Allow me a political rant.
Humor my thinking out loud, my perhaps ignorant, inchoate thoughts.
If you don't allow it or don't humor me, please have a wonderful weekend!
It's the Syria thing again -- the morass this entire country is facing, is already struggling inside of -- what to do? what to do? what to do?
I saw one of those Facebook posts the other day of a picture of George W. Bush's smug mug with the words
Miss Me, Yet? and this time I actually did feel physically ill as opposed to just disbelieving. I've been thinking about how even those of us who generally support President Obama and share many of the same values disagree with his and John Kerry's decision to strike Syria. I'm thinking that at the very least if it's so imperative that we do this, if we send target missile strikes (is that what they're called?) to kill people and thereby punish the lunatic who runs the country, why is there room for discussion? If it's so imperative, why not just do it? I know. I know. Because this is a democracy and these important matters deserve discussion. I'm thinking that the time it's taking to
figure it out means there's time. There's literal time to do something different, something not so wildly incendiary, so violent, so in keeping with the bravado and bluster and bullshit of the Bush administration and the decade of war that has followed.
I like this piece, written by Timothy Egan:
He’s there in every corner of Congress where a microphone fronts a politician, there in Russia and the British Parliament and the Vatican. You may think George W. Bush is at home in his bathtub, painting pictures of his toenails, but in fact he’s the biggest presence in the debate over what to do in Syria.
Read the rest here.
I imagine the President is basically damned if he does and damned if he doesn't, and I guess it's the sign that democracy is still working if he took it to Congress (although conservatives have already derailed even that, saying it's a sign of weakness). I guess debate is healthy. I've heard all the arguments for and against, but my convictions that violence only begets violence and that nothing new is under the sun and that nothing new will come of it haven't changed. I say stuff flowers in the missiles.
***I wanted a photo of one of Bush's paintings to go right up there, but every time I tried to download one, the internets wouldn't allow it which sort of creeped me out as much as the painting does. It's probably for the best, though, not to allow the crude paintings of a mediocre man and war criminal to sully this sweet and gentle place. Would that the old war criminal had stuck to painting his toes instead of conjuring death, torture and destruction. Right?
