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August 11, 2003
A Moral Dilemma in Retrospect
I once wrote in a missive against the war in Iraq:
two minutes ago, i got an email with a fuzzy focused picture of a puppy with the caption: i know god won't give me more than i can handle; i just wish he didn't trust me so much.why i am against the war, this time, is because although i like gwbush like a puppy, i don't trust him that much.
part of the problem of coming from 90016 in the 70s is that there are palm trees and thugs. on one of the many occasions that moms sent me to the market for staples, i found, after the recent santa ana winds, some lengths of palm fronds with wicked thorns. i grabbed one, in the alley just west of crenshaw heading south to exposition. i ground off enough thorns to make a handle by using a pink cinderblock which had fallen off the wall which separated houses from the alley. in my hand it felt like an awesome sword, and suddenly i had the most evil weapon i could think of. i started to walk more slowly through this alley. i couldn't wait for somebody to try to jump me and take my money. i had a big stick.
skinny kids with glasses ought not to act like skinny kids with glasses, because they're more likely pick up weapons instead of going to the gym and getting lasik surgery. living well is a better revenge. likewise provincial rich kids ought not act out their stereotype because they'll eventually surround themselves with worldly types, like henry kissinger. and although this is an exercise in amateur psychology, let us not forget that this president ran his campaign on one word, and that word was 'character'.
I later amended my ways in consideration of the fact that the needs of the Iraqi people to be free of tyranny was greater than the sum total of blame that could be placed at the foot of GWBush. As that blame (and our federal deficit) grows, and his mendacious tactics are revealed, I feel a growing sense of regret. Not for America lending it's hand to the Iraqis, but for lending my hand to this man as emperor. He is singularly unworthy.
Often, many billions are discussed in the total cost of this war. I am reminded that the largest costs, that of the care and feeding of many tens of thousands of troops, are already sunken into our defense infrastructure. We did not go hire an entirely new army to fight in Iraq, we just deployed the one we already had. The cost of the war is incremental, ordnance, fuel and materiel. Still, there are hard figures to be reconciled with the freedom we have purchased for the Iraqis much of it in opportunity costs at home.
I understand that this is selfish. I want a safer, freer world, but I also want an America that functions properly. The worse things get over here, the more uncomfortable I get with our expenditures over there. Perhaps this malaise was predictable, but not because I feel bad about spending money on war, but because I feel bad about trusting GWBush to tell the straight truth.
As Yglesias puts it:
I think this is perfectly consistent with the case against the Bush administration. The whole point, in fact, is that the Bushies (and many of their supporters) never really cared about the case for war they outlined. They had decided for independent reasons that it was necessary to go to war, and in order to go to war it was necessary to build public support for war. In order to build public support, it was necessary to lie. The point of exposing the lies is twofold. One is to persuade the group of people — the small but electorally-crucial group of folks in the middle — who were swung by the case that they now ought to swing back. The other is to expose the fact that the administration is basically full of liars.
I will cop to supporting war for reasons independent of Bush's case and most others as well. I also believe that in the long run the prospects are as good for Iraq as they are for Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Northern Ireland. But that doesn't stop me from being angry with GWBush, again.
Posted by mbowen at August 11, 2003 01:31 PM
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Comments
This is the key point. That, as Americans, who elect our governing body, we cannot be lied to.
Especially on matters that involve lives. Especially on matters that involve the global community.
This is not a personal indiscretion, this is creating a false climate with which to do something that Americans otherwise may not have supported.
And that pisses me off.
Posted by: Jason at August 11, 2003 05:17 PM
The whole thing is disgusting. Sure so and so needs to be stopped, but at what price? Threats, terrorism, suicide bombers, I'm sick of all of it. Basicly, I like the quote,
"Bombing for peace, is like f****** for virginity."
Posted by: Liz at August 12, 2003 09:29 PM
The following revealing item on Henry Kissinger is extracted from an article from the 'New World Order Intelligence Update' [http://www.nwointelligence.com/NEWWORLD.HTM]:
'And, fellow-Canadians, as a faint echo of the freedoms we have now lost in this once great Dominion, here's a robust exercise of free speech, fresh from the Mother Country, which is now impossible to imagine in modern Canada!
[Henry Kissinger walks out on Paxman radio program in the U.K. after being asked, among other things, if he felt "like a fraud." Exchange below, as reported by THE GUARDIAN, 29th June, 1999]
Jeremy Paxman: "It's been 17 years since the last volume of your memoirs. You said you wanted to let the dust settle but [didn't you] need the distance in order to rewrite history?"
Dr Kissinger: "No I based these memoirs on documents which were as valid then as they are now."
Paxman: [describes Kissinger's claim that he ended the cold war as "farfetched"] "What bothers a lot of people is you seem to ignore the human rights of people within regimes with which you're trying to establish a balance of power."
Kissinger: "That's not correct either."
Paxman: question about supporting General Pinochet and undermining President Allende in Chile.
Kissinger: "We did not support Pinochet. In what way did we support Pinochet?"
Paxman: "You supported the military regime."
Kissinger: "After the coup we preferred Pinochet to Allende."
Paxman: "It doesn't stop there... You're on record justifying the [behaviour of the] Chinese government in Tiananmen Square."
Kissinger:... "I have never supported what the Chinese did in Tiananmen Square."
Paxman: "Did you feel a fraud for accepting the Nobel Prize [for the Indo-China agreement]?"
Kissinger: "I wonder what you do when you do a hostile interview?"
Paxman: [accuses Kissinger of a "wilful misreading of history"]
Kissinger: "It may be a misreading but it wasn't wilful."
Paxman: question about the "hundreds of thousands of people killed in the bombing of Cambodia".
Kissinger: "That's absolutely untrue. We have no evidence that hundreds of thousands of people were killed... I think this is an absolute outrage, it's nonsense."
Paxman: "You don't deny [the bombing of Cambodia] was secret though?... This was a secret operation against a neutral country..."
Kissinger: "Come on now, Mr Paxman, this was 15 years ago, and you at least have the ability to educate yourself about a lie on your own programme... "
Paxman: "What's factually inaccurate?"
Kissinger: "... That's outrageous... " [Kissinger abruptly leaves: Paxman calls out, "'Bye, Dr. Kissinger"!]'
If you're interested in the ramifications of the coming 'New World Order', see the excellent NWO site at http://www.nwointelligence.com.
You'll also find a superb archive of articles on the New World Order [which is impacting and changing us all increasingly] from the 'New World Order Intelligence Update', at http://www.rarehistorybooks.com/NWOCONSP.HTM. They are also mirrored at http://www.survivalistskills.com/NWODICT.HTM and at http://www.torontochristianbooks.com/NWOGOV.HTM. Well worth reading!
Posted by: John Whitley at August 31, 2003 10:52 PM