In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Rationalizations
Rationalizations are mental De-Militarized Zones, little protective pieces of logic to buffer us from truths or realities we do not wish to or cannot yet deal with.
Sometimes we rationalize poor behavior to allow us to deal with our poor behavior, such as in my favorite high school rationalization for my laziness when it came to studying for tests. It went like this: Tests are to gauge what we’ve learned from the recent discussions and projects in class, if I cram (heck if I even open the book to study) the night before a test I would be being dishonest and my test would show the results of my studying for the test and the not what I had learned during the recent discussions and projects, therefore I will not study as it is a form of lying. Yes, like many rationalizations it was flawed, but it made me feel better about not studying.
A more common rationalization is the” I’m not getting any dates because I’m just too good for your average person” delusion. That’s a wacky stretch isn’t it, but fairly common.
Many people supported the war because they believed in the imminent threat that Iraq posed, or they believed that Iraq was responsible for 9/11. Some simply believed in the President. When it became more and more obvious that there were no WMDs that the threat was not imminent, and that even Bush says there was no Saddam 9/11 link people began to look for new rationalizations for the war. Why try to rationalize it? Well, a nation you love has just sent its own people to death for a war with no just cause, that isn’t a good thought to have in you mind, better to just “create” a cause.
The Bush administration jumped on that need and quickly supplied a new reason for the war. The war was like “flypaper” for terrorists. Better to be fighting the terrorists in their home front, rather than in our homes. A terrorist bombing a village in Iraq is a terrorist not bombing New York. Okay, it isn’t as morally clean as the original rationalization/justification, but it does absolve some guilt. You of course had to create new facts such has “terrorists are a finite number of people that does not increase."
But now it becomes increasingly obvious that the terrorists in Iraq are basically a creation of the war in Iraq (before the war they were in ‘politics’), brutal Baathists who before were perhaps beating and subjugating Iraqi’s are now busy killing American, British, and Italian troops. al Queada is not losing members to these battles in Iraq. They aren’t even involved. The entire exercise has been a recruiting boon to al Queada, it has weakened our true war against terrorism, and has damaged our international standing, weakening our position in asking for help (which we need) to battle terrorism. What a horrible, terrible truth. How truly treasonous an act our President has committed in taking us into Iraq. It is kind of hard to deal with that, better to think about all the new schools in Iraq, yes?
Few Signs of Infiltration by Foreign Fighters in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 18 — The commanding general of the United States Army division that patrols much of Iraq's western borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that his men had encountered only a handful of foreign fighters trying to sneak into the country to attack American and allied forces.
"I want to underscore that most of the attacks on our forces are by former regime loyalists and other Iraqis, not foreign forces," said the officer, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.
During a briefing on Monday for a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, he said that since May, his men had captured perhaps 20 foreign fighters trying to slip into the country from those three countries.
During a period in which border patrols have been intensified and new technology is being used, that number suggests only modest foreign incursions into Iraq, in contrast to estimates by the Bush administration.
In Washington late last month, officials estimated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq at 1,000 to 3,000, and the White House has been suggesting that foreign fighters are continuing to enter the country and are behind many of the attacks, linking the war in Iraq to the global campaign against terror.
In a news conference on Oct. 28, President Bush said: "We are mindful of the fact that some might want to come into Iraq to attack and to create conditions of fear and chaos. The foreign terrorists are trying to create conditions of fear and retreat because they fear a free and peaceful state in the midst of a part of the world where terror has found recruits."
During a news briefing on Tuesday evening, General Swannack, who took over the region two months ago, said his men had captured 13 foreign guerrillas and killed 7 others. Ten days ago, Col. David A. Teeples, who is part of General Swannack's command, said only a small number of the foreigners were among the 500 to 600 people his forces had captured in attacks on coalition forces
- rob 1:42 PM - [PermaLink] -
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