years ago, shortly after the first gulf war, it was very clear what was and was not to be done in such a situation, once the path had been chosen. it was very simple:
- let the generals do their jobs
- no half measures
these two points stood out especially in contrast to the conduct of the vietnam war, at least the little that i can directly remember.
but also important to consider in the original choice and planning:
- do nothing that you cannot commit to
that's pretty clearly implied by the first two. there's ways of taking care of that; one is by using such overwhelming force and third party support that the actual hostilities are as contracted as possible; the other is by having a just cause, and a distinct goal. the gulf war filled all of these criteria, and it showed.
of course, things like length, justice and goal are highly contextual, not least of which is the supporting population's will to continue and commit, especially in a democracy. also, "commit": not just someone else's life & treasure, but one's own resources - across all the nation's various strata.
all of these considerations have been violated by the current enagement in iraq.
and yet - we are there.
compounding matters by not following through would be far worse. two wrongs don't make a right; we can't rewrite history, go home, and say "oops".
and then there's the issue of the very real likelihood of misinterpreted reality. despite the wrongheadedness of how we got into the position that we are in ("we" being the nation i'm born to), and how badly executed, we may have blundered onto what might be the correct path in the larger sense. sure, americans do some really stupid, dangerous, silly - and wonderful - things, but sometimes the world is less optimistic a place than we may have hoped.
some reading offered for your consideration:
not to mention that other religious ideologies have also all had their significant toxic periods for the rest of humanity / planet. nope, this isn't a war of religions, but many people are reflexively casting it that way.
short-cutting much more extensive discussion, what about practical matters ? there's a u.s. presidential election coming up shortly. are there any answers there, any message we can send ?
there is much more of distaste that i have with any of the frontrunners than anything to recommend them. strictly on domestic matters, i wouldn't go in the republican direction, but i don't see democrats offering much of intelligence either. perhaps just slightly less and/or different damage.
on the other hand, there is one clear difference from a foreign policy perspective: obama is clearly for early pull-out from iraq. and i think any such talk is dangerously premature.
leaves me with one distasteful alternative: clinton.
of course, this predicament is largely an artifact of the sheeple and their continued blind adherence to a two-party system; combined with a lack of historical knowledge.
i'll leave this hanging with something craig said the other day, referring to a slightly different topic, but related as to background:
" The US like any other country has it's mood swings with capitalism, "corporatacracy", big government, empire, isolationism. And I really thought early on in the Bush presidency when everyone kind of went wacko with 9/11 and the overreaction that followed that the boat would rollback to even keel at some point down the line. It always has. There's enough people who care enough to fight to right the boat. I read, listen and watch them all the time. They do exist. It just seems there are so many more people today than say 30 years who really don't care. They view all of this like the compressor on the refrigerator, it just works so we no longer hear it humming anymore. I don't know if it's apathy or accepting that it's all on automatic. Think about it. Since the late 70s, this country has really had it good. That's 30 years of nobody rocking the boat too bad. This is the younger generation who usually are the ones who would march in the streets, protest, have the idealism to demand change. Why mess with things when they see their parents never being involved and have lived the high life. The hippies grew up in the idyllic 50's and were use to having things their way and when Uncle Sam started carting them off to war they said hell no. The biggest complaint today is the overbearing entertainment industry. Wha? But anyway I just hope the critical mass of people are out there willing to right to the boat again. I try in my own way to bring up issues in conversations. Not so much my own opinion but "do you think the president has overstepped his bounds? do you think that congress is honest? do you think that journalistic integrity has a place on our tv anymore? etc. At least bring some of this up, raise awareness. I have to say I am concerned how things are going. I really am amazed at how far things have gotten out of hand in the 7-8 years since 9/11. And I think it's because nobody is around to say "stop that" or "lets try something different". "
we had been discussing Rick Falkvinge: Why the US is collapsing, which is food for thought, if not entirely credible.