| « gold on econtalk | kitzmiller versus dover, 2005 » |
perspectives on good things
See this snopes article for the background, which references the original column in World Net Daily by Craig R Smith.
As for the content...
It is certainly true that we have electricity to light our evenings, and clean water to drink, a huge variety of other goods and services, and nice libraries with reasonable access in pretty much any community across this land. These are all good things and represent the positive efforts of all of us. I make some of these points when reminding people how well off we are in this country when compared to the population in the rest of the world.
However, it must be obvious that people are not thinking about those things when 67% report being unhappy with the direction the country is headed or with the performance of the president.- We have recently been at war for longer than we fought WW2; thousands of Americans have died in Iraq and 10's of thousands wounded.
- Countless more Iraqis have died as a direct consequence of US meddling.
- $12 B each month is being spent to prosecute this war, most of which is being paid for through debt financing
- we are building an embassy complex in Iraq that rivals the size of the Vatican, combined with many permanent US military bases. The combination must make it very clear to Iraqis (if not Americans like Craig Smith) that US policy makers have no intention of leaving any time at all, let alone soon
- The complete disaster in Iraq has withered what good will the US had as a result of the 9/11 attacks
- we are arguably less safe after all this: our military readiness is in shambles, to the point of sending US border guards to Iraq (Smith reminds us that there is "currently" no draft, making me think he has no qualms about instituting one)
- bellicose rhetoric by the President and most 2008 contenders indicate that even now those in power will nuke Iran rather than admit to a failed policy
- It was wrong to prosecute this war, and our President George W Bush shows no sign of admitting to this mistake even after the utter tragedy that has been revealed
- The majority of Americans voted last fall to change this policy, and yet still it goes on
- As for this point "the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers" - it completely ignores the promotion by the Administration and Congress of the "Real ID", which attempts to force a national identity card on us - promoted on the basis of making us more "secure"
I often like the columns in WND, but this one is so wrong headed as to be insulting. Bad enough that it ignores the points made above, but to refer to opponents of the war policy as "ungrateful, spoiled brats" ? This ad hominem avoids addressing the cause for our unhappiness. It does not advance the cause of discourse, let alone promote finding a solution to the mess in which we have been dragged.
For an example of courage under fire, I direct your attention to this video of Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul, taken from the recent debate in South Carolina.
This entry was posted on August 26th, 2007 at 00:40:00 by JRP and is filed under News, rants.
