In the Name of Love
Manny Francisco, PhilippinesTell me, how does God Choose?
Whose prayers does he refuse?
--Day After Tomorrow, Tom Waits
Love is but the song we sing,
And fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
--Let's Get Together, The Youngbloods
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?
--Pride, Bono
_______________
Ranger will spare you the inaugural "groan-inducing imagery," as Slate calls it.
He suggests that Inauguration Day be moved to coincide with Easter, so filled with the rhetoric of rebirth and salvation is it. The hype leading to all inaugurations is the same, and the let-down comes almost as quickly as do the endings of New Year's weight loss resolutions.
The words are always inspirational and uplifting, but the facts are hidden. Today, a bi-racial man is The Man, and there is nothing but adulation and rejoicing, resounding with the ubiquitous evocations of Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.
Meanwhile, on the other side of D.C., one of our nation's murder capital cities, you will see another side of life. Having a black president will not mitigate their sorrows, any more so than having black mayors has done for those unfortunate dwellers of our many degraded inner cities.
Behind the facade of today's messianic fervor lie some very ugly truths of our nation not getting it together. We will not wake up tomorrow and find ourselves in the Promised Land.
Tomorrow will be business as usual.
Labels: inauguration 2009, obama messianic fervor
posted by rangeragainstwar at 9:03 PM
16 Comments:
Tomorrow? No need to wait, Ranger.
The World Markets plunged today and as I write this, are continuing to do so.
Jimbo...
I take exception with your last statement. We actually have some folks running things now who are interested in governing, It's quite refreshing and hopefully all of us can bail out the sinking ship that is the legacy of the last bozo.
Let's hope it's not too late already.
William Hazen
Ranger Hazen,
I accept you as a clear friend BUT hope is not a military term and is not a basis of policy.
We must disagree-I see no hope-only more of the same.
jimbo
Well, Ranger, I'm going to diverge a bit, though I understand where you are coming from.
*If*, and this is one of those "check movement before committing forces" qualifiers, Obama and his admin can fulfill 10% of his stated campaign rhetoric, I will consider that a succesful attempt, and the signs of a good President.
The only thing right now is to watch, wait, and see how it plays out.
Remember, Jim, never commit your resouces till you know what the intentions of your opponent are. Commit too soon, and you will have your opponent right where he wants you.
btw, I'm not saying, "keep hope alive," I'm saying wait and see if it is as you suspect.
If it is, no surprise.
If it is not, enjoy the moment that though it's not the promise land, it certainly isn't going to be gehenna either.
on a note of hope:
120 day stays of prosecutions ordered in the guantanamo detainee tribunals.
stop. breathe. asses. makes sense to me.
i would rather simply take away everything there that won't burn and call in an air strike, but, this, is a start.
the slapdash system, the rigged trials would have done more damage to us than many of the other alternatives.
watch closely the case of Jawah. he's the kid who was captured at the age of 15 or 17 or anything in between. he has been tortured and abused for nearly 6 years. his mind is damaged, maybe beyond the point of eventual healing, his physical problems are myriad and a direct result of his imprisonment and torture. his case is so shocking to the sensiblities of any rational human being that his former prosecutor has now resigned his commission and is working, for free, full time, trying to repair some of the damage that has been done.
we were talking about a very young pashtun boy. now we have a scarred for life mentally ill victim.
america, standing tall under bush and the flag.
this screams for investigation.
let's hope it happens.
MB,
Thank you for reminding us of this tragic case. If we put the pressure on, investigations may be thorough and truthful. Can we hope for that? That our outcries and protest will still be heard?
Let's see if we do our job, and if they do theirs.
his case is so shocking to the sensiblities of any rational human being that his former prosecutor has now resigned his commission and is working, for free, full time, trying to repair some of the damage that has been done.
That speaks volumes! So much so that even the most heartless jaded American should be able to see it as a true statement of how low we have fallen under the Bush regime. But also a statement of how high we can reach when we open our eyes. That prosecutor is a true American patriot for standing up for what is right.
WOO HOO! OT but I gotta go, UPS just delivered my Dexter Smith shotgun!!! Woo Hoo!!
Terrible,
Agreed, Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Williams, Capt. John Carr and Maj. Robert Preston, among others, are all true American patriots. Let us hope even more eyes will flicker open in the coming months.
Ranger H.
I've been thinking about our comments and I must say that all Americans should stand securely behind the new President.We at RAW will adopt a wait and see attitude in deference to your comments.
We will only cmt. on policy and policy statements and ignore all "hope" type references.It's the right thing to do and I appreciate your pushing me in that direction.
Sometimes old goats need a push:)
jim
Jim: When you've been told to "hope" and "believe" and that "there's a light at the end of the tunnel" which turns out to be the headlight of an oncoming train it's hard NOT to be cynical.
My only thought would be that sometimes those hopeful things DO happen. Sometimes the 101st DOES hold on at Bastogne, sometimes Blucher DOES arrive before nightfall. We need to be willing to fight the good fight even as we suspect that the end may not be the sunny, happy place our optimistic comrades believe it to be...
So I'd just say, rather than feel you HAVE to "hope", perhaps it would be enough to resist despair. Sometimes patient steadiness under fire is all that duty requires.
cases like bastogne, corrigador, thermopolye, even our stand with the marines at dong ap bai all prove the maxim of the often misunderstood and often misquoted sun tzu, who, writing in the 5th century b.c.e. said:
be sure to always leave a clear and safe appearing route for the enemy to withdraw. the beaten enemy will often then withdraw to ground of your choosing. remember always this, men fight hardest for an indefensible position.
had the 101st at bastogne had a place to withdraw to, they probably would have. same with us, if we had been able to think of one single place to go we would not have dug in and fought as hard as we did.
it's on the news this afternoon that obama intends to sign an executive order closing guantanamo tomorrow.
MB
The Omar Kadhr case is another horror story. His parents were Canadian al Qeada symnpathizers who took him to Afghanistan. At the age of 13 his dad turned him over to a hardened group of Taliban to act as an interpeter as he spoke several languages. At the age of 15 he was caught in a firefight as SF attacked the village he was in. He's charged with throwiing a grenade that killed an Am medic. The case against him has many holes in it including Am GI's who dispute the accusations to the American type sharpnel in the dead medic body. Kadhr was shot twice in the back, he's been tortured from Baghram to Guantanamo and still is in limbo as the Canadian government has not even tried to bring him to Canada. His father was killed in Afghanistan and his mother and sister are back in Canada and still spouting the virtures of al Qaeda so the Canadian public is split as to whether he's innocent or a terrorist. And I must say, racism has raised it's ugly head in Canada. Omar is now 22.
There was a documentary on CBC the other day showing the taped interview of the first Canadians to interview Kadhr in Guantanamo and it's obvious the Canadian government condoned the torture. The day before this doc came out, what does the Canadian gov't do, they leak a story about how some FBI agent said that Kadhr identified another Canadian terrorist suspect from an al Qaeda training camp. You read further towards the end of the article and you see that the interrogater destroyed all his notes of the interview.
All this should be moot, Omar Kadhr was a child soldier.
Saudi Arabia now has a program where they rehabilitate jihadists. We could learn from them.
Sorry for the rambling but being a dual citizen, this story makes me ashamed of being both American and Canadian.
Off topic MB I miss the Friday Random 10
tw,
You are not rambling-it's all pertinent. Thanks for sharing.
I've written in the past that even if he killed on the battlefield this is an act of war and not criminal activity.
jim
FDChief,
Thanks- i will resist gloomy thoughts.
jim
TW,
Khadrs acts were not committed in Canada or the US.I question the prosecution on jurisdictional issues.If he killed a US citizen this should be in Afghan courts or he should have been legally extradited -but he wasn't.Interestingly US courts don't seem to be bothered by this point of law.Of course chain of evidence is always a issue.
jim
MB,
As of today BHO 44 is going to suspend all war trial prosecution.
I wonder what will happen to the big boys like KSM? He's scum but the point of US jurisprudence is that it's best to let some walk if it maintains the integrity of the system.(I wonder if the 25 million $ reward could've been spent better in social programs?)And the system needs integrity AND it looks as if 44 is going to infuse some into a seriously deprived program.
It looks like we may be able to be proud of our system once it's tweaked back into a constitutional mode.My hat is off to 44 if he does this and it's looking like a go.
I'm actually feeling optimistic.!
jim
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