Fighting Cynicism

I'm becoming a terrible cynic. I used to believe that people were mostly sincere, even though they often use poor judgement.

For example, I think the average Liberal is driven to their left-wing views and beliefs because their lives are driven by emotion. Conversely, a Conservative discounts the emotional in favor of cold hard logical fact. I generally think it's a good thing as long as the two sort of balance each other.

But now I'm rapidly approaching the decision that national leaders on both sides care little about either logic or emotion, but are focused solely on power. The power of their political party and of themselves individually.

Democrats would fling open the doors to outside marauders if it means they can get more power for themselves, even if it's temporary. Republicans would likewise permit other marauders to damage their country's population in return for their own power and wealth.

Last night was an illustration. The President went on television to announce what is really a modest troop level increase to support a new strategy developed to pacify Baghdad. Then Dick Durbin came on to tell us we should just bail out and leave Iraq to settle it's own problems.

I'm tired of hearing all about how we're "losing" in Iraq, or how the Democrats think if we "win" in Iraq, that's somehow bad for them politically. Heaven forbid Bush actually succeeds.

Here's my radical idea: We already won the war in Iraq. We defeated Saddam's troops, removed his government, and helped install a new democratically-elected government. All military objectives met, and rather spectacularly at that. We're only still there to help the new government get on their feet, because if we don't, Iraq will become a province of Iran. If anybody thinks that won't lead to a major explosion in terrorism, along with a continued expansion of Iranian power in the region, they live in a fantasy world.

Ironically, the President just did everything the Democrats have been hammering him to do for the past 3 years. He fired Rumsfeld. He commissioned an "Iraq Study Group" to give him recommendations. He met with all the generals in the field. He talked with Democrat and Republican leaders. He even publicly admitted to past mistakes. Then he made a decision, and says he has the Iraqi government on board with that decision. Did he get credit for doing everything the democrats asked? Did anyone actually believe he would ever get any credit from them for anything at all? Get real.

Will it work? I don't know. But I also don't think all the congressional blowhards on both sides know either. He's the Commander in Chief. Wars can't be fought by committees. It's the President's job to decide and implement strategy, and the generals' job to implement the strategy. Just let them do it.

Next year we're voting for a new president anyway. Whether Bush succeeds or fails in this new strategy will probably have an impact on that vote. Then we'll get a new president who can decide where we go from there.

And we'll either march ahead toward a socialist, perhaps marxist country, or we'll stay pretty much the same. I think most people want a third way, and want to elect people who actually care more about the country than themselves. But it won't happen, because only those who agree to toe the line drawn by their campaign financiers will get into office.

The cynicism is winning.