May 10, 2004
Mistakes
We heard “take ‘em out” a lot in the early days of Iraq and roll. We heard “crusade,” but only briefly until somebody pointed that there actually was one and that the implications weren’t all that salutary. Then there was “axis of evil,” a grievous claim cast about almost with caprice and without any clear relevance.
“Consequences” was another favorite word, usually with a hissss at the end for emphasisss. Then, of course, some of the captives in our present embarrassment got to be POWs and keep their ensuing Geneva conventions intact, but others were simply, rather carelessly, and without explanation, called “enemy combatants,” hence, citizens or no, summarily stripped of all access to their human rights.
Take a certain amount of that sort of shenanigans in the highest echelons of “leadership,” and what do you expect lesser satraps to be about in their more limited spheres of influence? With human dignity and compassion more or less figures of speech for use during political campaigns, no wonder such terrorizing animal house behavior as we’ve recently witnessed runs the entire chain of command, up and down.
Next time somebody asks about whether any mistakes were made, maybe one might come to mind. With apologies to Pogo, the Wonder Possum, maybe we has met the mistakes, and they is us (with a little help from the Supremes).