stark ranting

Dubya made an off message comment yesterday that we cannot win the war on terror. Democrats immediately seized on the comment as evidence of flip-flopping; throwing it back in the face of the Republicans as they continue to fault Kerry for not being resolute. First of all, I absolutely despise the way these two campaigns use these little sound bites as ammunition against their opponent. Most of the time they're used out of context or taken to an extreme that has little parallel with the intended meaning. (Kerry's remark about fighting a more sensitve war on terror comes to mind. Thank you vice president Dick for blowing that out of context.) That being said, yesterday's off-the-cuff comment by Dubya may be the first time ever that he and I have been in agreement. From the very start of the war on terror, I've struggled with two questions: 1) How do you fight a war against a battle tactic and 2) How do you win such a war? Dubya and his administration have made it painfully clear just how they expect to accomplish these things. Kill the people employing that tactic, and inject Democracy (aka freedom aka liberty) into the regions that host those people. I see two very serious consequences of these actions. The first is that forcing a form of government on a people without bringing them to the table will absolutely disenfranchise those people. Even though we have strong historical evidence that the advantages of democracy far outweigh dictatorship, the Iraqi people will for a long time see us as invaders, not liberators. This fact will be a major stumbling block for the renovation of Iraq, no matter how good our intentions. The second consequence of the war on terror is far more unsettling. Every terrorist we kill leaves behind countless friends and family. The survivors of those losses are imprinted with an impression of the United States that will never fade away. And you have to ask yourself - can we win a war on terror that plants the seeds of terrorism anew?

Today Dubya went back to the party line that we can and will win the war on terror. He is nothing if not resolute.

Posted by stark at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a freak-out moment today. I was carrying my groceries inside and walked into a spiderweb without realizing it. It brushed against my arm and my initial response (which was pure instinct) was to flail my arm like a crazy person. After a second or two of that I snapped out of it and realized it was just a spiderweb. After that incident I started thinking about how my response to that situation was completely primal. I must have ancient genetic coding that keeps me from walking into giant, man-eating spider webs. A lot of good it does me now.

Posted by stark at 01:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If there's one thing this election year has taught me (and that's being generous) it is that the majority of the American public (including myself) have little to no understanding of how government really works. What's worse, the so-called political pundits on television woefully reinforce misperception instead of shedding light on the subject. Thank god we have Jon Stewart keeping an incredulous eye on the political system.

Posted by stark at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I ran across this strikingly lucid passage in an article on Salon. Read the whole article here.

Excavated from the rubble of Sept. 11 could have been, and should have been, a crucial and instructive lesson beyond the expected hand-wringing over security and preparedness. Specifically, a call for American citizens to broaden their horizons and develop a smarter sense of the world's mechanisms and conflicts. Instead, we appear to be growing even more insular, myopic, and unimpressed with the fact that large numbers of people despise us for reasons a tad more complex than "they hate freedom." It's a path we follow at our own peril, and it is exactly opposite to what global tensions mandate. We can't tell the difference between an Indian, a Tibetan, and an Islamic radical. More to the point, we don't seem interested in learning what those differences are.

Posted by stark at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)