Letters from the Center
Sunday, March 12, 2006
  The Guardian -- When the cheerleaders admit they were wrong, we'll move on

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1729399,00.html

Madeleine,

Thanks for your great article in the Guardian. I entirely agree that our leaders are at fault for manipulating intelligence to justify these wars, and then failing spectacularly in their execution.

However, that story is well understood. What investigations into the matter have mostly concluded, and there seems little interest in taking them back up. The “truth” might never be known, like in countless other episodes throughout history.

I can understand (and share) your frustration in this. But I don’t share your apparent willingness to rehash and re-vent this frustration endlessly.

I could understand (and would support) you calling for more investigation into these topics. I’d enthusiastically endorse holding the Blair and Bush administration responsible for their many abject failures. I’d eagerly welcome a plan to bring heretofore information to light and to gain insight into the murky debate that is fading ino obscurity.

But you’re calling for none of this. You’re not calling for *anything* (except maybe an apology from Bush and Blair, for whatever that’s worth). Rather, you’re just complaining.

Furthermore, you seem eager to draw energy *away* from the practical debate of what to do today (a debate in which you seem entirely disinterested) and focus it on... nothing that I can discern.

It’s great that you’re smart enough to see the big problem. But it’s sad that you’re not smart enough to do anything about it. There were thousands of people just like you who complained in the lead up to the war, who complained during the height of the war, and who now complain throughout the ongoing occupation. When will you learn that your complaints are meaningless without a call to act on some concrete alternative proposals?

In the meantime, you (and the countless others just like you) are a minor nuisance to Bush, but nothing more. If you ever got around to actually *doing* something, then maybe you’d matter. Because today you, and the myriad whiners like you, simply don’t.

-david

 
I'm what you might call a "radical centrist" and these are my letters to bloggers, journalists, and politicians -- left, right, and center -- where I implore them to pull away from the edges and back to the mainstream. Come read if you like, but I'll keep writing either way.

My Photo
Name:
Location: United States
David Barrett
ARCHIVES
May 2005 / June 2005 / July 2005 / August 2005 / March 2006 / April 2006 / August 2006 / May 2007 /


Atom Feed