He has a good sense of humor and irony:
"English is his second language. From what I can see he does not have a first language. <g>
He also understands pragmatism:
"Whether or not the Iraqi people deserve it or not is not terribly relevant to me anymore. The troops deserve it. They deserve to leave that place on its feet, with an imperfect government – like every other government – and crime and death and all the rest but with some sense of hope amid all of that. Perhaps the same hope that keeps Iraqi men joining their police and security forces despite the danger and the horror. Regardless of what happens from now on, these people have accomplished something. They have given millions of people hope who had no hope before. That is noble and honorable and good, and nothing and no one can take that from them. That is theirs.
It’s a slog. It’s a slow, heart-rending miserable slog, and I find it as frustrating and disappointing as everyone. But I read history – a lot of history – and I have come to discover that from the inside, ALL wars are thus. We look back on World War II as a golden road to the inevitable victory, but it did not feel that way at the time. It was a miserable, awful, bloody mess with a list of disasters as long as the list of triumphs, but triumph and disaster alike were paid for in blood not because it was desirable or good or easy but because it was necessary.
The people who are there now, who keep returning to finish the job, seem by and large to understand this. Supporting the troops by calling their mission a mistake and saying they are dying for a lie is not what I call support. Dennis Miller absolutely knocked the wind out of me when he said “I support this war, but even if I didn’t I’d lie and say I did, as long as we have those kids over there.”
This ongoing burden is a miserable solution to an ugly problem, but I believe it is the best of a series of very bad choices brought upon us not by our own doing, but by megalomaniacal lunatics who we will have to fight either now, which is terrible and bloody, or later, which will be worse. Walking away from this fight now is like quitting chemotherapy early: immediate relief at the cost of long term consequences that are far more unpleasant.
I hate to be the person to tell you that the sub is made of cardboard. I wish it weren’t so. But sometimes all the solutions are awful, and it is the mark of an responsible adult, and a responsible adult nation, to realize that some problems you can not get around. Some problems you have to go through."
This blog essentially reflects how I feel. I have misgivings about the legal structure of the war; I recognise that even for those considering it a good initiative, it was not necessarily the best one and/or it might have awaited a better timing even if a crisis was artificially created by intelligence.
It is easy to find errors of judgment or missed opportunities, but the bottom line is we are in the middle of something and we are the good guys and it is our people and our values at stake. Our new ally in the middle east is absolutely essential as a bulwark against rogue nations and the future threats which will need to be met. We must build and maintain two advanced military bases there in formal treaty with our ally in perpetuity--and we must conduct more of this struggle through drones and other technology because you don't waste the lives of trained people on cowards whom operate without rules.
"This ongoing burden is a miserable solution to an ugly problem, but I believe it is the best of a series of very bad choices brought upon us not by our own doing, but by megalomaniacal lunatics who we will have to fight either now, which is terrible and bloody, or later, which will be worse."
Amen. Don't y'all forget to vote... |
