Sunday, January 14, 2007

Actions speak

A few months ago, before the elections in November, the President came out and said that winning in Iraq was critical to the safety and future of America. I wish I could find the quote, and I will, but I do not have time right now.

I looked at my wife, upon hearing this, and said: “if winning in Iraq is that important, then we need to get serious right now. Why have we been wasting time for four years? We need to institute a draft, put 500,000 troops on the ground, and begin to kick ass. We need to raise taxes to pay for a sustained all-out war. If the long term safety of our country is at risk than let’s get deadly serious.”

Why has the President been fiddling around with only 140,000 troops, for the past four years, if he truly believes that the viability of our nation is at risk? Give every person, under 50, a rifle and lets get it on.

The fact is that he does not truly believe that the Nation is at risk. The fact that he has not gone deep, while in control of both the executive and legislative branches of government, means he does not really believe what he says. His words shrivel under the light of rationality. Let me say it this way, If Bush really believes that the lives of three hundred million people in the United States are at risk, then we need to find more than one hundred and forty thousand people to work on saving us. We don’t even have 1/1000th of us working on a problem that Bush is saying threatens to bring our country down.

If you believe the President’s words, then you should be at the front of the line screaming for his impeachment. It is like being on the Titanic:

Captain: “Everyone...everyone, listen up for a moment. We have hit an iceberg and the ship is filling with water. We take this water threat very seriously, and so should you. It is so serious that it could jeopardize the ability of our ship to survive. I have assigned a ship’s officer to go down and bail furiously. The rest of you should continue to shop.”

Guest: “would you like me to help him bail?”

Captain: “I checked with the purser and he says that one person is plenty.”

This conversation, and the furious bailing, by one person, go on for four brutal hours and the ship continues to fill with water…

Captain: “I have an announcement. The ship is still sinking and it is very obviously going to sink if we do not succeed soon. I have fired the purser, for sending only one person to bail. It was very clear, to everyone, that one person was not enough, after about fifteen minutes of bailing, but we made a commitment to the strategy and so let the water rise for anther three hours and fort-five minutes. We are now in deeper tapioca than we were before, and will be assigning another person to help bail. I have consulted everyone I can think of and, despite what I heard, I am going to assign another bailer. We do not, however, need another full time bailer though, and it is just a temporary surge in bailing. We think that if another person helps the first person bail for a few minutes an hour, we can get ahead of the situation and the first person can then finish it off without help.

OK, you get my point.

The fact that everyone in the country is having this conversation without saying something like, “holy shit, if this is really a problem then let’s send a million or two troops and get it done,” means that all of us do not believe the President. The people that support him don’t even believe him. We all know that he has made a terrible mess. We know that we will pay a terrible price for some time to come. We know that the Iraqi people will continue to pay the biggest price. And, we know that the biggest benefactor of this policy is Iran. But, most importantly everyone, and I do mean everyone, believes that our Nation is not in Clear and Present Danger and it has not been from the beginning.

Let the impeachment begin.

2 comments:

Leo said...

I think hear what you are saying, if the threat is so great then throw all of our resources at it but since we do not then the threat is minimal or non existent. Or if you prefer he lied, people died so he must fry.

I wonder what the real story is? Is he an ideological do-gooder who does not have a lot of good sense. This scenario takes me back to 2K when I supported Sen. McCain thinking that Gov. GWB was a spoiled rich boy who needed a new challenge. Or is he as so many imply a bad guy who is sacrificing American and Iraqi lives to enrich the oil cartels? Or is he right and we just need to have some faith? I lean in the ideological do-gooder direction which may really mean bad news for the country.

IMHO,getting beyond the should we be there argument. The real problem in Iraq is that the US is fighting a war with a group unwilling to follow the rules while binding its self to the rules. Sometimes the good boy needs to "do what it takes" so as teach the bad boy a lesson he will not soon forget. If the good boy doesn't have the stomach then he needs to get out of the way and send in someone who does - like you say "Actions Speak" but who is the right leader? McCain?

Andrew, Bridget, Walker, and Josie said...

I think I am saying this: Iraq is either a major deal or it is not. If it is a major deal then we are sure doing a horrible job with something so very important. Let's pick one or the other; it is a big deal or it is not. If someone can demonstrate that we have a very, very serious problem if we just walk away then we need to get very serious and go in with more than 140,000 guys. Hell, we have 40,000 cops in NYC and most people in NYC are not trying to kill each other. If this is key to our survival then we need to get serious.

If it is not, then let's get the hell out, as soon as is practical.