I read a lot everyday and today was no exception. One of the stories I read today was a link on Huffington Post about Matthew Dowd, former campaign strategist for President George Bush. Dowd came “clean” in an interview that was published in today’s New York Times. It’s well worth reading as is the commentary at Daily Kos. I think Mr. Bush has or had lots of supporters all genuine who wanted to believe the best about this very complex and troubled man. Most Americans love to be patriotic and Mr. Bush seemed to be a clean cut guy who had most of those values in tow. It’s also easy to be down on Mr. Bush now that he is down. I think the President needs our prayers more now than at any time in his presidency. I’ve never been a fan of military force.
Let’s face it force doesn’t work in your neighborhood or mine. We don’t teach our kids in schools that force is first. We teach them exactly the opposite. It is only a last resort, never a first resort. In this war in and with Iraq there can be no doubt that the diplomatic option was never considered. However, most Americans were so intoxicated with the cakewalk in the first Gulf War that they were eager for more of the same. Like the first battle of Bull Run in our own civil war most of this war’s supporters were intoxicated with patriotism and the belief that we would somehow prevail just like our “turkey shoot” in Kuwait in 1991. It is clear now that we will not prevail and the end game will get a lot uglier than it is now.
Mr. Dowd’s interview in the New York Times is timely and it long overdue. It’s ironic that the New York Times, the same paper that published the talking points for the run up to the war would also publish this piece.
Right now, my neighborhood is experiencing the direct effects of violence. In the apartment complex next to mine, a man was on his way home last week, when he was shot and killed in a robbery. Now, I frequently see police cars slowly traversing the neighborhood and some are afraid to go where they need to go. One man in my building commented bitterly that we don’t need to send our soldiers abroad to experience warfare – they could come live in urban neighborhoods of moderate means like mine.
I am praying deeply for an end to this culture of violence, both at home and overseas. I have long prayed that Mr. Bush would find a place of peace within himself that he might begin to reach out from that place.
Well said. There is an alarming amount of violence and I think it systemic and caused by the eruption/outbreak of poverty in our country. The war is taking a toll to be sure but so is the plight of the less fortunate. More and more people are slipping into poverty through no fault of their own.
Yesterday in a conversation with my employer he mentioned the possibility of insuring employees so that upon their death the institution could collect a benefit. The institution could collect 10% of a term life policy worth let us say $50,000. Apparently such ideas are not uncommon as we devalue the person.