I believed, you know? I was sincere. I was sincere and I was shell-shocked. September 11 changed everything for me. I’d seen war up close — or rather I thought I had — and it changed everything.
But here we are, four years later plus a few months. Not one but two enemy nations invaded and defeated, and terrorism is still with us. Four and a half years of unprecedented diplomatic rhetoric, and terrorism is still with us. An overseas prison camp full of captured enemies — or suspected enemies — and terrorism is still with us. The most concerted, comprehensive signals intelligence campaign in human history, and terrorism is still with us. Still with us, and growing stronger, emboldened by anger at our excesses.
Jeff Harrell from The Shape of days wrote that today as part of a long post where he questions the path the president has taken and where we go from here. He seems to think that he will lose Blog friends because of it, His blog is one of my favorites and I think that rather than lose readers he will gain them. Debate is the nature of the blogosphere and while I don't agree with him on most of the points he brings up he does have other that to me at least seem valuable and timely.
In a war, you do whatever you have to do to win and to win quickly, because once the battle has been joined, that’s the only way to save lives. But here’s the thing: We're not at war. War is more than a legal condition. It’s a state of political will. We as a nation never had the political will to wage the kind of generations-long campaign against the ideology of radicalism and terrorism onto which we reflexively embarked after 9/11. And the sitting President — whom I sincerely believe to be a man of faith and conscience — did nothing to engender that kind of political will. We're not at war. But we're doing the kinds of things, both at home and abroad, that would only be justified — could only be excused — in a war. And not a war of convenience, either, or a war to enforce the edict of some pseudo-legal body. The tactics we've employed in the past four years could only be tolerated in a desperate and frantic war for our very survival. And that’s just not where we are. It’s not where we are, and it’s not where we're willing to put ourselves. And most important of all, it’s not where we have to be. We don't have to do this. We don't have to do these things. We can choose. We can choose to drift further and further from the ideal to which we once strove, or we can choose to abandon this agenda of foolishness that divides and isolates us. We can choose. For the love of God and all the saints: We can choose.
We are at war, and make no mistake about it that it is a war for our way of life and for the survival of this nation. The Fanatics the we fight want to destroy us all and will not stop until they do. It is my belief that we have chosen the only option that was available to us. He goes on to say.
That’s why. That’s why I’ve decided that I can no longer support the Republican leadership in Congress. And I certainly can’t support their opponents, political opportunists who wouldn't know a principle if one fell out of the sky and landed with a deafening crash in their districts. That’s why I’ve decided to seek a third way. Now, don't misunderstand me. I don't have any answers here, none at all. I don't know what that third way is. All I know is that we're on the wrong path — as a nation, as a people, as a world — and that trying to return things to status quo ante bellum is a fantasy. There has to be another way. There has to be. I just don't know what it is. Or where to find it.
On this I agree, most, I didn't say all, but most politicians do indeed have their heads up the backsides. Some try to do what they feel is in the best interest of the country but far too many are doing what is in the best interest of themselves. In a perfect world there would be no war, Muslims wouldn't be blowing themselves up just because people believe differently than they do And like him I think the next Presidential election will be between three people which is a very bad thing for conservatives.
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