Fit To Print

That’s the Way

January 11th, 2007

Tonight, in a remarkably stammer-free performance, our beloved President stood in the White House Library and gave a 20-minute explanation for why a troop increase of 20,000 was necessary in Iraq. It is the closest Bush has gotten to a book since reading My Pet Goat on 9/11.

I remember growing up when I started realizing that adults weren’t perfect. Some of them are poor party planners, or mean to their kids, or alcoholics. These epiphanies are when “the way things are” becomes “why is that?” Supposedly, this is what gives us a leg up on the animals. Dogs don’t question their desire to eat strange poop or chase cats, ants don’t marvel at their own Herculean strength. By evolving out of the stage where we accept everything completely, we leave the door open for finding a better way.

Many things, of course, are concrete and difficult to change. Gravity, for instance, seems like a keeper. But one of the real perils of human existence is the favoritism we show “the way things are” over “why is that?”

Iraq is not a mess because it was born like that. Iraq is a mess because we made it a mess. And all solutions to a bad problem are not created equal. All solutions are not even solutions. Some solutions are constipated craps passed off as solutions by old men who dodged the draft and don’t know what they are sending young men into. Granted, of all the solutions I’ve ever heard proposed, I can really only think of a couple that fall into that category.

So let’s just remember that the guy saying “20k more should do it” is not God. He’s the same guy who was told his country was under attack and decided it would still be a good idea to finish reading the children’s story. He’s the same guy whose Secretary of Defense said Iraq was a success if you viewed it from far enough away in the sky. The same guy we elected. And we can un-elect him whenever we want.

Entry Filed under: Politics