Posted on 11/20/2006 8:39:07 AM PST by kellynla
The Baker/Hamilton Commission has a chance to dramatically reshape our thinking about American foreign policy, if only it will ask the right question. They should follow the guidance of one of the last century's most brilliant thinkers, Ludwig Wittgenstein. In the Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein asks an apparently straightforward question: what do all games have in common? He ties himself in mental knots trying to get the answer, but nothing works. Finally he realizes that the question was posed wrongly. It should have been: Is there anything all games have in common? That's the real question (and the real answer is "not much"), but the language of the first question tricked him into searching for an answer that does not exist.
Our strategists are constantly asked, how can we win the war in Iraq? But it is the wrong question, and therefore has no correct answer. Read Reuel Gerecht in Friday's Wall Street Journal: "(The Baker/Hamilton Commission) cannot escape from an unavoidable reality: We either declare defeat and withdraw completely tout de suite, or we surge troops into Baghdad and fight. The ISG will surely try to find some middle ground between these positions, which, of course, doesn't exist."
Instead of trapping themselves in an imaginary quagmire, the commissioners can help us face the real war. What's going on in Iraq is not "the war," which is raging over the entire world. The real question — the life and death question — is: How can we win the war in the Middle East, which now extends from Afghanistan to Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, and Somalia?
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
I am not sure they could find their way across the street. They probably think they are already on the other side.
It is made quite clear that in the Bible that God's followers are "laborers together with Him." In other words, he doesn't need us to do anything, but He does afford us the privilege.
I've got a feeling the commission is political cover for a dressed up version of cut and run.
I sure hope I'm wrong. I was very sure, prior to this and the appointment of Gates, that Bush would never go wobbily. I'm starting to rethink that, unfortunately. Again, I desperately hope I'm wrong. Frankly, we need more troops, not to withdraw. McCain is right on about that.
Sadly though I think this 'Commission' will give the President enough political cover to cut and run.
L
By "dirty work" I explicitly mean the killing in the name of God (or Allah). ;-)
Ah, sorry about that.
If 41 had done the job right in the first place, this trip would not be necessary.
Thanks. Just remember: Keep your stick on the ice, and we're all in this together. ;-)
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