It’s that day again

[aadler]

 
Eleven years on, I have to say that I wish we had accomplished more.

Iraq and Afghanistan are sliding back into Islamic anarchy, as American will dwindles. (Not that of the soldiers, no, not the people doing the fighting; the loss of determination is almost completely limited to politicians and others who stay safely home.) Egypt and Libya are lost to the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria is sure to be the next on the block, and Iran is right around the corner from nuclear weaponry. Weakness, apathy, and arrogant disregard — all from the White House — have set the stage for another round of terrible wars. And, when they begin, we won’t be ready, because we never are. America always yearns for peace, carries it to an unrealistic extreme, and as a result we always have to catch up to events we might have headed off.

In the time since I joined the Army, I’ve done three theater deployments and a support tour at Guantanamo, along with volunteering for every school and training and extra duty for which I could qualify. It wasn’t enough. I wanted to do more, and I tried to do more, because I knew I hadn’t done enough. And now, just as the need is about to increase, I’m approaching the point of involuntary retirement, and will no longer be allowed to contribute.

Things are about to get bad, and I’m convinced it didn’t have to happen. And, though there are many things that could have been done better, I pretty much blame Obama for the state of things now.

Maybe next time we can elect someone who, instead of focusing on the rise of the oceans, will just do his damn JOB.

Comments

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but here's my question: at what point does "mind-warped" become "the status quo"? I think the trend started in the 80's (when left-wing radicals from the 70's became tenured professors), and cranked into full gear in the 90's. By the time generation-X (my generation) was coming into full flower, the radicalism of the 70's had reached an "Aesop's Fables" level of authority in pop culture. For instance, by 1992 the gun-toting, misogynistic, separatist-for-rent who called himself Malcolm X had been transformed into a fair and high-minded civil rights leader, on equal footing with MLK.

That's why I have trouble calling President Obama a "radical." As far as I'm concerned, he's not a radical. His worst ideas represent what approx 25% of the national population considers to be reality -- not a majority, but still a big enough chunk to make you wonder what kind of room you're standing in.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Maybe, then, conservatives will be the "radicals" of the future? Or maybe not, since it seems likely moderates will increasingly become the nation's minority group, politically speaking.

Left wingers becoming tenured professors; that's without a doubt a major event in what's happened to the country. But at this point I'm not so much concerned with how it happened, or what the terms should be, so much as: How do we turn it around? It seems liberals having been doing a pretty good job of institutionalizing their beliefs to the extent that many people think there's no other way to do things. Just think of how all we have to do to be decried as hating racists is to voice an opposing view to any Obama policy, and you can see how far we have to go.

[lostboy-lj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, moderates are being squeezed out by the wingers on both sides right now, which happened the last few times the world economy tanked, too. When the chips are down, history says that people tend to flock to personality cults (like the '08 Obama campaign) and to authoritarians who make sunny promises about the future, and then issue rants against everyone's favorite scapegoats when the world continues to rocket straight to Hell. For instance, in the bottomless debt-pit of Greece, the fastest growing parties are the Nazis and the Communists. Just like the consulate being attacked on 9/11 in Libya, it's sad but entirely predictable.

I guess that's why I think the "why" is important, especially to people who don't seem to have a clue as to how we got here. Is it going to stop the same bad ideas from taking root again somewhere down the line? Well, no, probably not in a free society (the only kind I want to live in). But if enough people know the cause of a problem, I think we'll be able to defend against it better the next time it comes around.