Darin and I went out to dinner tonight at the Four Oaks over in Bel Air—too slow, too expensive, for food that wasn’t quite to the level it needed to be, but we got two hours to talk to one another, something we haven’t had enough of lately, so that was good. For the first half hour we were just about the only people in our room of the restaurant. Then two other parties were seated. Then 20, 30 minutes before we left a party sat at the table behind us.
And the meal was almost completely ruined for me, because I couldn’t help overhearing what these people were talking about.
…About how wonderful the President’s budget proposal is.
…About how convincing Powell’s speech at the UN was.
…About how wonderful this war in Iraq is going to be. (Let me help you out on this—no one who was eating at this restaurant knows anyone in, let alone has children in, the armed forces. It’s an economic strata thing, in case you’re wondering.)
…About the “spoils of war.” Said gleefully. Really, really gleefully.
It’s hard for me to believe that people who have enough brainpower to have autonomic body functions working can fall for the bullshit streaming out of Washington.
Maybe they were part of the extremely tiny percentage of people out there who are making out like bandits from the Bush Kleptocracy.
Darin kept squeezing my hand and saying, “Talk to me. Don’t listen to them. Talk to me.”
I can’t decide whether it’s a victory or not that I didn’t stop by their table and give them a piece of my mind.
Darin is a gem. 🙂 A big, huge, sparkling gem.
And I’d say it’s a victory you didn’t stop. Self-control is a precious commodity for everyone these days. 😀
From someone who has a husband in the military…Thank You!
I probably would have been asked to leave the restaurant. Anyone praising the Shrub in my presence had better beware.
I once sent the Republican candidate for governor in my state running back into her campaign office. Honestly, I thought she was just a staffer but she started a conversation on the street about tax and spend Democrats and I couldn’t resist. Republicans have a genetic disregard for facts as a rule.
Fact: Iraq is no more dangerous than Saudi Arabia, North Korea or even Iran.
Fact: North Korea is a lot closer to nukes than Iraq could be.
Fact: The Shrub is rewarding North Korea for having a big army and working on nukes openly.
Fact: The Shrub is an evil genius where domestic policy is concerned but a moron in foreign matters.
Ok, the last part was just strongly held opinion.
Oops. I forgot to mention that I live in Delaware and politics here are very much retail. Also, I didn’t realize she was a candidate until I recognized her on TV.
Fact: Iraq is no more dangerous than Saudi Arabia, North Korea or even Iran.
So what? (Or to put it more snarkily, “The next time I get pulled over for speeding, I’ll berate the officer for not pulling over someone more dangerous.”)
If they’re all dangerous, let’s take out all four, one at a time. Iraq happens to be the easiest right now.
Fact: North Korea is a lot closer to nukes than Iraq could be.
They have nukes. It happened in the 90’s, and it wasn’t Shrub’s fault (and there was probably little anyone could have done to prevent it back then without military action that would have really been frowned upon back then).
Now we have to tread lightly with them.
No, there’s no evidence that North Korea actually has nukes. This is yet another attempt by the Shrub to lie to us. Sadly enough, it’s working.
“Let’s take out all four at once…”
I’m sorry, Jason. I respect the things you write on the journals mailing list but this is absurd. This argument you give is easy to extend to a point you might agree to so easily. Might makes right.
Cuba would be easier than Iraq and we don’t like them. Let’s take out Cuba first. After Cuba, we should concentrate on countries that like Cuba. How about that Hugo Chavez? Let’s take over his country because we don’t like him.
Even more importantly, let’s occupy Florida! Those commies actually wanted their votes counted. Didn’t they know that King George II had already won?
Oops! I forgot something else just as important. There’s a reason why military action against North Korea would have been so “frowned upon back then.” The Republicans in Congress wanted to bring down Clinton. Anything that Clinton wanted, they opposed.
Clinton was smart enough to broker a useful deal. The Shrub knew they were cheating on this deal and waited an entire year to mention it! Why? He wanted to have a vote allowing him to avenge Daddy first.
John, I’m sorry, but I think you’re diverting the issue. I was only using your own argument to demonstrate how faulty is was. Just because A is more evil than B doesn’t mean we should ignore B.
As for “might makes right?” No. Surrender makes right. Saddam agreed to disarm when he lost the war (which technically hasn’t even ended yet). He hasn’t complied. We’ve given him twelve years to comply. It doesn’t look like he ever will. So, we will have to enforce it in the only way he’s left open.
When will it stop? I’d like to quote Tony Blair: “We stop when the threat to our country is fully and properly dealt with.” If we ever stoop to invading Cuba (again), I’ll be right there protesting with you.
As for North Korea, there may be no hard evidence they have nukes, but there’s enough circumstantial evidence to give everyone pause. We have to operate under the assumption that they have nukes.
(And no, I’m not opening that Clinton can of worms. It never ends well. Either you think Clinton is an ass, or you think he was opposed by asses. There’s no middle ground… except for those who think they’re all asses, I guess.)
I’m sorry it took me a while to respond, too. I don’t check my regular reads on a daily basis. And since I think I’ve been dubbed ‘the first hateful commenter’ (and because this is almost becoming a message board because of me), I’m just going to stop posting here. If I keep it up, past experience tells me I’ll end up turning it into a flamewar.
Oh, Jason, you have to do a LOT better than this to be a “hateful commenter.”
No, we shouldn’t ignore Iraq. Saddam: definitely not a nice guy. But I believe this buildup to war is dishonest and unnecessary. The Bush cabal has lied and overstated and lied some more, it’s pissing off our allies of many years, and the way we’ve just sort of forgotten about Osama and Al Qaeda — except when tapes show up that just happen to help the rush the war — doesn’t bode well for our ability to follow through on any of the things we’ve promised to do.
The fact that the Administration appears to be ignoring North Korea’s long-range, Pacific-spanning missiles in favor of Iraq’s extremely local ones is just one more indicator that this war ain’t about what they say it’s about.
who cares what others are talking about … Darin’s right you should be focused on him!