Thursday, November 16, 2006
The Ultimate Occupation Failure
After watching the Senate hearings on C-Span this evening, watching the General and the State Department expert on Iraq twisting and turning, getting redder and redder in the face, repeating the same mantras, utterances without any link to reality, watching both Democratic and Republican senators looking more and more at a loss as to what to say, it finally dawned on me that there is an historical parallel to the war in Iraq. Like, Iraq, the parallel I have in mind was also costly in life and treasure and ended in dismal failure: the occupation of the American South after our own Civil War. What will happen after we leave Iraq? What happened in the South after the federal troops left? A reign of terror ensued that lasted into the lifetime of living Americans—that’s what happened. The only way that the freed slaves could have held onto the gains of the Reconstruction period was to have federal troops stay indefinitely, perhaps for generations. When they left, the Klan took over, the Black Codes or Jim Crow laws were put in place and African Americans lived lives little removed from their former conditions as slaves. The “Union” was preserved in name only.
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Yes to shame in the American cultural democratic leaders mindset. Democrats or Republicans are not monolithic and in the nature of the politics. They - both voters and their elected members -say one thing and do another. You are right sooner or later all the voters will get it and if not we stay the course of mendacity. It also seems that we the voters enjoy duplicity as non-monolithic due to same culture that produces the leaders and in every sense avoid real decisions for the country and the Iraq expeditionary forces in the ancient city of the Middle East and Asian Afghanistan. Your obsession for a moral world with an “End of war” is quixotic - self afflicted yet I agree in this you stay the course. Yet it is said ‘don’t just curse the darkness but light a candle,’ as Maimomides would think and say. Further let us remember voters in our land are also tied to partnership internationally and their opinions - our investors also have a say in our culture.
Tanggalin ang mga Linta, Sagabal, Inutil, at Kurakot sa Gobyerno!!!
Linta: Government parasites who leech on public resources for their personal gain
Sagabal: Obstructionist leaders who like to oppose but have nothing to propose
Inutil: Officials whose ineptness and incompetence are exceeded only by their arrogance
Kurakot: Thieves who masquerade as public servants so they can raid the people’s treasury
Note (A) - as an example in one country
27 million Filipinos who live below the poverty line—wallows in underdevelopment
Crooks brazenly embezzle and squander a huge chunk of the country’s coffers, as Sarah (above) and thousands of her kind sift through mountains of trash to help her family buy food
Notes continued:
(B)
Du·plic·i·ty (doo-plis'i-te, dyoo-)Noun: du·plic·i·ties.
Deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech.
Etymology: Late Latin duplicitas.
/
(C)
quixotic
quix·ot·ic (kwik-sot'ik)
Adjective
Impractically romantic or idealistic.
Etymology: Don Quixote, hero of a romance by Miguel de Cervantes.
quix·ot'i·cal·ly
Adverb
(D)
Statue of Maimonides Córdoba Spain 1135 1204 philosopher jewihs rabbi medical orthodox guide preplexed
Commonly used image indicating one artist's conception of Maimonides's appearance
Maimonides (March 30, 1135 or 1138–December 13, 1204) was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Spain and Egypt during the Middle Ages. He was one of the various medieval Jewish philosophers who also influenced the non-Jewish world. Although his copious works on Jewish law and ethics were initially met with opposition during his lifetime, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history. Today, his works and his views are considered a cornerstone of Orthodox Jewish thought and study.
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