Looking for a loser
Forget about who’s winning — how long will it take for al-Qaida to lose this war? Two more years? Four? Fifteen?
Why didn’t George Bush listen to his father? This is nothing like owning a baseball club, where you can walk away from the mess.
After bearing witness to the disastrous results of pushing democracy into this alien culture of death, reasonable people might agree with John McCain: Vietnam was nothing like this.
I don’t recall the Viet Cong ever cutting off the heads of innocent non-combatants, like reporters. Since the end of that war, the Vietnamese have prospered and become our friends.
On the other hand, these religious fanatics swear blood oaths, blame rape victims and stone young women who fall in love outside the tribe. They would rather die than become our friends.
Some of the most vicious atrocities have been used against their own. Every day, brother Muslims and their families are hunted down or blown up on the streets and busses of Iraq. The victims on all sides number in the thousands and counting.
Many American Muslims are no longer willing to claim kinship with these murderers of innocents or lay blame for the carnage at the feet of Israel.
That can no longer fly. The madness has spread to the Palestinians, who have gleefully taken the route to political fratricide.
For many people, the idea of leaving the scene and letting nature take its course has a certain appeal. Others think to themselves that maybe some adage of brother turning against brother is playing itself out in a biblical context.
Who would have thought that being a true believer could offer less of a chance at survival than being an infidel?
Fools rush in, but wise men know when it’s time to leave. If the enemy turns against himself, why should we keep him company?
Those of us who wanted to take vengeance on the perpetrators of 9/11 have watched our expectations of an easy victory evolve into a feeling of dissatisfaction with the finished product of our bloodletting. Too many people are dying. Too few of us can justify the carnage.
Only Halliburton and a few other parasitic American companies have managed to make a profit in this climate of horror. By encouraging the false belief that their rebuilding efforts will make the cost in blood worthwhile, they still have hopes of building a massive military base under the radar.
The question: How can an enemy who doesn’t value life be defeated, when he has subtly seduced you into devaluing the lives of your own brave young people?
Marvin Clark
Via e-mail
