cheney, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Fred Kagan--Fred Kagan? The all-hot-for-battle guy who's married to Kimberly Kagan, the president of The Institute for the Study of War [just take a gander at this guy's fitness -- sarcasm very much intended -- for military service: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Kagan] . . . all, and too many others of their ilk to include here, reprehensible examples of odiously putrefying human tissue.

Ya want to call "em out as you might a bluffing dolt in a hand of poker? If Afghanistan -- or any military venture -- really is that important, demand they support a no-deferment re-institution of the military draft; everyone, no exceptions whatsoever, between, say, 18 and 40, is subject to service in one of our two combat arms, the army and the marines. Next requirement, demand they demand the effort be up front fully paid for -- as fiscal prudence is a side-by-side accompaniment of their never-ending call for war and more war -- with hefty progressive taxes and surtaxes on those with really hefty incomes.

Oh, what's that? On second thought, you say, it's not all that important? Thought that would be the response. Which is exactly what I want President Obama's response to be.