When there's little joy in "I told you so".
In an earlier post I noted that I wished I'd said that.
Now there's this: Wonder Land
It's an interesting proposal, that:The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan grew from the moral outrage of September 11. U.S. troops, the best this country has yet produced, went overseas to defend us against repeating that day. Now it isn't just that the war on terror has proven hard; the men and women fighting for us, the magnificent 99%, are being soiled in a repetitive, public way that is unbearable.
The greatest danger at this moment is that the American public will decide it wants to pull back because it has concluded that when the U.S. goes in, it always gets hung out to dry.
I suspect that is it more likely that the drum-beat of negative reporting seems to be approaching a crescendo. Like the 1812 overture, the cannon shot of Haditha, along with other recent events are nearly drowning out the rest of the orchestra.
It's really an odd form of torture, I think, this endless public self flagellation.
And like the old punch line, "it feels so good when we quit".
...
I'm lucky, in the circles I travel (metaphorically) there is still optimism and the military is still regarded with some respect. Like any human envedour there is little perfection to be found, but we generally don't confuse a pimple with skin cancer.
But, fact is, few would be surprised by the authors last paragraph:
One suspects that U.S. troops were party to some awful events in the Pacific and European theaters of World War II, all gone in the mists of history and the enemy's defeat. Not now. Gen. Chiarelli's magnificent "99.9%" notwithstanding, it's the phenomenon of the so-very-public 0.01%--at Abu Ghraib, on an Afghan street, at Haditha--that is breaking America's will this time.
It's a bit like adding another drummer.
Now there's this: Wonder Land
It's an interesting proposal, that:The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan grew from the moral outrage of September 11. U.S. troops, the best this country has yet produced, went overseas to defend us against repeating that day. Now it isn't just that the war on terror has proven hard; the men and women fighting for us, the magnificent 99%, are being soiled in a repetitive, public way that is unbearable.
The greatest danger at this moment is that the American public will decide it wants to pull back because it has concluded that when the U.S. goes in, it always gets hung out to dry.
I suspect that is it more likely that the drum-beat of negative reporting seems to be approaching a crescendo. Like the 1812 overture, the cannon shot of Haditha, along with other recent events are nearly drowning out the rest of the orchestra.
It's really an odd form of torture, I think, this endless public self flagellation.
And like the old punch line, "it feels so good when we quit".
...
I'm lucky, in the circles I travel (metaphorically) there is still optimism and the military is still regarded with some respect. Like any human envedour there is little perfection to be found, but we generally don't confuse a pimple with skin cancer.
But, fact is, few would be surprised by the authors last paragraph:
One suspects that U.S. troops were party to some awful events in the Pacific and European theaters of World War II, all gone in the mists of history and the enemy's defeat. Not now. Gen. Chiarelli's magnificent "99.9%" notwithstanding, it's the phenomenon of the so-very-public 0.01%--at Abu Ghraib, on an Afghan street, at Haditha--that is breaking America's will this time.
It's a bit like adding another drummer.
posted by Zero Ponsdorf at 11:44 AM
1 Comments:
Drummer?
Needs more "cowbell."
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