In the news business it's called "loacalization." We've all seen it, a national tragedy or natural disaster occurs and every reporter in the state is out trying to find some New Mexican who knows someone who knows someone who knew one of the people who could have been involved. The result is usually some tangential relation to the story that often makes little sense and comes off looking silly.
What really drives us crazy is when local political officials get into the act trying to "localize" a national policy issue, especially when that local official or governing body can't keep its own house in order. Such is the case with the councilor from Albuquerque's district 3 Isaac Benton, who has introduced a resolution to end the Iraq war.
Never mind the fact that the resolution R-07-293 reads like a leftist propaganda piece and that the council is in no position to prove or disprove any of its assertions, Benton and the council have no authority whatsoever to affect national security policy and further, they are not privy to any of the classified information required to make informed decisions. You'll notice that even the Congress controlled by Democrats who largely ran the last election on an anti-war platform, have not introduced legislation to de-fund the war and withdraw our troops immediately.
We tend to believe that if Democrats in Congress who know that there will be hell to pay with the far left wing of their party aren't clamoring to pull the troops out immediately, then there's probably a pretty convincing reason for them not to act. After all, most of them ran on an anti-Iraq war impeach Bush platform and their failure to act is driving the Kozheads and MoveOn-ers absolutely nuts (that could be redundant)!
The funniest part of Benton's whole resolution is that he mentions "$383,900,000" dollars of Albuquerque taxpayer's money that has been spent on the war. We don't know where he got his numbers but even if it's true, this is the same councilor that wont' bat an eye to spend $240 MILLION (realistically more like $300 MILLION) of our money on a trolley that will serve a couple thousand people, max.
At the very least the money spent in Iraq has benefited millions of Iraqi's (believe it or not living under a dysfunctional democracy is superior to living under a tyrant), protected our national interests, and made the world generally safer by making our terrorists enemies fight us where they live instead of where we live.
In the final analysis it doesn't matter whether or not you are for or against the war, or for that matter whether you were for or against the war. It is a waste of our time (since city councilors work for us their time is ours) for the council to be debating resolutions that have absolutely no impact on policy. Benton will create a media circus and he'll fill the council chambers with radical lefties but NOTHING will be accomplished; only a lunatic would believe otherwise.
6 comments:
It will be interesting to see which agenda items are deferred in favor of this item as the Council once again runs out of time.
Well, I guess I'm a lunatic then. Hundreds of cities, large and small, have passed such resolutions and each one incrementally increases the political pressure for Congress to do something about this idiocy.
Besides, you don't have to be on the left to think this war is in fact an idiocy - some of the most cogent and trenchant criticism of this war has come from the right. Try retired General William Odom (head of Army intelligence during Reagan's 1st term and head of NSA during his 2nd) who has characterized this war as “the worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States.” Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan, thinks Bush is plainly a war criminal. William Lind, military analyst and Director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation, has written, "The last President who tried to export democracy on American bayonets was Woodrow Wilson. That's one of the reasons he counts as America's worst President, ever." Martin van Creveld, the Israeli military historian whose books are the only ones by a non-American author on the required reading list for U.S. Army officers, has written, "...the present adventure will almost certainly end as the previous one did—with the last American troops
fleeing the country while hanging onto their helicopters’ skids." Pat Buchanan isn't exactly a fan of this war. William F. Buckley Jr. has called it a "failure."
You Bushites don't have a monopoly on thought from the right, even though you think you do. To characterize opponents of the war as just on the lunatic left is an argument by labeling, i.e. label your political enemies as something you don't like and you can dismiss them without actually engaging with their arguments.
And what about the money that Albuquerqueans alone have spent on this war? It shouldn't take more than a few seconds to make a good estimate. We've spent upwards of $300 billion on the war. In a country of 300 million, that's an average $1000 per person. A city of half a million will have spent half a billion on the war. But Albuquerque has average incomes lower than the national average so we will have spent somewhat less. $400 million seems to be about right.
Stick to the job the $9,000 pays you for and stop trying to influence national policy. It's futile. You and other councilors should focus on your own delapitated districts first and foremost. Once you have that fixed then go screw around with city wide and national issues. Once again, and I say this to all councilors, drive your districts, look around. They're a discrace and embarrassment to the community. What with weeds, litter,grafitti,potholes,abandoned buildings, it's no wonder we have high crime and why the captains of industry don't want to headquarter,let alone even open up a branch here.
So get back to work and get your priorities straight.
+1
Call me crazy, but I'd rather have our troops out of Iraq and home safe (protecting our borders) than have all the weeds in Albuquerque pulled.
Do I sense a "Recall Benton" poll next week? :)
I agree with most of this post with the exception that most Iraquis find living under a dysfunctional democracy is superior to living under a tyrant. That assertion has as much basis in fact as Benton's whacked numbers. Don't go confusing how you think you'd feel with how Iraquis actually feel about what we've left them with.
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