Quote from "Matrix Revolutions." And I'm Not Doing a Blogger's Bait and Switch. This Train's Stopping At The Iraq (war mongers') Station.

First the quote. Well, just in case someone reading this is not familiar with the Matrix Trilogy, I should set up the scene. A hover craft ship, trailing a cloud of attacking mechanical menaces, some of which are actively cutting into the ship's hull, has just made a spectacular crash landing on the underground city's cavernous dock, which happens to be under heavy fire by another larger wave of invading enemy machines. The ship makes it to the dock, and the ship sets off its EMP Blast, halting the mechanical invaders' attack (for the present.)

Lock is the Commanding Officer of all forces. The Ship Captains are his subordinates.

Niobe and Roland are Ship Captains.



LOCK: Three captains, one ship. I assume the other ships were lost under equally pointless circumstances?

NIOBE: Good to see you too, Jason.

LOCK: Council's waiting to hear an explanation. You'll forgive me for not attending, but I have to try to salvage this debacle.

ROLAND: Did I miss something, Commander? I thought we just saved the dock.

LOCK: That's the problem with you people. You can't think for five minutes in front of your face.



Now even if it might not be obvious to all what this has to do with the Iraq war, I will explain that just a bit further. Or let me say it not as a declarative fact but as . . . . my impression.

It is my impression that it was not the subordinates but the planners of the Iraq War who could not think five minutes out.

I mean how it the hell could that shit hole end up pretty much nearly exactly as bad as the war's naysayers (myself included) predicted?

Seems that some of us were very accurate at thinking five minutes out front, and well, just speaking for myself (as I am not authorized to speak on anyone else's behalf, at this moment) I must say that NO NO NO! I am not going to do a "Nanner, nanner, toldja so." That would be so inappropriate, and anyone who insinuates that I do, either by particular and deliberate reference, or gross generalization, should be seriously and deeply ashamed of themselves. (Ya -- that is sorta begging the question, as if they really had a sense of shame they never would have mongered this war.) However I will say this much. Damn it, I wish that this foreign policy disaster had never been started.

Shortsightedness is not only a bad thing, but it should be considered the most inexcusable of malfeasance for government officials, particularly when the cost of that shortsightedness is death and dismemberment and loss of billions and billions of dollars. The offence is much greater, particularly when (as in the case of the debacle in Iraq), there was a very loud, and in many cases (not me -- I am just a nobody), very knowledgeable and expert chorus of people who basically were shouting about the short-odds of success, and most-likely awful results.

Courage of their convictions MY ASS! I don't care about how deeply one is convinced of the rightness of their cause, particularly when the math says:

"Odds are against you, fella. Oh, and if things go as expected, if no miracle, no act of God, no magic Genie pops up and by virtue of the ability to override all the laws of the universe, suspends the laws of causality and probability, therefore allowing for a happy ending . . . .

be certain that there will be death, destruction, loss, and great failure."