Caught your post at the time but didn’t think it needed a response. I’m sorry it bothers you.
I guess the thing is I feel guilty that we (America) went to war in the first place. Somehow my fellow Americans and I weren’t able to prevent or stop it, despite the fact that so many of us were publicly railing against its machinations so many Marches ago. Four years on, we are in this mess that our country created and here’s the crux, I believe we are responsible for its repair. Maybe you don’t agree, I haven’t followed your politics, so for all I know you’re for a pullout. I am not.
As Americans, it is essential that we make up for our inability to prevent this war by taking ownership of it. By embracing the reconstruction, by devoting ourselves to pouring out our generosity on a land so furious for so long, we can quiet the civil war and instead instill civil order. That’s never going to happen if we ourselves continue to sink into ignoble sectarianism. What I read in your reaction is the kernel, the genesis of the “us vs them” mentality; from what I know of your character as represented on this message board, it is beneath you.
It is America’s war. It is my war. And because more and more Americans are likewise taking responsibility, we will soon be sitting down to a summit instead of continuing to swing our tangy balls in Iran’s face.
That is defensible thinking in moral terms, but you are mistaken in assuming it is possible for the U.S. to fix Iraq. It isn’t. We can no more save Iraq than we could have saved Yugoslavia after Tito passed on. There will be a bloody civil war, whether we go or stay; it has already begun; and things will not be stable again until everyone’s will to fight it has been exhausted and the country is broken into three more-or-less homogeneous parts. That’s just how it is.
What BrainGlutton said. Healing can’t take place until the shit-smeared pongi stick has been removed fom the victim. In this metaphor, the shit-smeared pongi stick represents U. S. military presence. It does behoove us to pay for the damage that the stupid fucking chimp initiated, but there’s no point in doing so while our presence is still making recovery impossible. We can write checks from a distance.
