Isn't it puzzling?

[gurdonark]

We went to Garden of the Groves botanical garden today, a charming place of Bahamian and exotic plants, filled with birdsong and tilapia fish. We return to our hotel, and headlines of North Korean ultimatums and troop mobilizations to Iraq. I could be a million miles from all that. Yet, it comes in by satellite television. The people here in the Bahamas frequently express apprehension; their tourism trade is already down, and war will further damage their principal industry.

I feel so badly for the people of Iraq, who lose no matter what happens. If no war ensues, then they must live under Saddam Hussein. If war ensues, they must live with endless bombing and military loss, as well as multitudes of civilian
losses.

I feel that we're missing a paradigm for this situation. All the old models don't really apply--the Neville Chamberlains and Winston Churchills and Vietnams and even Afghanistans don't guide us well here.

I don't know the answers. I'm just watching CNN.

Comments

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

i'm just back home and you're in the Bahamas! i've missed a lot of news it seems

bet it's hot there, my friends just returned from a cruise through the caribean and Panama Canal...they said it was just sweltering

i think it's good to take a vacation from Cnn, too

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

It wasn't too bad at Freeport. The temperature was mostly in the low 70s. It could have been San Diego!

[serendipoz.livejournal.com]

I have heard about several internal attempts to get rid of Hussein, but nothing has succeeded, including at least one where one of his sons was involved. I rather think the citizens have been losing for years.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that Hussein has survived a number of attempts to supplant him, and that he has suppressed anyone he suspects might try, all right.

How's this for a parallel?

[scott-m.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Kevin Costner movie 13 Days? It was on
cable several times over the past couple of months, and
watching it has invited me to draw a parallel between the
Cuban Missle Crisis and what we're facing with Iraq.

Especially compelling for me was a scene following one in
which Kennedy was being told by his military and intelligence
advisors all the scenarios in which the U.S. would be forced
to invade Cuba. After the meeting, one of Kennedy's political
advisors told him that he smelled a setup. "They want a war
and they're putting everything into place to get it. They
screwed up the Bay of Pigs, and now they have to go in again
and do it right."

I believe we're facing a similar situation today, except that
the roles are reversed: this time it's the administration that's
itching to "finish the job," and it's the advisors (at least some
of them) who are urging caution.

You'll notice that the third point on the Axis of Evil, whose
leaders are saying "Everybody out-- I'm going to make some nukes,
and by the way I don't care if my people are starving" is getting
different treatment.