"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but
certainty is absurd." --
Voltaire
I don't blog much about the war any more,
really - which I suppose sets me apart somewhat from the crowd, as a
MilBlogger.
It's not that I don't
know what's going on - I read reports from the field every working day. I have a
sense for the tactical level of the current fight. But even with access to a
level of detail unavailable to the average guy on the street, I can't sense the
overall operational contours. Every day brings news of successes, and defeats
and it's hard to weigh the one against the other in any way that makes any kind
of coherent senese. And anyway, it's not primarily, or even remotely, a naval
battle. My expertise, such as it is, does not extend to this arena. My opinion
is next to worthless. This is, more than anything else, a sergeant's fight, a
captain's fight. In short, I don't know. I am...
uncertain.
Reading between the lines
on the things that cross my desk, I see acts of unbelievable sacrifice and
heroism. Not just on side of the U.S. Army soldiers and Marines, but also among
their allies in the Iraqi Army, National Guard and Police Services. I also see
things that make me wince.
Nothing
do I see that clarifies for me any more than all of that which has gone before,
the necessity of the fight, or how long it might last. How many more must die,
or be maimed, before we come to the clearing at the end of the path. Everything
points on to a grim slog, a painful task that needs being done. And this is only
one theater, in a much larger, potentially generational struggle between the
forces of modernity and those of reaction. And make no mistake - even as events
in Lebanon, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Baghdad and even Saudi unfold in a
direction which could scarcely have been imagined a few short years ago, the
forces of reaction are not about to strike the tent and fade into the
background. Their death struggles will be titanic, because for them, like for
us, there is no turning back, no possibility of
surrender.
But I am persuaded, and
have been for a long time, of the necessity of taking the fight to the Salafist
heartland. Of winning it there, by supplanting tyranny with hope. But even if I
were not, I do not think that as an American citizen, I could go to the
incomprehensible lengths that some of my fellows have
done.
I read this sort of thing and heave a sigh of despair,
while congratulating Smash for being civil about it. (And no, I
don't go looking for people to pick on - but he linked to me, while using
Smash's name, which rendered the whole thing rather absurd.) More of the same
tedious tub thumping: Neocons,WMD, blood for oil, moronic presidents, etc,
ad
nauseam. (Was ever the Latin used to such
precision?)
To clarify - I can
respect the folks who thought we oughtn't have gone to fight this war - who
think that it was the wrong place, or that it was a distraction or that it
wouldn't serve the ends of national policy. I'll continue to disagree with those
folks, but I can respect the arguments they make. Most of them that I have
exchanged viewpoints with have bowed to the inevitability of the moment, and the
continued effort which it calls for. They have agreed, however reluctantly due
to the war's provenance, to stay in the traces, and hope for the best. They
don't like the fact that we're in a fight, but they hope that we win.
I can live with
that.
But there are some out there
that just can't get over it, any of it. They can't get the politics out of their
head, even while brave soldiers engage in incredible acts of heroism , and some of them make ultimate sacrifices . They can't get over the
fact that the last national election was nothing if not a judgment on all that
went before, and a mandate on how to finish - even if it wasn't a whole-hearted
endorsement of the process. These folks are just
so damned
certain
that the war's Original Sin blots out any chance to salvage a righteous outcome.
For these folks it's all a part of some right wing plot to... do what? Ruin the
country, I gather. Quite how, I'm never sure. Many of them evidently keep their
fingers crossed hoping for bad news (payable in Iraqi and American lives) while
stuffing their fingers in their ears whenever good news comes out. For these
folks, and their despicable certainty, I have nothing but genial contempt - and
much less patience than Smash. Doesn't matter to me if the person who holds
those opinions spent 10 years in the military, or not. For
them?
Scorn and defiance;
slight regard, contempt, And any
thing that may not misbecome The
... sender
-- Shakespeare,
Henry V
Posted @
07:51 PM
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Posted in
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Sendit
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Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." - John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Ceasar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friederich Nietzsche
