See it here: An excerpt...discuss. ""Winning," evidently, now consists not in finding the weapons of mass destruction that once were the designated reason for fighting the war but in creating a democratic government in Iraq-the one that will serve as a model for the entire Middle East. Condoleezza Rice has called that task the "moral mission of our time." Stanford professor Michael McFaul has even proposed a new Cabinet department whose job would be "the creation of new states"... ...Biden says we must win the war. This is precisely wrong. The United States must learn to lose this war-a harder task, in many ways, than winning, for it requires admitting mistakes and relinquishing attractive fantasies. This is the true moral mission of our time (well, of the next few years, anyway)... ...The creation of democracy is an organic process that must proceed from the will of the local people. Sometimes that will is present, more often it is not. Vietnam provides an example. Vietnam today enjoys the self-determination it battled to achieve for so long; but it has not become a democracy. On the other hand, just because Iraq's future remains to be decided by its talented people, it would also be wrong to categorically rule out the possibility that they will escape tyranny and create democratic government for themselves. The United States and other countries might even find ways of offering modest assistance in the project. It's just that it is beyond the power of the United States to create democracy for them. The matter is not in our hands. It never was."
My very existence unites disparate peoples...what a wonderful thing...apparently like Hitler united people though, is what you're saying...hmmm...ahh, I'll take it!
He accused me of embracing liberal realism. This is absurd, as I'm already the star of everyone's fantasy.
It's simple. We can't leave until our job is done. There is no reason to leave yet. We've only begun the task at hand. Suggesting that we "cut our losses" and turn tail is the exact wrong message we can send. The last two times we did that (beirut, Somalia) it only encouraged terrorist worldwide. Bloody America's nose and he will flee. Sorry sh!theads, but we don't do that anymore.
MFT is right. There is no turning back on our course of events in Iraq. We can piss and moan about the lies, deceit and cronyism (I know I do) but we have no options at this time. Bush is going begging to the UN for help, in part for posturing, but really, he is hoping for help. If Bush cannot give up the notion that US leadership is required in recovering Iraq, then we stay with zero options. It would certainly be immoral to just pull out, after taking the country one step closer to hell. That said, the point of the article was about giving up control after admitting the task was too great for the Bush administration, not running away. The first step is to admit there is a problem and that the problem was caused by lies. The president's morality does matter, as much for Bush as it did for Clinton.
Carlin would reply - indeed, has replied - with the following: "Premature Extraction Actually, when you think about it, this country has had a manhood problem for some time. You can tell the language we use; language always gives us away. What did we do wrong in Vietnam? We 'pulled out'! Not a very manly thing to do. No. When you're *#*#*#*#ing people, you're supposed to stay with it and *#*#*#*# them good; *#*#*#*# them to death; hang in there and keep *#*#*#*#ing them until they're all *#*#*#*#ing dead. But in Vietnam what happened was by accident we left a few women and children alive, and we haven't felt good about ourselves since. That's why in the Persian Gulf, George Bush had to say, 'This will not be another Vietnam.' He actually said, 'this time we're going all the way.' Imagine. An American president using the sexual slang of a thirteen-year-old to describe his foreign policy. And, of course, when it got right down to it, he didn't 'go all the way.' Faced with going into Baghdad he punked out. No balls. Just Bush. Instead, he applied sanctions, so he'd be sure that an extra half a million brown children would die. And so his oil buddies could continue to fill their pockets. If you want to know what happened in the Persian Gulf, just remember the first names of the two men who ran that war: Dick Cheney and Colin Powell. Dick and Colon. Someone got *#*#*#*#ed in the ass. And those brown people better make sure they keep their pants on, because Dick and Colin have come back for an encore."(bold added)