Valley Forge Babylon:
The president mentioned Adam Stephen, a Revolutionary War general who founded Martinsburg, a city of 15,000 in the panhandle of West Virginia. "We give thanks for all the brave citizen-soldiers of our Continental Army who dropped pitchforks and took up muskets to fight for our freedom and liberty and independence," Bush said. He added: "You're the successors of those brave men...Like those early patriots, you're fighting a new and unprecedented war."WashingtonPost 05.Jul.07
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Satanic amusement as Bush compares the invasion of Iraq and its consequences to the American Revolution. It becomes clearer and clearer that this is not a battle between differing philosophies or even ethical systems, but of essential things, cores of being, spirits and presences. And it's fought here as intensely as there.
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Most of the talk about withdrawal from Iraq is, and has to be, like family members yelling and crying at men who are fighting and beating on someone to stop. The causes, precipitating moves, the damage done, and the right and wrong of its beginning aren't part of that. Just stop. But then what?
There's a sense in the air around at least some of the noise that just leaving Iraq will do it. But that's emotional and immediate, there's no larger context to it, and the country's in ruins. Forget the political and economic planning that isn't getting done by those who want to leave- what kind of official statement would get made there as it happens? What's the standard etiquette for having done something like that and then just stopping, without resolution or any real finishing?
It may help more to accomplish withdrawal to first get a sentiment and message together, something we can say as a country and a people to another country and people who have been deeply wounded by whatever this is we've done. Sorry's probably not going to be enough.
