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October 01, 2004
Only way out is through
There is an old fable of the man riding a tiger. I forget what message my parents were trying to teach me with it, but that image has always stuck with me. Here is a man on the back of a man-eating nasty creature which will destroy him the instant he wavers. Was it a mistake to get on board? Sure! But once there, letting go would be a bigger mistake. Iraq is kinda like that man on a tiger...
Perhaps a better analogy is to medieval battlefield medicine. Back in the day, they used Arrows instead of guns. Arrow heads were barbed for maximum carnage. If you tried to pull the arrowhead out of the hole it made going in, the barb would catch on tissue and bone, causing more damage. Instead, what would happen is a doctor would have to push the arrow through the body, completing the arrow’s journey, and only then pulling the barbed head out—the other side...
Which is the main problem with This article, and indeed with most analysis of Mr. Kerry’s Iraq dilemma. It assumes what we can go back in time and Never have gone into Iraq in the first place-- That if we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have been there in the first place, that we can easily pack up and leave in the second place. Mr. Kerry is smarter than this, he seems to understand that we’ve taken on this obligation of our own free will (no matter how drunk we were at the time), and that we are thus honor bound to see it through to the end. Pulling out now is the nice, simple answer. It would also be the disastrous one...
Posted by Andrew at October 1, 2004 09:13 AM
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Comments
This is the section I had the most problem with:
"No, Senator. That isn't what you did with that vote. You haven't said no to the Iraq War as you did to the Vietnam War. And the reason is that this time, you're running for president."
Really, that was the only part of the article that seemed to suggest we should pack up and leave completely, right now, and drew no difference between this war and Vietnam.
Kerry's decision to NOT say he will withdraw people immediately (I think he stated in the debate that when his plan was implemented, they would BEGIN to pull SOME of the troops within 6 months), has nothing to do with popularity, and everything to do with the long-term effects of our damaged relations in the Middle East. Yes, there are similarities between Iraq and Vietnam, but they aren't the same war. Oh, and what's this about "we thought Saddam was responsible for 9-11"? We knew DAMN well who was responsible for 9-11, and with all W's smirking and "mission accomplished" speeches, the guy is still out there, still making videos and preparing to do it all OVER again. Okay, so two parts bothered me.
Posted by: sarahm at October 1, 2004 05:00 PM