Paint me green ... and yes, I think I feel the water getting warmer!

Yeh, I know! I shudda known better.

But when I heard on the news this morning that involuntary conscription of a few thousand marines was being authorized to fill in certain gaps in specific specialty codes, I felt very much like the proverbial frog who was boiled to death by turning up the heat after he (or she) had been placed in a pan of lukewarm to cool water.

The number I heard on the radio this morning was 2,500 (marines), but later in the day, I heard that 14,000 army personnel were being "recalled" to active duty to fill yet additional specialty codes needed as a result of the continuing (interminable, we now know, thanks to President Bush's moment of honesty in the press conference two days ago) occupation of Iraq -- having nothing to do with 9/11 (also now known thanks to yet another moment of honesty in that same press conference).

Even John McCain (pro-war all the way ... at least until tomorrow or so) admits that we weren't told the whole truth ... he referred to what we were told as being something like an invitation to "a day at the beach."

The compulsory recall to active duty was not a part of any of the early actions after 9/11, but the events since that tragic say five years ago have been slowly leading to what no one could have imagined at that time.

The "boiling frog syndrome" wins again. Just as Al Gore correctly used that analogy vis-a-vis Global Warming in his great movie, An Inconvenient Truth, it applies yet again as Americans are totally sanguine about the announcement of an involuntary callup -- almost not even noticing it, in fact -- as thousands of our finest are being called to serve a second and third time ... and we're not talking reservists or "weekend warriors" this time; we're talking about persons who served their entire enlisted tours of duty.

Oh, it's 100% legal, only it's just one more step in the process of turning up the heat under the pan containing the frog -- we, the American people are the hapless frog. How many of us have even noticed that the troop strength has slowly been going up in Iraq -- at the same time that Donald Rumsfeld has been telling us that we are "about to reduce our troop strength in Iraq"? How many of you noticed that Runny announced the increase of troop strength in Baghdad on the very same day that his man in the White House was stating that "things are really improving in Iraq" and that "we will see substantial troop reductions soon"?

What next? Well, we can ask Richard my brother in Connecticut and he can ask his dog, Molly. That will get you closer than listening to tonight's news, I think.

For those of you unaware of the story of the "boiling frog," I suggest that you find your favorite armchair, a cuddly kitten and a glass of warm milk. It goes like this .... Once upon a time there was a frog who was told that he could bathe in this nice warm kettle of lukewarm water which just happened to be on the stove ..."