Kairos Blog

Along for the Journey, on God's Time...

  • Home
  • About Kairosblog
  • Links
  • Sermons
  • About Chad
You are here: Home / global affairs / When those with a plan really have no plan…

When those with a plan really have no plan…

October 23, 2006 by Chad Herring 2 Comments

Its frustrating to me when an argument is advanced that, while the republicans might have botched Iraq, the democrats don’t have articulated a viable plan for the struggle against Islamic terrorism. I concede that the dems need to better voice such an alternate vision, but I disagree that there is “no plan.” There are competing alternate plans, and the democratic leadership has been slow to adopt one or the other of them. But there is a competent democratic vision for more than a year now that has articulated re-engaged diplomatic, social, economic and educational efforts in the Muslim world in conjunction with a re-deployed, targeted military application (and a withdrawal of some sort from the debacle that is Iraq). There is internal disagreement about how to handle Iraq, but my view is that we’ve made a mess and have a moral obligation to work to fix it if it can be fixed, and that we might not be the best ones to do the military part of that fixing any more. Our army there, at the moment, is making it worse, not better.

That vision is opposed to in conjunction with a Republican view of ‘stay the course:’ we must win, we in fact are winning, and we don’t need any real change to get the job done. At least, that’s been the vision up to recent days. The frustrating part is how vapid that vision is, and how politically inspired it has been: this is the strategy for optimal political success in the US (since it makes those dems look like weak flip-floppers!), so lets stick with it.

Only now, when huge numbers of the American public are waking up to our inability to sustain our current course in Iraq, to what our military involvement there means for our limited military application elsewhere in a troubled world (read: Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan, &c), to month after month of “deadliest months for US troops” caught in the middle of a Civil War we can’t stop or adjudicate, only weeks before an election which, polls suggest, might well spell disaster for the Republican party, only then are we told that, no, that vision articulated earlier was not really the vision. In truth, the vision is something different, and actually a bit more like what the democrats have been saying.

John Stewart:

And here is the president’s own backtracking: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/22/bush-stay-the-course/

So tell me: what is left of the republican “vision” for the global war on terror? How are we going to succeed in this struggle that we really must succeed in, if those who are leading us are not really leading at all, but are working on keeping their power at home? I’m honestly struggling to give Bush and co. as much benefit of the doubt as I can, but come on, the evidence is right there, in video and in transcript. I just hope that we don’t bite it hook, line, and sinker…

I really feel for our military on the ground, who are on the front lines of this thing. Egads.

(…Note: edited Tuesday PM to add an extra hyperlink.)

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: global affairs, politics, war and peace Tagged With: politics, war and peace

Comments

  1. Michael Kruse says

    October 23, 2006 at 11:02 am

    Who says dubya and the Republicans can’t do the Texas two step. 🙂 Nice post.

    Reply
  2. kairos says

    October 24, 2006 at 7:34 am

    🙂 Thanks. Good to see you check in, Michael. Best to you…

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Chad Andrew Herring

Chad Herring

kairos :: creature of dust :: child of God :: husband of 20 years :: father of 2 :: teaching elder/minister of word and sacrament in the presbyterian church (u.s.a.) :: exploring a progressive-reformed – emergent-christianity :: more

The Dream Team

While kairosblog has an extensive blogroll, the following are particularly meaningful to me, and are commended for your edification:

landonwhitsitt, Landon, SOMA Synod Exec
yorocko, the inimitable Rocky Supinger
a church for starving artists, Jan Edmiston's blog
glass overflowing, Marci Glass's incredible writing, fellow pastor and friend
Bruce Reyes-Chow, former pcusa moderator
Carol Howard Merritt, tribal church
Adam Walker Cleaveland, pomomusings

Kairos Tags

Add new tag advent america Andrew Sullivan bible blogging blogs church church life CSArtists Current Affairs Driscoll ECUSA emergent ethics evangelical evangelism faith fundamentalism global affairs grace health homosexuality humanity lent marriage media ministry Music NPHamlet PCUSA personal politics prayer Religion RLP Rob Bell Science scripture silliness/humor social justice theology Torture voting war and peace

Subscribe to Kairosblog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

Miscellany

© 2019 Chad Andrew Herring

Site banner includes the image "Time"
by Maria Teresa Ambrosi, modification by permission under creative commons license.
Background picture "Chronos" by Brayan Zapata,
used by permission under creative commons license.

Responsibility for content is my own, and not attributable to The Kirk I am fortunate enough to serve or the Presbytery that maintains my ordination, though each keeps me accountable.

Powered by Wordpress, Caffeine, and Luck.
Get the Genesis Framework for wordpress, it rocks!

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.