Ghost of a flea

Well said, especially the opening essay before the links. You know I usually get a crank in on these. None today. Either you or I are learning from the other.

Excellent. Thanks for linkage.

Whoa, I made the Winston Review. Cool.

Was going to try to write something worthy of inclusion one of these days, and I guess I did it by accident. :-)

One other aspect of the beheadings, and the videos of IEDs being set off, and laughing men gunning down children - a warning for 'mainstream' Islam... I cannot hear the words "Alla-hu akbar" without the beginnings of a twitch in my mental trigger finger. In this alone, the militants do every bit as much damage - more so, given the media environment - to their religion than Torquemada did his.

You know, it's a little surreal to see values one holds high to be invoked in all sincerity to the complete and opposite end.

As it seems that we are engaged in what amounts to a virtual civil war domestically, and have somehow managed to get ourselves on the wrong side (that would be the large, red-coated involuntary target side) of a shooting war in Iraq, it seems that sincerity is no substitute for common sense.

I have blogged extensively on "the war of terror," which frankly seems more aimed at creating domestic fear than any end to the problem of global terrorism.

I feel that the obvious has been missed:

If you would end the reign of evil - don't use evil means to achieve good ends. Want to see the ten commandments in the Courthouse? Fine by me - but then I expect to see them in use.

Our administation has broken several of those commandments, and has reaped the promised whirlwind.

They bear false witness hourly. They have stolen. They have coveted and they have murdered. Abu Ghrab and Guantanimo Bay violate both Commandments and Constitution.

If we are fighting for principles - what principles to we have remaining?

Meanwhile, the blood of patriots is being spilled as John Ashcroft busily chopps down the tree of liberty. Karl Rove and the Christian Dominists seek to create "one nation, under OUR God," a mandate indistinguisable from that of the Taliban.

There is no principle separating the two groups; indeed the theology is almost identical. The only difference is what they can each get away with doing in order to gain power.

Scare us enough, and they might. Create enough chaos, and they might.

That's how the Taliban grabbed Afganastan.

That would not be a mistake I'd like US to repeat, no matter how noble seeming the goal, nor how high-minded the rhetoric.

"To who's benifit is it that I believe this" is a question I always ask.

...no, not lately. Because one other question arises. "How can I believe you now, after so MANY outright, easily proven lies?"

I need to be able to trust that my leaders will not lie to me in order to engender my support. I trust that they will give me as many facts as they can and when they cannot - that I can trust them to draw sane and sensible conclusions from them.

Terror is bad. This is not an issue. Terrorists are Bad. They shoud die. Suddenly. Individually. Most especially, they should die futilly.

But both Charity and National Security begin at home. Then, PERHAPS, when we have a moral high ground, we can start picking motes from the eyes of others.

Thanks, Bob. I agree it is possible to subscribe to the same values and reach opposite conclusions about right action in general (and on policy in specific). But I do not follow the rest of your argument. You believe the "war on terror" - a phrase I find misleading and totally insufficient to the gravity of our situation - to be a diversion toward... what exactly? Those Ten Commandments were removed from the court house, an amendment to the Constitution to oppose gay marriage was struck down in the House and the much feared PATRIOT act needed to be renewed for its less than draconian infringements on civil liberties to remain in effect. If you believe the fervent evangelicals in the current administration are somehow the beginning of an American Taliban I would say they are making a half-hearted job of it.

Well, it's about as well-planned and well excecuted, as the war on terror, I'll agree.

But what I see from my own faux-ivory tower is a war not beween Us Good Guys and Them Evil Terrorists, but a war between cultures. And my gumment is on the other side of it!

The judge was wrong on the law (because of his intents) but right on the facts: the Ten Commandments are indeed the foundation of the whole western concept of Law and Justice. Lots of other contributions too, but it is the single most succinct statement of fundimental ethical principles ever.

So when the Swifty ads go by - ad Nausium, I'm in Nevada, or I see Dick Cheney once again blandly assert that there was a definite connection between Al-Queda and Saddam Hussain - those are bearing false witness. Aside from being one of The Ten Bad Things that No Christian Should Ever Do - it should also be observed that they are the Top Ten Things Sitcoms are Made of.

Why? Because if you DO those things, and you get caught (which you will, sooner or later), situations happen that other people WILL find fuels their shaudenfreud.

Apt to use a german word, condsidering that they are quite possiblty the second best counterterrorism power and their government is not terribly inclined to help us, given the sorts of things our government has said and done in the past.

It's simple. No good intent may be gained by evil means. You don't defend yourselves by killing the children and relatives of people that MIGHT be a theat someday.

That makes them a certain threat TODAY, if any of them are left alive.

You do not "liberate" people in ways (as John Kerry so wickedly put it) that tend to convince them that your primary interest is the oil.

Guarding only the oil ministry was not just dumb, it was criminnally dumb.

And let's not even get INTO Abu Ghrab and such... that one thing alone is enough to enrage a whole generation. If you were setting off to piss off a whole nation to charge blindly with bombs, guns, pitchforks, fingernails and teeth, this would be the way to getter done.

The psycological rape of an entire nation. Way to go. Hearts and minds, folks, hearts and minds.

Saddam was a creep. But as creeps go, no pressing danger to us. Korea and Pakistan, on the other hand...

I want two, simple things from my gumment.

1. Not obviously evil.
2. Not freaking incompetant.

doesn't seem like a lot to ask.

Thanks for the clarification, Bob. Two thoughts. It strikes me we do not disagree in points of principle but in points of fact. You are convinced the Swifties are lying. I am not. You are convinced the war in Iraq was based on lies and was subsequently mishandled. I am not. You are convinced there was no relationship between Al Qaeda and Ba'athist Iraq and that Saddam was no danger to the United States. I am not. People are not lying - and breaking a commandment - when they disagree with your opinions.

Second thought, your initial comment was off topic. That and foul language and SCARECAPS usually prompt me to hit the delete key.

Bob redeemed himself. And, as you might guess, I am largely but not completely in agreement with his argument but also DJ Master Flea's assertion on the need to study the facts upon which argument is based.

Here is my take now. I do not care a tinker's damn what happened with either Bush or Kerry in Vietnam. There was no link of present or impending danger between Iraq and Al Qaeda - even Rummy says that now - and the war has been mishandled. Bush admitted in the debate that the dash to Bagdhad was an error - that rush was the key element that was new in the Rumsfeld plan, the Chicago school of economical and efficient war. Bremner said this week what I thought in May 2003. Powell was right and, like me...in so many ways, will be vindicated by history. I do not think there were lies at the heart of going to war but there was very bad intellegence and a very skewed interpretation of those facts based on realistic fear.

Note: these facts are largely belief. My take is intuative as I know so little as I must rely on big and little media. I am not there as I cannot be where all the "theres" are.

Cultivate yourself, Bob, to the courtesies of the Flea and we may find you have much to add.

Um, Bob, if you're going to go using a big German word like schadenfreude in print, you should learn to spell it first. Petty, but true.