Or, Is Hypocrisy Fatal?
Being against "Death" is a silly abstract, when you're talking about a death that doesn't involve yourself or a loved one. So from this perspective, all the wailing about the deaths in Iraq is silly, if it's not you who died, or someone you loved.
What has brought me to this declaration is the remarkable turnaround of a local talk radio host who has in the past week turned rabidly anti-Bush and anti-war-in-Iraq. After 9/11 he was all for kicking the crap out of all the rag-heads. Now he's crying in his beer about how 'dumb' the war is, how dumb Bush is, etc., etc. All this is certainly possible, but I don't like the about-face.
I just don't think that 100 deaths a month in Iraq is a little deal, much less a big deal.
How many people died this past week in alcohol-related accidents? How many homicides occurred in American big cities? And did you ever stop to contemplate how many humans will expire in the next hundred years? Take the time to do some simple math. When you break this down to a daily figure for every single day for the next 100 years, you'll have an idea of what I'm driving at.
Humans die. It's one thing we have never had a problem doing. Compared to our past, we're frankly not doing near the job we used to do of it.
So sure, bewail that a Republican President is sending members of the armed service, often less then perfectly equipped, to their deaths. But be honest. it's not the deaths that are bugging you. If 'death' really bugged you, you couldn't function in life, what with the ability of modern communications to heap deaths on your doorstep. And how many make-believe deaths will you view this coming week?
I can't defend the current status of Bush's attempt to keep America safe. And I don't know enough to say it's a waste of time. But when it comes to wasting human life... Hey, if you were so against wasting human life, why are you wasting YOUR life reading blogs!
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2 comments:
Just as I was kicking the blog habit I came upon this post. Now what exactly is it you want me to do? Stop even reading blogs? Will that stop the war in Iraq?
I like it when people flip-flop. It shows they're using the old noggin. Minds are meant to be changed; that's what they're there for. I think it would do you and Bush good to realize that almost everybody in the country has changed their mindz about that slam-dunk he got us into. Time to let a little light on the subject. Time to rethink positions. Let's not make too much of this --the time to die is when the time comes.
While I agree that Iraq has become a no-win situation, I certainly don't mind that Islamo-Faxcists are dying there. As for the number of combat deaths among our armed forces, here's an interesting tidbit:
"If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 10,000 soldiers.
"The firearm death rate in ashington D.C. is 80.6 per 10,000 for the same period.
"That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in theU.S. Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.
"Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington immediately."
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