Taking A Long View Of History
Lileks tears into Salam Pax - and with good reason.
Salam: Let me explain this in simple terms. You have spilled a glass full of tomato juice on an already dirty carpet and now you have to clean up the whole room. Not all of the mess is your fault but you volunteered to clean it up. I bet if someone had explained it to you like that you would have been less hasty going on our Rambo-in-Baghdad trip.
Lileks: Hey, Salam? Fuck you. ... But there’s a picture on the front page of my local paper today: third Minnesotan killed in Iraq. He died doing what you never had the stones to do: pick up a rifle and face the Ba’athists. You owe him. ... Let me explain this in simple terms, habibi. You would have spent the rest of your life under Ba’athist rule. ... the Saddam regime would have prospered into the next generation precisely because of people like you. People who would rather have lived their life in low-level fear than change your situation.
This is actually a very American-type idea coming from Pax. If something can't be fixed quickly and with relative little effort - its probably not worth taking the time to fix. This is precisely the reason that Social Security hasn't been fixed - nobody is willing to get dirty in the short-term for the long-term good. If our politicians (and media) would look past the next re-election cycle and take a longer view of the world, alot more good things could be accomplished.
Stop picking the easiest task from the bin and instead look at the most important.
Salam: Let me explain this in simple terms. You have spilled a glass full of tomato juice on an already dirty carpet and now you have to clean up the whole room. Not all of the mess is your fault but you volunteered to clean it up. I bet if someone had explained it to you like that you would have been less hasty going on our Rambo-in-Baghdad trip.
Lileks: Hey, Salam? Fuck you. ... But there’s a picture on the front page of my local paper today: third Minnesotan killed in Iraq. He died doing what you never had the stones to do: pick up a rifle and face the Ba’athists. You owe him. ... Let me explain this in simple terms, habibi. You would have spent the rest of your life under Ba’athist rule. ... the Saddam regime would have prospered into the next generation precisely because of people like you. People who would rather have lived their life in low-level fear than change your situation.
This is actually a very American-type idea coming from Pax. If something can't be fixed quickly and with relative little effort - its probably not worth taking the time to fix. This is precisely the reason that Social Security hasn't been fixed - nobody is willing to get dirty in the short-term for the long-term good. If our politicians (and media) would look past the next re-election cycle and take a longer view of the world, alot more good things could be accomplished.
Stop picking the easiest task from the bin and instead look at the most important.
# | November 21, 2003