Saturday, August 05, 2006
Bargain basement neoconnery
Brad Warthen, editorial page editor of The (Columbia, SC) State newspaper, on "the coming war with Iran" (the idea of which he seems to relish):
Maybe he's angling for a job writing speeches for Condi Rice.
Discussing an incident described in Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down in which a Somali used civilians as human shields, Mr. W says:
Why's it difficult for Mr. Warthen, I wonder? He's not going to be doing any of the wet work.
But I sure hope killing ALL the bad guys is not the ONLY solution (solution to what, for that matter?). It seems kind of impractical to me. We can't even kill all the cockroaches. Or eradicate the clap. Or win "the war on drugs." So it seems to me that if you actually think terrorism, or any other -ism can be solved by killing each and every one of the -ists, you're delusional. Or you're just setting yourself up for failure. Failure which you can then blame on everyone but yourself.
|
Brad Warthen, editorial page editor of The (Columbia, SC) State newspaper, on "the coming war with Iran" (the idea of which he seems to relish):
We're going to be at war with Iran sooner or later -- sooner, if we act in the best interests of our own country and civilization as a whole. We can wait until the dark cloud out of Mordor assumes mushroom shape and consumes a few of our cities, courtesy of Hezbollah Delivery Service, or sooner.
Maybe he's angling for a job writing speeches for Condi Rice.
Discussing an incident described in Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down in which a Somali used civilians as human shields, Mr. W says:
What do you do about someone who is evil enough, craven enough, hateful enough to do something like that? I've come to the conclusion -- and it's a difficult one for me -- that the only solution is to kill him -- and every one of his fellows.
Why's it difficult for Mr. Warthen, I wonder? He's not going to be doing any of the wet work.
But I sure hope killing ALL the bad guys is not the ONLY solution (solution to what, for that matter?). It seems kind of impractical to me. We can't even kill all the cockroaches. Or eradicate the clap. Or win "the war on drugs." So it seems to me that if you actually think terrorism, or any other -ism can be solved by killing each and every one of the -ists, you're delusional. Or you're just setting yourself up for failure. Failure which you can then blame on everyone but yourself.
