My Plan for Iraq and The Future of the Middle East

Mr. President, I have a plan. You challenged your opponents, who didn’t like your plan for future activity in Iraq, to come up with an alternative solution, I have it.

I have stated in this blog, my assessment of the situation in the Middle East. (See A Vote of No Confidence) Let us remember that you sir, started this war in Iraq. Many cautioned you not to do it and most of our allies refused to support you.

You started the Iraq conflict by convincing the American People and, embarrassingly enough, our congress to authorize you the use of unlimited power and resources to fight the “terrorists”. Your request to use that power to wage war in Iraq was couched in what I will kindly refer to as misleading information. When you got the authorization you wanted, you enormously misused and squander the power and resources of my country. If we look into the waste and corruption fostered in the so-called reconstruction of Iraq, it will show your lack of leadership and oversight. The military has struggled from day one after the fall of Baghdad to run a country. But on the other hand, I don’t think nation building is in their line of work.

You have continued to mislead and lie to the American people about our involvement in Iraq. You have propped up a leader who obviously can’t control his own people without the might of the American military backing him up. You have angered our allies and caused us to lose any leverage in any solution in the Middle East.

The reason people have trouble coming up with an alternative to “staying the course” or Cut and run” is that you’ve precluded any other solution. While diplomacy is an option that might work, as the Baker Hamilton Report suggested, we have no one to negotiate our side, because you sir have no credibility. No one believes you’re going to do what you say you are going to do because you have either lied or ignored the promises you’ve made to the American people and our allies, such that no one can or should believe you.

Starting with the unfunded mandates for federal programs, such as “no child left behind” and continuing through the on going disaster in New Orleans, with stops at the cuts in veterans benefits, we have seen a pattern of telling people what they want to hear and than doing what you intended in the first place, which for all practical purposes is nothing.

Why would I in the face of military experts telling me I’m right to be skeptical, believe that sending more good troops in harms way will solve this problem. No sir, we do not need more troops. We need to get the men and women we have in Iraq out of there.

Once we leave, watching the factions in Iraq come to agreement on a government may be messy and we may not like the way it ends, but if we stayed in Iraq for twenty years it’s not going to change one major problem. They don’t want us there and they’ve made that abundantly clear.

My solution therefore is to give our government credibility. President Bush have the courage to resign, take Cheney with you when you leave and let Nancy Pelosi take over a new government

A Vote of No Confidence

I guess the first words that come to my mind are, “I told you so”, but that is not constructive in the effort to find bi-partisan agreement on our situation in Iraq. What I should be thinking is that this wrong response to the wrong problem. Here are the things we know. We have ourselves in a seemingly unsolvable mess in the Middle East. We have made a huge error in judgment, in the wake of our fear after the twin tower attack on September 11^th. We have an ideologically motivated leader whose world view is incompatible with main stream America.

Our situation in the Middle East is not, no matter what the press in this country would have you believe is not just in Iraq. Going country by country throughout the Middle East, you will find that we have a different set of problems with each one of them. If those problems do not reside in the hearts and minds of the leadership of that country, they certainly are foremost in the people of that country. Do not let anyone tell you it is a religious war and do not let anybody tell you it’s a cultural war. It is, as it always seems to be in these cases, about the needs of people, as expressed as in the need for food, shelter, clothing and security. Our presence in the Middle East threatens all of those concerns for everyone from PM Maliki of Iraq to the cab drivers in Cairo.

We are seen as either physically destroying their country, as we are in Iraq, threatening to physically invade their country as we are in Iran and Syria or propping up a suppressive leadership as we are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel. All of our actions, no matter how well intentioned are interpreted as being hostile and controlling. Are all of these people correct in their interpretations of our intentions and actions? I think not but our leadership has done little to show them otherwise. In fact by being suckered into the reactions we have expressed, we have reinforced their suspicions

We should not have and should never give, as we did post September 11^th, give a president unlimited ability to wage war in our name. In hind sight, it was just crazy to allow anyone the power to wreak havoc with our standing in the world community, by simply wrapping themselves in a flag (and in this case holding bible in one hand) and destroying whole countries without oversight. Yes, I know that bus has passed, but will we never learn?

And lastly, why do we think this latest plan is going succeed? I don’t think we do. What I am afraid will happen is that the old boys in Washington are going to give the President one last chance to hang himself in the history books by screwing us further into the floor boards of a sinking ship. And why you may rightfully ask yourself would they do that? No one, the new democrat majority included, wants to see the government limp along for the next two years. The press could call a vote to not fund Bush’s latest effort to save the day, a vote of no confidence and indeed it would be, but than we have to wait for November 2008 for a vote of confidence wouldn’t we?

Denby's Big Pictures

If you don’t subscribe to the The New Yorker magazine and if you love movies, you must beg, borrow or steal the January 8, 2007 issue. Turn to page 54 (pausing only at the numerous hysterical cartoons The New Yorker is famous for) and read, Big Pictures by David Denby.

Denby is the film critic for the magazine. For years, I have had this love hate relationship with him. I enjoyed his tale of returning to college, reading the cannon of required books and his reactions to that experience in his biographical, Great Books. My reaction may have been highly influenced by the fact that I had returned to the classroom to finish my degree at the age of fifty one, but in any case I found it well worth reading even though I disagreed with his opinion of some of the books on the list.

In the early nineties, I was freshly divorced, and it happens that Denby was heading down the same path. In another sign of the times for guys our age, we invested a lot of money in what was to become a bubble market. He wrote a humorous story about his experience in a book called American Sucker. In my case only my broker and the tax man knows for sure.

The area where Denby and I often disagree is his opinion of current film. I find I more often than not like a film he doesn’t review well and dislike many that he thinks are worthy. I do look forward to his columns because even if I disagree with him I learn something and if it isn’t about the film, it’s about writing, because there is no doubt in my mind this guy can write. He is learned in his opinions and direct in his commentary, and he writes in an accessible and concise manner that is a joy to read.

As far as the Big Picture is concerned, I couldn’t agree more with him. His observations on the future of the big screen presentations in the digital age are right on. His observations of the cold and calculating movie production business is eye opening to teary eyed sentimentalist’s like me, but they do answer the question about the quality of movies that are being made and why there aren’t more films that I like being made.

Moreover his analysis of the technical revolution in the near future is interesting. I know I and my peers have always questioned who the hell would watch a film on their ipod or their phone. The answer is not surprising, it’s young people, but the reasons are interesting and logical

What Denby, the critic, the guy that sees more movies than I do, has to say about the experience of seeing a film in a theater and how it will never be replaced by the best home theater system is worth reading the article all by itself. Yes, the theaters are aging, lacking in style or grace, and they have such thin walls that often you are watching one film and experiencing the special effects of the movie next store. Yes, people talk and cell phones ring during the performance. The floors are sticky and the popcorn is outrageously expensive. The commercials, cross promotions and coming attractions are challenging are limits of tolerance for the time they take (twenty minutes at the last film I attended). But after the gab quiets down, the idiot turns off his phone and the film begins, you can lost in a world of make believe that sometimes challenges your mind and instructs you in ways that very few things can. It’s the shared experience that makes it unique. As Denby says, people will go to movies alone, but they really don’t want to be alone.

Having Trouble Cutting the Cord

My wife, Maria, was packing for an extended visit with our kids in Appleton. She commented that she was packing more cords for her electronic toys than she was clothing. As much as both of us have tried to simplify our lives by getting rid of things that we thought wanted, but turn out to be baggage rather than benefits in our lives, it seems that we continue to experiment.

Not that all things are failures. I can remember when digital cameras began to become main stream. I had a couple of spirited discussions with my son Todd, who like me, was dedicated “wet film” photographer. In the early days, the quality was not in the finished product. It was good enough for record photo’s (family memory records), but totally inadequate for travel, and wall art work. My bag, I still have it, was about ten to fifteen pounds of bodies, lenses and other accessories. Now I carry a 5 meg Samsung digital and when I learn to use all of its capabilities, I will be able to do more with it than I could with my old bag full of tricks. This is due in no small part to the ability to manipulate the end product with Photoshop, but the down side is the USB cord that I need to download the product to the computer.

Maria and I both carry notebooks. No, to be clear Maria carried a Day-Timer, a sensible loose leaf bound notebook that fit her needs. I’m addicted to notebooks. I juggle placing my thoughts and observations in two sizes of Moleskins, an 8 ½ by 11 loose leaf spiral and two note programs on the computer. I also have three hardbound blank page books that I take on trips that chronicle in no particular order notes I take on trips. But like I say I have a problem walking past notebooks on the shelf of any store.

We now both carry PDA’s. Maria got hers first and convinced me that it would work for me. The decision has worked out well for both of us. We don’t worry about missing appointments. I can find phone numbers and addresses. But there is a recharge cord and the inevitable USB cord so that we can sync the PDA with our calendar and address books on our computer.

There are the cords for the MP3 player and the mobile phones. I have an AlphaSmart word processor that thankfully runs on AAA batteries so I only need the “fire wire” to download the product into MS Word. All in all, I think our life is simpler that it was a few years ago. Some may argue rightfully that all of this is part of the new complexity of the digital age. I have no nostalgia for the past, but than I like playing with these things too. It might be clouding my judgment as to their value.

Every Party has a Pooper

I hate to be a wet blanket, a spoiler or a stick in the mud, but spending a million dollars on a party to celebrate anything is ridiculous. To spend a million on a mate that has survived cancer is egregious.

I was watching a piece on CBS Sunday Morning. Over the last couple of years, I have noticed a slide in the quality of articles. More and more they’re letting the, what I call, Vanity Fair article sneak in. This is the kind of article that is celebrity based or informs us about the rich and famous. Now I know that there is a certain amount of the audience that likes these stories, but I don’t and that is why I watch CBS Sunday Morning and skip The Today show and all of the other’s that represent that branch of journalism. I’m just not interested in the news of the romances, breakups and fashion decisions of the American form of royalty.

The article on that Sunday morning, New Years Eve 2006, was about parties. They interviewed the “in party planners” and covered the gamut in bizarre presentation, food and venues that people will buy in order to top their neighbors. These included extremes in size of guest list, top name performers to entertain and exotic locations. The excess was unbelievable to me. I still swallow hard when my dinner check comes to over one hundred dollars.

But one of the featured parties really kicked my middle class values hard in the ass. One of the parties was organized and paid for by this rather pleasant woman from North or South Carolina to celebrate her husband survival from a bout of cancer. She admitted that you have to spend in the area of seven figures to get what they did. Included was some kind of a rare sports car that her husband always wanted. I was shocked and incredulous.

Let’s celebrate yes, but over a million dollars for a guy who owes his life to doctors and medical practitioners who have spent their lives learning how to help people afflicted with these terrible diseases. He owes much to all of the patients who died in experimental programs that eventually led to the successful methods we now use.

And what about the future? Tell me I am wrong, but spending a million dollars plus on a party to celebrate a guy surviving cancer is saying “I am rich. Let me show you how rich I am and I dare you to try and out do me.” As opposed someone who will give the money to cancer research and quietly, without puffing out their chest say thank you and take this to help someone else, but than maybe I’m just a party pooper.

Times they are a changing

During a recent conversation, a female friend of mine stated that she wasn’t excited about being fifty. She felt that all she was doing was giving up things. Her children were growing away from her and becoming more independent. Her mental skills weren’t as sharp. She admits that she worries that one or both of her parents may soon pass on. Some friends are becoming more distant.

She could have added that as we become older our generation ceases to be the innovators that they once might have been. We are leaving a legacy, not creating a history the way we once did. As a rule, the older generation is not writing the new novels, creating the new styles or innovating the latest have to have commercial product.

Oh it’s true the baby-boomers still sway a lot of commercial decisions. Bob Dylan had the number one selling CD in the country not to long ago. The problem with that is that the only people that still buy CD’s are older people. The young buyers purchase their music on-line and download, so the Dylan album claim to number one status is questionable.

There is more research in any number of medical conditions that are going to impact the boomers. But even here, the pragmatism is being driven by the need rather than by their innovation. The dearth of advertising to boomers for everything from investment products to get well cures is being created by younger people profiting from a huge market.

On the up side, passing the fifty mark gives you the freedom to carry on with those dreams and desires that were set aside when you took on the responsibilities of parenthood and family building. Women in particular, it seems to me, can use this time in their life to blossom and grow. The loss of mental acuity is largely proven to be a myth. Physical abilities may limit Olympic ambition, but satisfactory accomplishments that are less that world class level can be attained by those who have patience and a decent work ethic.

I propose that the one thing that you get more control of as you grow older is time. Family, job and community demands are, or can be if you choose, less. Where and what you do with your life becomes more and more a matter of choice. Trying to relive the past or rework your parenting skills by inserting yourself into your grandchildren’s life or spending more hours on the job are two options, but so is taking up that hobby or career change that always beckoned, but for many reasons the pursuit of which was not practical.

I Believe

I believe that people do what works for them. I recognize, however, that grasping necessary change can be painful. I believe that while people are loathe to change something that seems to work, if they see a better way, eventually they will come around. We are often belief-bound, content and proud of our choices because we are operating based on a cultural understanding of what a person should and can do and what works in that pursuit.

The variety of human experience explains the diversity in the way humans pursue their lives and why traditions and thinking can change so slowly. People fight change in ways that, when you look back on them, seem ridiculous. When it first became available, my father maintained he didn’t need air conditioning in his car because it was, in his mind, useful for only a couple of hot days a year, and operating the air conditioner used too much gas. Today you only have to attempt to buy a car without air-conditioning to realize how the technology and our priorities have changed. As the personal computer became a part of the business scene, many of my peers didn’t bother learning how to use one. It is no mystery why they were the first to go when the downsizing began in the eighties and those skills became critical.

Senator Barak Obama recently said that the last two presidential campaigns were about issues that were raised in the sixties. He is right, and it shows how reluctant we can be to move on. While racism and questions about a woman’s rights rage in the hearts of some, a younger generation has not only accepted integration and equality, they have embraced them.

Part of this reluctance to change is based in the reluctance to admit we’ve been wrong. Another aspect is fear of anything new. Why give up the time-proven way for something that might not last, hold up to pressure, or be as good?

While it’s true that there are tradeoffs in almost any decision we make, evolution rather than revolution usually prevails. The projected payoffs in productivity that the computer promised didn’t happen until the vast majority of the production workers began to use them. The Internet didn’t have the value it has today until the average person had access, the right equipment, and the knowledge of how to use it. Change can be slow, and in fact it can be downright frustrating for those who see the value in something early on, but ultimately the thing that changes people’s minds is seeing something work for others.

Changing the paradigm or the belief system can take years. Often we go through very painful times when we let our emotions rather than common sense rule our actions. But I believe that given the time and the information, people ultimately do that thing that works best.