This war has become a sick parody of itself. We can't avoid the near occasion of sin; we're mired in it.
Indeed there may be no other way to win the sort of war we're now fighting. It appears that the Bush Administration has managed to make a large proportion of the Sunni population of Iraq into our enemies. If you really want to occupy (sorry, Sen. Miller, "occupy" is the word) an area against the enmity of a large slice of the population, and you can't or won't do what's necessary to make them like you, then you have to make them fear you.
But this does bring up an interesting dilemma: to punish the Sunnis we have to provide a something that's negative relative to their current situation. And anything relatively negative to their current situation is, as you hint, going to have to be pretty awful. So, what can we do to the Sunnis that's worse than bringing them democracy, and yet not so bad as to become ourselves indifferential from the "bad guys"?
Does the fact that this is a hard question prove that this war is an objective failure?
I think expression of that sentiment should be followed by a mere half hour of actual, non-lethal, non-maiming torture for the expresser. I'll bet they see the issue differently after a few shocks to the genitals to extract information they do not possess.
This war has become a sick parody of itself. We can't avoid the near occasion of sin; we're mired in it.
I think this is what they call a lose/lose.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 12:07 AM
I hate feeling guilty for being an American.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 12:11 AM
But this does bring up an interesting dilemma: to punish the Sunnis we have to provide a something that's negative relative to their current situation. And anything relatively negative to their current situation is, as you hint, going to have to be pretty awful. So, what can we do to the Sunnis that's worse than bringing them democracy, and yet not so bad as to become ourselves indifferential from the "bad guys"?
Does the fact that this is a hard question prove that this war is an objective failure?
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 12:26 AM
As though there's not a cock joke to be found in a post about John Negroponte.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 8:20 AM
Trolls on other boards have basically said "torture will be our salvation."
Despicable.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 10:31 AM
I think expression of that sentiment should be followed by a mere half hour of actual, non-lethal, non-maiming torture for the expresser. I'll bet they see the issue differently after a few shocks to the genitals to extract information they do not possess.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 10:46 AM