Fantasy and Reality
Fantasy is the President saying that the Sunni "vice-president" of Iraq is a real political leader who believes in the nation-state of Iraq and the Sunni, Shi'ites and Kurds united therein.
Reality is a sectarian killing by a bomb set to explode among job-seekers shattering over 60 human bodies.
Fantasy is our leading generals lining up on television to explain that there is no military victory, only a political one which will be achieved if only we have a few more years on the ground.
Reality is that we've been in Iraq longer than it took to defeat the Axis.
Fantasy is asking Americans to sacrifice their lives for the belief that the Arab and Muslim people desire liberty.
Reality is that Americans are mere targets who can be killed at will by an enemy ruthless enough to know our beliefs are nothing more than tarted-up weakness.
Fantasy is that Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and the European Union will all act in the better interests of the Iraqi and the American people.
Reality is that they will look after their own while we do not.
Fantasy is that the Saudis have another peace plan.
Reality is that Saudi clerics continue to raise money and lavish praise on the Sunni killers of Baghdad.
Fantasy is the Secretary General of the United Nations saying this:
Reality is the United Nations, in the face of jihadi genocide, doing this:
The reality is that the killing in Iraq, the continuing deterioration of American standing and power in the world, the continuing strength of the jihadist movement and the continuing jihadist genocide in Sudan will get worse.
Until we make the collective decision to stop living in a fantasy world.
UPDATE: I love Gen. McCaffrey and would follow him into battle without question. But, goddamn it, this essay of his today in the Washington Post is a prime example of the level of fantasy that has taken hold of our debate.
First, the general advances this:
Then, without so much as realizing the implications of what he is saying and how it affects his first point, he advances this:
C'mon people! Focus!
Reality is a sectarian killing by a bomb set to explode among job-seekers shattering over 60 human bodies.
Fantasy is our leading generals lining up on television to explain that there is no military victory, only a political one which will be achieved if only we have a few more years on the ground.
Reality is that we've been in Iraq longer than it took to defeat the Axis.
Fantasy is asking Americans to sacrifice their lives for the belief that the Arab and Muslim people desire liberty.
Reality is that Americans are mere targets who can be killed at will by an enemy ruthless enough to know our beliefs are nothing more than tarted-up weakness.
Fantasy is that Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and the European Union will all act in the better interests of the Iraqi and the American people.
Reality is that they will look after their own while we do not.
Fantasy is that the Saudis have another peace plan.
Reality is that Saudi clerics continue to raise money and lavish praise on the Sunni killers of Baghdad.
Fantasy is the Secretary General of the United Nations saying this:
Fourth, states must be accountable to each other, and to a broad range of non-state actors, in their international conduct.
My fifth and final lesson derives inescapably from those other four. We can only do all these things by working together through a multilateral system, and by making the best possible use of the unique instrument bequeathed to us by Harry Truman and his contemporaries, namely the United Nations.
Reality is the United Nations, in the face of jihadi genocide, doing this:
The United Nations Human Rights Council agreed on Wednesday to send a mission to assess the human rights situation in the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, council president Luis Alfonso de Alba said.
The resolution was adopted by consensus by the 47-member Council following a tense two-day special session. "It is so decided," de Alba said.
The mission will be headed by the UN Special Rapporteur on Sudan and "five highly qualified persons" to be appointed by the president of the council after consultation with other members, according to a draft text released by the United Nations.
The decision came after an often fractious debate which again saw a fault-line emerge between Western members of the council on one side, and African and Islamic states on the other.
Western countries, backed by Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour, insisted any mission should involve the UN's human rights expert on Sudan and composed of specialists.
African states had sought to have de Alba at the head of the mission alongside other diplomats.
The mission will "assess the human rights situation in Darfur and the needs of Sudan in this regard," the text of the draft decision said.
Human rights groups and mainly Western officials regarded the special session as a test of the council's credibility, after Annan warned that it had not paid sufficient attention to rights violations in Darfur.
"It is essential that this council send a clear and united message to warn all concerned, on behalf of the whole world, that the current situation is simply unacceptable and will not be allowed to continue," Annan said Tuesday.
The reality is that the killing in Iraq, the continuing deterioration of American standing and power in the world, the continuing strength of the jihadist movement and the continuing jihadist genocide in Sudan will get worse.
Until we make the collective decision to stop living in a fantasy world.
UPDATE: I love Gen. McCaffrey and would follow him into battle without question. But, goddamn it, this essay of his today in the Washington Post is a prime example of the level of fantasy that has taken hold of our debate.
First, the general advances this:
There is a better option. First, we must commit publicly to provide $10 billion a year in economic support to the Iraqis over the next five years. In the military arena, it would be feasible to equip and increase the Iraqi armed forces on a crash basis over the next 24 months (but not the police or the Facilities Protection Service). The goal would be 250,000 troops, provided with the material and training necessary to maintain internal order.
Then, without so much as realizing the implications of what he is saying and how it affects his first point, he advances this:
Lack of combat experience is not the central issue Iraqis face. Their problems are corrupt and incompetent ministries, poor equipment, an untrained and unreliable sectarian officer corps (a result of Rumsfeld's disbanding the Iraqi army), and a lack of political will caused by the failure of a legitimate Iraqi government to emerge.
C'mon people! Focus!
