I am wholly sympathetic with those who want the troops out of Iraq yesterday-- but I want some third alternative to "get out now" and "escalate".
Here is my reason: our country (in spite of my feeble protest) invaded a foreign country, caused the murder of thousands of innocent people and destroyed billions of dollars worth of other people's infrastructure. Having committed these crimes, do we now leave the mess for other people to clean up-- like a certain frat boy has done all his life?
Isn't that why we hated Tom and Daisy Buchanan? "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures... and let other people clean up the mess they had made." There's a reason why that book contains one of the most powerful metaphors ever written to explain America.
Is this George Bush's ultimate triumph as the Antichrist, to make good people in his likeness? Even the people who despise him? "Gee, sorry we killed your cat and your baby and trashed your house, Iraq, guess we better leave now, this party's no fun anymore, still friends?"
This, to me, would be as monstrous as the invasion. Now those of us against the war will do the job that Bush can't bring himself to do, but he will happily spend the rest of his life blaming those antiwar killjoys for ruining his master plan. There's a psychological reason Bush supporters accuse us of hating America, of "wanting the terrorists to win." Psychically, they cannot afoord to admit to themselves that George W. Bush has been the best recruiting tool al-Qaeda ever had. And that they were his enablers.
The men (and women) who ordered this war, and their enablers, should be removed from office and put far away from power, where they can never hurt anyone again-- but the evil that men do lives after them. What, Then, Must WE Do?
"All the Stones the Builders Rejected" 
(And some days it takes more Stones than others...) Where Mythical Bestiary meets Contemporary Culture and Chews On Its Leg Until Covered with Slobber.
1 comment:
Give examples to the young so history does not repeat itself.
I was impressed that at Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff) had put on a visual demonstration of 400 boots to represent the National Guardsman who have been killed in Iraq from Arizona. At U of M in the medical complex one of the waiting rooms had papered their walls (during the start of the war) with a page to represent each American killed in Iraq with their name/age/rank or occupation. Visual examples for some may work--I know I was impressed. Sigh, Dee Ann
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