Stay the course or up the ante
- Tuesday, October 24 2006 @ 07:52 AM CST
- Contributed by: filbert
- Views: 3,483
Word is that G.W. Bush is dropping the term "stay the course."
Ralph Peters points the way to a solution. It won't be pretty.
Peters thinks it's too late for American power to salvage the situation, and that the Iraqis must now do it themselves. I don't agree. But it will require a level of aggression and ruthlessness that will scandalize the tender sensibilities of the world's chattering classes. I think the majority of Americans actually understand what needs to be done, and would loudly cheer such a crackdown. But they can't be heard over the shrill complaints of the media elites. The American public usually has more common sense than its leaders and "opinion-makers."
They all hate us anyhow, let's drop the Big One now -- Randy Newman, "Political Science"
(And no, I don't mean going nuclear . . . )
"He's stopped using it," said Tony Snow, the White House press secretary. "It left the wrong impression about what was going on and it allowed critics to say, 'Well, here's an administration that's just embarked upon a policy and not looking at what the situation is,' when, in fact, it is the opposite."Good.
Ralph Peters points the way to a solution. It won't be pretty.
We did the right and virtuous thing by deposing Saddam Hussein. There's no reason even now to regret that act. But history will condemn us - justly - for the moral cowardice we revealed after the fall of Baghdad: We would not kill the handful of men who needed killing. Now they've converted tens of thousands to their cult of violence.Emphasis mine.
. . .Political compromise is not a tradition of the Middle East - life and power are viewed as zero-sum games.
And the ugly truth is that some men love to kill. Torture and murder are addictive. The lifelong loser empowered to kill for a cause becomes a little god. And when the violence ends, the party's over.
The butchers our timidity unleashed are enjoying themselves. They're having the time of their lives executing unarmed civilians.
How many American - and foreign - lives must we sacrifice to stay within our privileged comfort zone, clinging to the lie that "all men want peace"? A compromise peace is the last thing Iraq's killers want.
Peters thinks it's too late for American power to salvage the situation, and that the Iraqis must now do it themselves. I don't agree. But it will require a level of aggression and ruthlessness that will scandalize the tender sensibilities of the world's chattering classes. I think the majority of Americans actually understand what needs to be done, and would loudly cheer such a crackdown. But they can't be heard over the shrill complaints of the media elites. The American public usually has more common sense than its leaders and "opinion-makers."
They all hate us anyhow, let's drop the Big One now -- Randy Newman, "Political Science"
(And no, I don't mean going nuclear . . . )