Great examples. Yes, the United States has had its share of problems. Our bloody Civil War, as you have pointed out. But as they say, 20/20 is hindsight. Obviously our nation recovered from civil war and is a stable democracy. Iraq is in the thick of it, and sober thinking is required to improve the situation and more importantly, WIN. We will not win by reassuring ourselves that things are "GOING WELL" when they are clearly not. Optimism is a wonderful thing, but being optimistic 100% of the time is just plain moronic.
Ben, do you think Abraham Lincoln's reaction to the draft riots was to say to the world, "Things are going well"? When he had to declare martial law in Maryland, do you think he thought things were "Going well"? When Robert E. Lee destroyed John Pope's Army at Bull Run, do you think the Union Army strategiests said things were "Going well"? No, they didn't. They recognized their failures and learned from them and built upon them. That's what we need to do in Iraq.
Ben's response:Fair enough. No dis-agreement here.
Allow me to diverge: (You have no choice.)
A.Lincoln asked all Americans to bond through a "mystic chord of memory."
He had come to believe that notwithstanding the growing carnage and the evil of slavery there was this above all:
T0 keep the Union free and united
He suceeded. To his own self he was true.
What
chutzpah !
(A word mis-pronounced by
35.88% of Jews.)
How could such a man, reading by candlelight, who faced great personal tragedy, compose some of the greatest and majestic prose poetry in the American/English language?
And become a wealthy corporate railroad attorney, and live through being reviled as a squeaky "ape."
A.Lincoln was willing to shoot crap with the lives of millions.
Why?Because he knew His cause was just.
It was.
How did he kn0w?
Dunno.But
His truth, and
his truth, goes marching on.
I do not put GWB in ALincs's class (yet).
But I think the idea is the same.
Question: If your light colonel (with bugles a-blowing, drummer boys-a-drumming, fifist's a-fifing" said this:
CHARGE !!! WE SHALL OVERCOME !!!
"THE CHANCE OF SUCCESS IS 65.7% --- 39.8% OF THE TIME, ACCORDING TO A RECENT REGRESSION ANALYSIS --- CHARGE, DAMMIT, CHARGE !!!
Would you have charged?I served in the USAF.
I would not not have charged.
Or even hurled my sports-writer's typewriter at the boorish bearish Soviets if they chose to surge across the
Rio Grande to the heavily-fortified hardship post known as SanAntonio TX.
In fact, someone on the light colonel's own side might have fragged the light colonel, melting his silver and singeing his epaulet.
GWill (with whom I agee sometimes, and sometime not) wrote once "America is the
story in history."
I guess the
Big Bang comes first, but after that, George has a point.
So do you.
So does, your sometimes obedient servant,
BWattenbergPS. A kiss is just a kiss, as time goes by, but this remains as time goes by:
History is a tale told by winners.
