QUESTIONS FOR THE COMPLACENT AND COMPLICIT IN THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE. HOW WE THINK MATTERS!

It is my opinion that American society is both willing and able to deliver Iraqis from the inherent danger of the world they live in today. It is in American's interests to do so and that is precisely why we shouldn't be distracted by the violence we are witnessing right now. Globalization has made their problem our problem. We can't afford to live with the dysfunction of a Saddam or Al-Sadr. Westerners - and increasingly Easterners - have been putting billions of dollars into the hands of dysfunctional tribal chieftains to satisfy their petroleum needs. That economic system is essentially what Henry Kissinger's policy of containment meant. His era is over but it's obvious we all don't know it yet. Some would like to go back to it, but the bridge was burnt. We don't have a choice. Iraqis have to transition to democracy in order to dissipate their petroleum wealth for the betterment - not detriment - of the region and world. Instead of the Wild West, now it's the Wild East. Of course it will be hard to make the transition, but the region and the world will be more secure when Iraqi society is sufficiently coerced into joining our global village. For this to start we need to know a few things about the people we are dealing with. Consider the following:

Questions like these can make what is being ignored today as intangible and immeasurable - both tangible and measurable tomorrow. These questions formulated by Free Republic's EternalHope are a bridge to the future built of clear rationale. Americans have to ask these questions and only Iraqis can answer them. There is a significant gap between us and them but for those of us who are paying close attention - in a great number of instances across Iraq - the United States Army has bridged the gap. The men and women who show their kindness and sense of justice has touched the hearts of many Iraqi. But how could we know that when the media both here and there strives to be nothing more than an obituary? We have to get our information from CENTCOM to approach the necessary balance required to formulate any kind of faith in the future. That's a scary thought because of how much trust one must give to an organization who answers directly to the POTUS. It's not that I do not trust the POTUS, it's that the founding fathers established freedom of the press as sacrosanct so that Americans would not have to trust the POTUS.

What a predicament we are in! In a world where our commercial culture and constant promises to each other of instant gratification, we are inadvertently spreading the disease of Attention Deficit Disorder. By commercial I am referring to the 30 second argument. What conclusions can anyone derive about the world when they are constantly bombarded with endless iterations of sensationalism? Rational debate is drowned in an ocean of sensationalism leaving little room for responsible leadership to build a case for anything at all. The cycle is breeding a deficit of informed debate. No one is more complicit in the "content deficit" than the "if it bleeds, it leads" MSM, but like it or not, the media is a reflection of our habitual need for sensational stimulation. It takes a brave soul like yourself to seek out Iraqis who have faith in the future of their country. There should be room for faith in the future in a country that could not have freely elected a parliament only a few years ago. Unfortunately, a contextual basis for optimism is lacking, not because it doesn't exist, but because it isn't as sensational as blood and guts.

Consider this abstract analogy based on the book flatland. Imagine that the popular belief in America is that the world is flat. For all practical human purposes it is flat, so the concept is not hard to believe. Now imagine that every day on the news the idea of "flatness" is affirmed over and over again. And then one day an outrageous event occurs and it immediately becomes essential to the sustainability of the United States that we all believe the world is not flat, but instead a sphere. The few arguments for "sphereness" do not approach the myriad of persistent arguments for "flatness". Believers in "sphere theory" are ridiculed as neocon idealists, but remember, this theory is not a luxury. Failure to grasp the subtle reality could cost more than Americans can afford. Now imagine that one man, an important but not particularly eloquent man, demands that we all understand "the world is not flat, but instead a sphere". In his modesty, he does not ridicule those who subscribe to "flat theory". In his modesty, he does not parade an army of lecturers out to preach "sphere theory" to Americans. So he takes the abuse, hoping that one day an epiphany will occur in the minds of his countrymen. That one day they too will see the world as he does and thereby save themselves.

posted by HUMINT  # 8:45 AM