Strong Rhetoric

[unexpurgated material below, for the sensitive]

I've ripped a few Oliphant cartoons and put them into images here, and I'm starting to feel badly about it, but he keeps on hitting his mark after all these years. So, two things: here's the link to see Oliphant the way I do, from Yahoo; and then to comment. Wow. I know the fashionably liberal blog response seems to be outrage at Bush's conflation of 9/11 and Iraq. But that is such old news, and I actually think it's turning into a negative for him, or at least subject to rapidly diminishing returns. No, what really caught my attention from the speech was "It's worth it."

I'm racing my way through Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz today, so I'm keenly observant that the problem I'm having here is probably one about me--but my first thought on those words from the President was literally "you miserable fucker--what would you know about it?" What galls me is the presumption about something that is ultimately individual and personal. All of the sunny crap that we're turning the corner and things are moving well ahead--that's his call to make those statements, and if I don't believe them then I don't, but he's certainly got a big right to his opinion on the matter. But it truly shows supreme disregard to to declare for those who have really made a concrete and brutal sacrifice, that it was worth it. And to say so, knowing how tenuous even this level of instability might be? I couldn't believe the nerve.

I confess I was not mentally eloquent enough to close my bout of angry, silent self-righteousness with the image Oliphant paints, but when I saw it the fire returned. It is strong rhetoric, and it is not a petty or unserious allegation to essentially accuse the Commander in Chief of reckless disregard for his troops. But it does the office no service, to fear of the corruptive truth and leave it unsaid. There are lives and uncontrollable events of history at stake--uncontrollable because we have failed to control them--and the justification of further aimless strategic drift by saying "it's worth it," should be an affront to those who deserve the right to decide that for themselves. They may in fact disagree.

--TJ

Comments

[Zap]

I wrote a review of Blue Like Jazz, but it wasn't something to post here.

As for president's comments, I'm trying to find the time and build up the steam to start writing about Iraq regularly again. You may recall during the conception of this blog, I feared the only thing I would write about was Iraq. That never happened. I've read three great speeches this week on Iraq. The president's is not one of them. It's still hard to tell if he's stupid, if he thinks we're stupid, or if his stupidity really is a Straussian noble lie to lead us where we must go whether we know the truth or not. Maybe it's just Rovian politicking/campaigning.