August, 2021 archive
Gutting Out the Vote 0
And the moral of the story is, “Show a Republican a new depth and he’ll stoop to it.”
Maskless Marauders, Suffer the Children Dept. 0
Julie Heller spent some time with school children to determine their feelings about wearing masks in school. She found that they did not consider themselves to be abused, despite what some parents might be thinking–and saying. She quotes one little girl as replying, when asked how she feels about wearing a mask, “Doesn’t matter,” she said, “as long as we get to go to school.”
So she wonders about the source of parents’ anxiety. Here a little bit (emphasis added):
So where’s all this added anxiety and stress parents claim kids are feeling from wearing masks?
Maybe, just maybe it’s the parents who are feeling this. Maybe they’re watching their kids get on the school bus with covered faces and it reminds them their kids aren’t having the “normal” childhood they had mask-free. . . .
But, logically, it makes no sense to care about your kids more than anything in the world while also pushing to send them into a microscopic war zone without protective gear.
Pressing for War, Reprise 0
While on the topic, Gwynne Dyer offers an historical perspective on the roots of Islamic radicalism. Her article provides a context sadly lacking from dis coarse discourse.
Those Who Ignore History . . . . 0
A Random Memory:
I remember standing outside my workplace in the smoking area (it was right outside the back door and, yes, I freed myself from that addiction over a decade ago, thank heavens) with my boss at the time (he was, by the way, a really good boss and a pleasure to work for), a veteran army NCO who, among other things, had participated in “drug interdiction” efforts in Central America.
He was enthusing over President George the Worst’s proposed war in Irag, saying that he was glad “there is a Texan in the White House.”
All I could say in reply was, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
The Fragmentation Bomb in the Public Square 0
Michael in Norfolk explains something I’ve been saying for quite a while.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
And the Moral of the Story Is . . . . 0
Writing at the Des Moines Register, Afgan war veteran Sophia-Helene Mees de Tricht says that there’s a lesson to be learned, if only we would learn it.
But more to the point, this was never a war that could be won. Even as we fought it, we weren’t sure what the goal was. I grew up a lot the day I realized that we were there because we as a nation lashed out in anger and pain, and we’ve been stuck ever since. Ending this cycle of violence, a direct result of our tenuous occupation of that country, is the right thing to do.
QOTD 0
Rex Stout, in the voice of Nero Wolfe:
The avoidance of idiocy should be a primary and constant concern of every intelligent person.
Stout, Rex, The Rubber Band (New York: Bantam, 2009), p. 44
And Now for a Musical Interlude 0
(Colorized very skillfully.)
War and Mongers of War 0
In the great majority of the bloviating about the chaos accompanying the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, I see a failure to acknowledge that this occupation was doomed from the git-go. Delaying the withdrawal would have served only to delay the chaos, not to prevent it.
Nor do I see much acknowledgement from those well-paid talking heads that President George W. Bush created this mess by choosing to stage a long term occupation, as opposed to simply rooting out Osama bin Laden (who was a Saudi hiding in Afghanistan, not an Afghani) and then going home. Nor do I see sufficient acknowledgement of the previous Federal Executive’s role in setting the stage for what’s happening now.
I fear that too much of our punditry views war in much they same way as they view politics: as a game for their amusement and their ratings, as grist for their talking points.
War is not a game. War is unpredictability and death and suffering and capriciousness and chaos.
I find it galling when well-paid stuffed suits sit safely in their luxurious abodes thousands of miles away from danger and say to others, “Suffer more so that we are not embarrassed.”
This does not mean that I have any sympathy for the Taliban, nor does it mean that I have no concern for the threat they pose to their own people. They are Afghanistan’s religious right (perhaps more inimical than our own religious right, but not by much), but we have seen that we cannot magically make them go away through force of arms. Twenty years of futile death have proved that.
President Biden is not responsible for our failure in Afghanistan. Rather, he is to be commended for having the courage to bring it to an end.
