| Wednesday, March 26, 2003 |
10:43 - Encouraging
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NPR's Forum this morning, while full of the to-be-expected teeth-gnashing over how our dictatorial government is totally ignoring the wishes of our loudest citizens (never mind that it isn't the majority), had an unexpectedly encouraging undercurrent.
The gist was that while the anti-war Left (or at least, the rational segment of it, which suffers from being drowned out by the sloganeers just as much as the Right does) still thinks that going to war was a bad idea, they also think that removing Saddam Hussein from power is an honorable goal. So now that we're at war, now that war is a given, they see it as in their interest to support the troops in whatever ways can help bring the war to a rapid and successful conclusion. Which, golly gee, is exactly what the pro-war side wants too.
It's kinda funny: pretty much everybody agrees on the second most important issue here, that of Saddam Hussein. But it's a polar division on the most important issue, that of going to war in the first place. And now that that topmost issue is stripped out of the equation, there's going to emerge a startling consensus. Now that the war is actually going on, not even the most petulant sign-wavers are going to be able to make a case for abruptly backing out and leaving Saddam in power, or less still for prosecuting an inept war that drags on forever and costs tons of lives on both sides. Only the most spiteful and morally bankrupt could root for the latter. And if they do, they'll be unmasked with all the more vehemence.
In other words, I think the worst of the domestic debate is over. I could even be made to see that this was part of the plan all along.
I could be wrong, but I hope I'm not.
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