Have you noticed how often Bush's representatives have answered questions about what would the government do if such and such happened by sidestepping a straight answer? This is particularly true of his spokesman, Tony Snow. His favorite sentence, one which he uses frequently, is "I'm not going to get into hypotheticals."
At the same time, Bush's entire foreign policy platform is built on hypotheticals, all of them very bad for us. If we pull out of Iraq, not only will the terrorists win, but the entire Middle East will descend into chaos, and Al Quaeda, Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc., etc., etc. will pursue us back to and inside the boundaries of our country.
How can he be so sure that that scenario is the one that will ensue? Isn't it quite logical and possible that what they have in mind is simply getting us out of their part of the world? And wouldn't it also follow that if we brought our troops home, they would greatly expand the forces available to protect us here in our own land? And isn't it also possible that the Middle East will continue to heave regardless of who wins and who loses?
Bush's hypotheticals are directed toward frightening the citizens of this country into continuing to support his war, and thus his imagined position as a great military leader, all of this while he does not consider it necessary to endanger the lives of the children of his base, the rich and the overtly religious, by calling for a draft.
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6 comments:
An excellent and timely point, Lil'Bill. And well put. How often are our debates and discussions afflicted with the citation of well-worn warnings of going down the slippery slope of 'X', knocking down the dominoes of 'Y', or opening the door to 'Z'? Hypotheticals become terminal punctuation and trump cards to discussions and debates, don't they?
In a sense Bush's entire war and occupation has been built on a house of hypotheticals, right? Why we invaded, why we occupied, why we don't leave - right? A house of hypothetical cards is what Bush has built.
Excellent, excellent post. Made my day.
Thanks, Vigilante. I feel better already.
We have engaged a Clown. This Clown is a deadly clown. When the Clown is engaged you can not win. A deadly Clown kills you. Reason , logic , reasonable thinking do not work with a Clown.
Never engage a clown.
Our so called leader is a deadly clown.
Our entire Political system , on both sides , Dems and Repubs , is run by other clowns. Special Interest , belief system clowns.
Prepare for more Havoc. Much more trouble is just around the bend.
Fasten your seat-belts.
Crash test ahead. ~!~
Crash helmets on! Spam Alert!!!!!
Let's just accept Lil'Bill's invitation to peer into the main hypothetical that apparently freezes the USA in its tracks: abyss of Iraqi civil war. I offer readers the words of Caleb Carr and Edward N. Luttwak.
First, Carr:
". . . the real issue of importance for Americans with regard to any impending Iraqi civil war is: Are we morally justified in trying to prevent it?
. . . . every time an American official tries to tell the Shiites and the Kurds (along with the many smaller minorities in Iraq) that they are not entitled to the same judgments and justice as we ourselves received and wrought from 1861 to 1865, they make civil war in that country more -- not less -- likely. Such statements reveal the blatantly paternalistic, even racist, opinion that what was necessary in the American experience is not something for which the Iraqis are ready or qualified.
. . . . If the Iraqis wish to try it on their own, better that we allow them to use a mixture of their own militias and conventional forces -- the kind of combination that fought our Civil War."
And now Luttwak:
"Iraq's civil war is no different from the British, Swiss or American internal wars. It too should be allowed to bring peace."
Thinking thusly, outside the box, I conclude the last thing we should be doing is destroying the Mahdi army. It has a semblance of ordered as a fighting unit that doesn't need our training or expertise. We are perfectly willing to help the militias re-take Somalia; let's just get out of the way of them in Iraq.
What do people think?
I certainly agree. Whatever the various groups in Iraq do to each other can't be any worse than what we have done to them already.