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Irrelevancy
Pat gets a no-prize for sending us this little ditty from a media wonk trying a classic "Who's Laughing Now?" maneuver.
I tried to address this in Casualties, but I don't think I made my point very well. Ok, in crystal-clear terms, as far as I'm concerned:
Your opinion of Bush is irrelevant. Your opinion of the war is irrelevant. Whether or not the administration exaggerated evidence or outright lied to get its way is irrelevant. I will repeat: NONE OF THESE THINGS MATTER ANYMORE. THEY. DO. NOT. MATTER! We won the war. We're there. Stop bleating and whining about "should haves" or "might have beens" because those things don't make a single goddamn bit of difference right now. Every time anyone mentions anything like this I just keep seeing empty horse barns with open doors and a kitchen with milk all over the floor.
Stop trying to get Bush out of the Whitehouse and start paying attention. Two entire nations are relying on us to help them back from the abyss. If your opinions, suggestions, or criticisms of Iraq or Afghanistan do not directly address this fundamental fact then please make sure the door doesn't hit your ass on the way out. I have no time for you, and I hope to hell the people actually trying to get the job done don't either.
Let's play a little thought experiment. A condemned house two blocks down gets bulldozed because it's a crack house, full of gangstas and thugs, a murder happening there nearly every week. A drive-by shooting from one gang killed your neighbor's kid. The house is gone; the neighborhood is peaceful again. But you know the dealers are still out there.
There's an abandoned house right across the street from the bulldozed one. There aren't any drug dealers there. It's just empty. Suddenly the city bulldozes that one, claiming it has turned into a crack house as well.
Would you really be that upset when the papers revealed the next day the house was still empty? Would you blame the mayor when drug dealers and homeless people started to sabotage construction equipment and kill the workers trying to build new, free, houses for them? Would you really try to claim that if the abandoned house had just been left alone the neighborhood would be a better place?
Heh you knew I couldn't leave this one alone.
Ok Lets play a little experiment:
There's an abandoned house right across the street from the bulldozed one. There aren't any drug dealers there. It's just empty. Suddenly the city bulldozes that one, claiming it has turned into a crack house as well even though ALL EVIDENCE says it wasn’t (It might have been several months ago but it’s not clear if it is now). EVEN THOUGH the Police were doing daily inspections of the house to make sure that it didn’t turn into a crack house. The Head of the FBI asked for additional time to investigate the claims that the house is what it has been purported to be BUT HIS REQUEST IS DENIED BASED ON FORGED/FLIMSY EVIDENCE.
Olivia was playing in front of the house, had some debris hit her and she is now DEAD.
Homeless People and Drug Dealers have killed Ellen (Who happened to be the driver of the Bulldozer *Heh there's a scary thought*) because she was told that the house had to be bulldozed RIGHT NOW and was just doing her job.
You come back from the funeral where you had to BURRY your wife and daughter and find a bill in the mail box requiring you to PAY for the demolition of the house.
Would you really be that upset when the papers revealed the next day the house was still empty?
Would you blame the mayor who decided that the house had to go RIGHT NOW even through the objections of the Head of the FBI asking for some additional time to investigate the claims on the house??
Then what would your feelings have been about leaving the house alone??
If, in your words, “Your opinion of Bush is irrelevant. Your opinion of the war is irrelevant. Whether or not the administration exaggerated evidence or outright lied to get its way is irrelevant. I will repeat: NONE OF THESE THINGS MATTER ANYMORE. THEY. DO. NOT. MATTER! We won the war. We're there. Stop bleating and whining about "should haves" or "might have beens" because those things don't make a single goddamn bit of difference right now. Every time anyone mentions anything like this I just keep seeing empty horse barns with open doors and a kitchen with milk all over the floor.” Then we are well on our way to having three or four or five more countries “relying on us to help them back from the abyss
What happened to the person who wrote “Not with My Daughter”?? At what point did this stop applying to you??
“So to me, the questions are not "does Saddam need to go" or "will it be safer when he's gone" or "should we do something about it?" Those are the all-too-easy questions of these so-called warbloggers. My questions are would I be willing to subject my own child to the infliction of violent death on the deductions of a group of politicians? Would I be willing to subject my own child to witnessing violent death on the assumptions of a group of rear-echelon intelligence officers? Would I be willing to offer my own child up to a violent death when there are no plans for an aftermath that would make that death meaningful?”
If these things that you say are irrelevant actually turn out to be irrelevant, if we do just sit down and “Stop bleating and whining about "should haves" or "might have beens" because “those things don't make a single goddamn bit of difference right now.” Then it’s quite possible that Your Daughter and My Son will be in Iraq/Syria/Iran/North Korea/Egypt when you and I are both old and grey.
Posted by: jeff on July 23, 2003 03:50 PMHey I don't like it when my sons disagree! Atleast you are both very articulate
Posted by: Pat on July 23, 2003 04:02 PMAgain, it's all irrelivant. We are there. Stop griping about how we got there,or why we got there, because it doesn't matter right now. Where does it lead? Where do you want it to go? What, in your opinion, is the right course FROM HERE?
The barn is empty. While the rest of you are howling about how dumb the farmer was I want to help the people trying to catch the damned horse.
Posted by: Scott on July 23, 2003 05:56 PMAgain you miss at least part of the point. The problem is that, in all likelyhood, if we quit howling like you suggest the farmer will only go and let another horse out do you really feel like catching it??
Posted by: Jeff on July 23, 2003 06:37 PMThe war is not won and we are still there to the tune of 3.9 BILLION dollars a month and a dead soldier a day (on average). As a tax payer and citizen it is very relevant and it's my duty to do a little bitching. Otherwise, how's he gonna learn? Hey, he screwed up! Take responsibility for cripes sake. Kiss some butt and get some of our old buddies to help out. Let the UN take over like they should have in the first place. Obviously this way isn't working out so good. Unless you see your mistakes you'll continue to make them.
Posted by: jaycee on July 24, 2003 01:35 PM