In this case, I’m putting on the hat of editor. The following post was something my brother posted to his Facebook profile yesterday, and he gave me permission to post it here as well. With that said, if you wish to comment here feel free, otherwise, if you have a Facebook account and are able to reply to his note, you can find it here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=18863904051&ref=nf - Sean
Begin Ryan’s Facebook note entitled The Fate of Nations, originally posted there on 5/20/2008 at 5:32pm.
The video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/i
Transcript:
http://www.crooksandliars.
You know, I’ve been trying to think of a proper analogy for the Iraq war and the logical fallacy masquerading as an argument that “Yeah, the war is unjustified, ill conceived, poorly planned, spiraling through billions of tax dollars, responsible for human rights atrocities on behalf of mercenary groups like Blackwater, B U T it will be even worse if we pull out so we have to stay.” but I just haven’t been able to come up with anything.
Those of you who know me well know that my analogies can at times be pretty potent and colorful, but I’ve found something utterly haunting about not being able to articulate such an obvious set of circumstances. That is, until I watched Keith Olbermann’s editorial summary posted above. I have to say that in a political landscape that is often stymied, mired in a thick layer of ineffectual spin and rhetoric, I have not witnessed anything close to a delivery that would warrant a place among the greatest speeches in American History, save two occasions: The one listed above, and one that shall be mentioned below.
I make it fairly obvious that my favorite book is no piece of fiction or singular tale of autobiography, but rather the bound volume titled A Treasury of the World’s Greatest Speeches. There is something empathic and moving, veritably stirring about reading the triumph of words over some of the worst and most adverse situations our country and the world at large have ever faced. There is something about the unequivocal conviction of people appealing, convincing, persuading others for decency and equality, for the victory of diplomacy, the victory of the pen when sword seems so much simpler, obvious, and by all accounts easier.
Indeed we are living in a time where, for the last 8 years, the leader of our country has appealed to our base desires. I have sat and watched as his campaigning has employed fear as a motivator, I have listened to him tell me to be not only afraid of terrorists, but of questioning his authority. I have listened and watched him reduce this great nation’s defense and quest to preserve freedom to a diminutive High School Pep Rally seeking to shortcut reason and simply rally behind heuristics such as “evil doers”, ” liberators”, and “surges.”
I’m sorry, but Lex Luthor and the Joker are “evil doers.” Archetypes. Characters beyond redemption although always aware of choice. It has been said by Vietnamese leaders that the reason the US was unable to successful in their war efforts there is because they never understood that they were imposing themselves on a civil war. They held the idea of the larger context of democracy vs. communism but were never able to understand their opponents reasons enough to sway or defeat them. They simply threw resources in the form of troops and weapons at the situation and waged their own ideological war, presuming to use the Vietnamese as pawns, figuring that they would win out in the end. One can see the same lack of understanding in this current war on Terror, which again, is an ideological war using another country as pawns.
President Bush believes in God. I believe in God. Our constitution says that “All men are created equal.” Everyone was born with the right to choose and to think that people are ever absolved of that right is preposterous. No one is asking WHY some people feel so strongly against the US they would choose to join a terrorist group. That would cause us to examine our own national zietgeist and question issues of excess, exploitation, and even the conception that we might just be “invaders” rather than “liberators.” One would think that with the propaganda machines we have in this country, the public relations, marketing, branding experts and resources we have here, we could fight a war on terror that fights ideology with ideology, not ideology with bullets. The answer, however, is quite clear: It just isn’t profitable. It’s more profitable for the US to hire Haliburton to make mutli-million dollar convoy vehicles than it is to pay a PR firm to launch a marketing campaign while providing psychological services and housing services for Iraqis who have lost homes and loved ones to “collateral damage.” Simply not profitable.
Perhaps that’s lofty college-educated idealism, but one would think that if people like Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could find peaceful ways to combat the physical violence enacted upon their respective people (who, by the way didn’t look at things in terms of “them and us” but saw us as one people…just to note) one would think that we could invest in their methods, or try and figure out how to lead a non-violent campaign. You can’t tell me that we don’t have the talent and resources in America to do so. Could it fail? Maybe. Could it be a success? The simple answer to that is “I hope so” which brings me to my next point.
Fostering hope. Talking. Diplomacy. Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech on race and turned what was hoped to be an ugly stain on his past, his career, and his character into a mature and insightful discussion of race designed to foster understanding of how this is still a sensitive and complex issue facing America. It was unbelievable watching him turn that around to his favor. If he can manage a personal attack with such adept honesty, wisdom, and expertise, I can only imagine what he could do with this great nation’s resources behind him. This is the only speech I have heard from an American politician that has been honest, frank, and PERSUASIVE. I underscore this last notion because he was not telling us what’s best for us. He’s appealing to us. He’s asking us to listen. He makes his own history vulnerable to us. He places himself under scrutiny and asks us to do the same to this country. Not demean or degrade it, label it wrong or righteously condemn it, but consider it. Hold your esteem and pride for it, be proud to be an American, but don’t consider it a country without its own ongoing trials. Look and be the judge. It was, the only thing I have heard in 8, maybe even 16 years that has felt like it deserved a place in A Treasury of the World’s Greatest Speeches.
If anyone reading this is considering my political stance, it should not be hard to infer. I make the appeal to you to consider the above and recent statements made by both Barack Obama and John McCain.
“An unconditional summit meeting with the next American president would confer both international legitimacy on the Iranian president and could strengthen him domestically, when he is very unpopular among the Iranian people,” - John McCain
The above makes the claim that talking is ineffective. McCain clearly supports staying in the war “indefinitely” and recently proposed that it should be over by 2013…2013…and what, pray tell, happens if it isn’t? It was already estimated to be over. It was already DECLARED ACCOMPLISHED. The truth appears to be that there is no exit plan, no progress, and no end in sight for this war. McCain just capped his estimate at 2013 to reduce the gravity of his prior statements of “indefinitely.” Substituting an infinity loop for a five year calendar date. Moreover, is the outright hilarity of the claim that Iran’s President is unpopular. If a President’s crime is being unpopular, then what is President Bush? I’m not claiming that Mahmud Ahmadinejad is a saint, but what’s the alternative to talking? More warfare? Force over diplomacy? I defer to the mention of the Vietnam War mentioned above.
“Tough, disciplined and direct diplomacy. That’s what Kennedy did; that’s what Reagan did.” - Barack Obama
Tough disciplined diplomacy may not be enough. The war in Iraq is steeped in complexity and a Cold War era soldier once offered the following: “Trying to fight an insurgency [in a foreign land] is like trying to eat soup with a knife.” The increasing volatility in the Middle East region seems to grown everyday. The difference, however, is trying. John McCain has called Barack Obama’s promises of change “hollow”, and yet he has offered nothing but more of what we’ve endured under the Bush Presidency: His war, his tax cuts, his opposition to gay marriage, the list goes on and on. I fail to see how plans for change are hollow compared to zero plans for change.
The truth that I have found in all of this is that there is no analogy for the Iraq War, at least none that I can conceive. And that is for one simple reason:
A spade is a fucking spade.
There is no analogy that will suffice for me because there has been nothing but misdirection and re-framing since this all started with the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. There is no analogy that will suffice because the events encompassing this war have been so sobering on a level of basic humanity that there is no way to re-frame it. An analogy does me no good because it robs the situation of its gravity, its potency. To diminish it in any way is an obscenity to me. This has been a War. It was not based on facts. It has resulted in record profits for the oil industry and produced war profiteering. It resulted in not only the death of 4,000 United States soldiers, but left many more with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, if not heart-wrenching disabilities and maiming. It is destroying the people and infrastructure of Iraq. It is destroying families both there and here. And if that is not terrible enough, the President who is responsible for these atrocities will not take responsibility for them.
This is unacceptable.
To say that we need change is an understatement. To say that our troops need to come home is an understatement. To say that all we have to show for the bloodshed and trauma on such a large scale is the execution of Saddam Hussein is an atrocity. To say that everything will be done by 2013 is a farce.
But to believe that we can continue without using words, without using diplomacy, is not only a travesty, but it is, in my opinion, the failure to believe in everything that makes this country great. It is a failure to believe that America’s power is noble and benevolent it its deployment. It is a failure to believe that all of us are created equal. It is a failure to believe in the human spirit, and it is the same resolution to our base desires and animalistic ignorance and rage that makes terrorism such a terrifying thing to begin with. It is the failure of reason over force. It is a path that will lead to more bloodshed. Violence begets violence. Diplomacy always carries with it the chance of failure, but as we’ve seen with this war, so does force, and I, for one, would like to cast my future on the chance of diplomacy and the success of our human ability to reason. I choose to cast my future on this hope because living in a future of anything less is living in the absence of what makes all of us great. And by us, I mean all of mankind.
And so, as all the evils of the world are seemingly escaping from Pandora’s Box, I am choosing not to pit them against each other, but to grab ahold of the one thing to escape with them that is worth holding on to…Hope. I will hope. And while I am still at a loss for an analogy for this war, I have found this hope. I believe in the change and the hope that Barack Obama offers.
I can only hope that you follow through on these promises Mr. Obama. I have high hopes for you, myself, this nation, and this world. They say at the core of even the most devout cynic and darkest satirist, there is a core heart of an idealistic dreamer. No one has spoken words that have reached this part of me in many years, if ever. But I have found this hope and I implore others to consider it. I implore us to rise above violence to words and diplomacy. Let it suffice now to say with some finality…
I hope.
Part of the drainage channel is covered by a grate when it runs under the area where the stairs come up. One ducking, once the entire group went under the grate and out the other side, did not want to move. The attendee and I lifted the grates nearby in order to get the duckling out. At this time, I’d like to point out that handling a baby bird will not cause it to be rejected by its parent(s); the attendee had asked as much when I was reaching to pick the duckling up. So, with the duckling in hand, I carried it to the near where the mother was (at this point, I was on the deck, and the mother was on the ground) place the duckling on the edge, and let it jump down to the mother, about five feet down.
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