 ouyangwulong says: I don't want to abandon the Iraqi people. But I am a realist, not some day-dreaming jingoist who thinks this is all just one more rosy Rambo movie. The truth is that we have had a critical failure of leadership, and no one is stepping forward to fill that void. Right now we don't know who we're fighting, and we don't know why they are fighting us. Until we can understand these two questions, there is no way we can begin to answer the question of how to eventually end this war. Unfortunately, no presidential candidate is even asking these questions, which to me signifies that they do not have an Iraq strategy and are not interested in developing one. That's a shame. The Democrats who compare this war to Vietnam should remember another part of that analogy: Nixon took and held his office on promises to get us out of Vietnam, but with no new ideas about the conflict, he only got us in deeper. This could happen to the Democrats as well if they aren't careful. With few reliable surveys of soldiers’ attitudes, it is impossible to simply extrapolate from the small number of soldiers in Delta Company. But in interviews with more than a dozen soldiers over a one-week period with this 83-man unit, most said they were disillusioned by repeated deployments, by what they saw as the abysmal performance of Iraqi security forces and by a conflict that they considered a civil war, one they had no ability to stop. Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Austin. I agree there is a real risk of the Democrats pulling a Nixon on us. I just hope whoever we elect as president withdraws the troops ASAP, because Bush sure as hell isn't going to do it. One of my favorite quotes from H.L. Mencken, and I think it's still correct today: "Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -- and both commonly succeed, and are right... The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds." Popping for the Mencken quote. Spot on. Although I would argue with the bulk of ouyangwulong's comment, the last paragraph was very insightful. I would also pop for the Mencken quote, if it weren't my own clip. Hopefully the clipmarks team will find a way for us to pop comments as well! Cniq_Cniq, please, by all means, argue away, I would always be interested in an alternative perspective. However, it does raise the interesting point that there are actually two arguments going on here, not one. On the one hand there is the argument over what is best to do in Iraq, and on the other hand there is the argument over what is best to do in America. Politicians have mostly presumed that the later encompasses the former, which appears to be the root of all the ineffectual idiocy that we see coming out of our government on this issue. Jus... But if the politicians and think-tanks won't take on these questions, then why don't we? (Clipmarks may be one of the best think-tanks in America!) The questions are: Who are we fighting? Why are we fighting them? Why are they fighting us? What do you guys think? I'd appreciate any and all answers ventured. (But the more useful answers will probably be longer than one word.) You raise some very interesting points, which I would enjoy discussing. Unfortunately, I'm tired of going back and forth on the Iraq War here in Clipmarks. With few exceptions, most of the folk who comment here are so blindly wed to one side or the other that they spout the same tired, knee-jerk rhetoric again and again. Regardless of how thoughtful we tried to keep the discussion, these trolls would pop in. I just gives me a headache. Your thoughts are interesting though, so I hope you won't mind if I drop you a line off-site when I have some free time. On such a hot issue, that may be the most prudent choice. I look forward to your thoughts on it, Cniq_Cniq. Anyone else who would prefer a more controlled forum to discuss this issue can also feel free to send me an email. |
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