Updated: 3/27/08; 6:12:40 PM.
A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Blog
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Thursday, October 3, 2002


It is the end of the world!!

Caution. Be very careful if you chose to follow these links. Rapidly juxtaposing the words of AL Gore and Pat Buchanan can be hazardous to your health. As Kathy Bates would say "It's the brain pain."

I've been doing way too much reading tonight. I happened to read a full transcript of Gore's speech. As usual, the media reports hack out the juicy bits, leaving some of the interesting core behind. This discussed the new pre-emptive doctrine. Changing such a fundamental area of our policy is occurring with very little real debate.The reason it must be the apocalypse is that I've been reading a few of Pat Buchanan's latest columns and I tend to agree with him (America's new 'sucker punch' strategy and The War Party's Imperial Plans. Or rather, we agree about the problems of this pre-emptive doctrine. Oh no. What am I if both the liberal left and the conservative right make sense? Actually, both are concerned about the need for continuing support, by the military, for the regions. They feel that if we let Afghanistan falter, or fail to bring a defeated Iraq under control, we will only fan the fires of terrorism. In fact, they feel that we may have to take down the entire region to prevent further spread. Israel knows this, as do more and more of the Middle East countries.

On the Big Island of Hawaii, a 'domesticated' ornamental grass was introduced and started to spread over the island. In an attempt to destroy this invader, fires were set. Not very smart. See, there are generally few large natural fires on the islands (not a lot of lightening strikes) so native plants have little protection against fire. But this particular grass had a lot of protection. In fact, it was very adapted to fire. The fires just allowed it to take over more of the island. Its main hazard today is that it increases the chances of large fires, fires that destroy native species, creating more area for the grasses to proliferate. Now, the plants completely dot the island, bringing greater fire danger and continuing to destroy the native plants. I hope this is not a metaphor for what we are planning to do. I would like a better idea of the end game. Something more than 'the Iraqis will have to figure out for themselves what they want to do after Saddam is gone.'

I promise to write lighter stuff tomorrow. Having the words of both Al Gore and Pat Buchanan in my head at the same time really hurts. I would not recommend it;-)  11:25:19 PM    



 
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Last update: 3/27/08; 6:12:40 PM.