Jackson Jambalaya

In the military there is a term, REMF. It stands for Rear Eschelon Mother F*******s. REMFs are those sitting in their air-conditioned offices in their expensive leather chairs sipping on expensive bourbon in the ivory tower with no clue as to what is going on in the real world, while the real soldiers are in battle fighting for their lives trying to survive the stupid decisions made by the ignorant REMF's.

The Clarion-Ledger reported today Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson FINALLY visited Iraq for the first time this week: "Rep. Bennie Thompson made his first trip to Iraq on Friday and predicted the Democrat-led Congress "will get more and more involved in the war."
The Democratic 2nd District congressman, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said he made the trip to try to determine the impact of the war on national security issues. ..." http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/NEWS/801260327/1001/news

This fits the classical definition of a REMF: Mr. Thompson is the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and after FIVE years in Iraq he FINALLY decides to visit Iraq to see what all the fuss has been about, while courageous soldiers from Mississippi make sacrifices, fight terrorists, are shot at, wounded, and at times killed in battle. While friends and families mourn their losses, Congressman REMF lives in Washington, sleeping in comfort every night after enduring the hardships of battle as the real combat rages at the cocktail parties in Georgetown.

Philistines such as myself should be grateful that Congressman REMF finally deigns Iraq worthy enough to visit. One would think a leading Congressional Democrat holding such a position would have gone to Iraq MUCH sooner as many other Congressmen, including war critics such as Senator Biden, have.

The New York Times reported on April 3, 2007 that "According to the Pentagon, as of mid-March, 365 members of Congress had visited the country since May 2003.....
A recent survey by the Medill News Service found that about two-thirds of House Republicans had been to Iraq, while fewer than half of Democrats had visited. ..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/world/middleeast/03visit.html?ex=1333252800&en=c0383ac8cc500e3d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
(Incidentally, the lapdog, uncritical media in Jackson has not bothered to ask Mr. Thompson why he waited so long before visiting the troops.)

Congressman REMF should face the families of the soldiers from his district and explain why he has been so derelict in his duties, and apologize to them. To Mr. Thompson, the soldiers are meaningless fodder as has been shown by his disinterest in Iraq. Always watch what one does and not what one says as Bennie Thompson, for all of his rhetoric, has shown what he is NOT made of by not visiting Iraq while our soldiers face danger on a regular basis, never knowing a moment's peace. For Congressman REMF, Iraq is a talking point on Meet the Press, not a sacrifice faced in Mississippi.

For more posts on Bennie Thompson's actions as Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, see http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-on-bennie-thompsons-approach-to.html, http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2007/07/bennie-thompson-terrorist-sympathizer.html