"The way I see it, there are two ways to rule people."
A true source of inspiration
By AcademicElephant Posted in Special Events — Comments (20) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Most of the socializing goes on around here late in the evening out in the smoking pit—a somewhat dicey collection of old office chairs and plastic pool furniture outside the renovated parking garage that is our home. We can’t really go out in the evening, and there’s no pizza or beer to be had, so it’s cigarettes and conversation instead. Tonight the group in the pit was an American reporter for Stars and Stripes, a Greek war correspondent, a young army specialist, and I. We elders, full of informed opinion and experience, held forth on the war in general and the situation in Baghdad in particular until the soldier broke in:
The way I see it, there are two ways to rule people. There’s ruling by inspiration, and there’s ruling by fear. It’s harder to achieve inspiration, but if you can get there in the long run it’s easier because you inspire people to take initiative to do things for themselves. Ruling by fear is easier until that day that people stand up to you, and all your power goes away.
We’re trying to help the Iraqis find their inspiration. The insurgents are trying to rule by fear. They want to terrify people into thinking that their children are not safe, so that they stay at home and don’t get used to this new life under democracy. They want to attack the things we build, like schools, so that the people see them as temporary. We can give them, but they want people to believe that they’ll come along and take them away.
I’d rather be on the side of inspiration.
We were effectively silenced.
I asked the young man if I could quote him. He said I could use his ideas, but not his name. Clearly, he doesn’t consider himself anything special; he doesn’t want anyone singling him out. So these are just the spontaneous, anonymous reflections of one of our regular, run-of-the-mill men in the field.
Now that’s what I call a true source of inspiration.
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haystack's 12th:
Conservatives (and Presidential Candidates especially) shall offer no aid and comfort to the opposition in times of legislative conflict (and ensuing political campaigns).
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
Inside blogsball joke: A while back, someone once remarked that if the world came to an end, the WaPo's headline would read: "World Comes To an End: Women and Children Hardest Hit."
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
I should have clarified--you don't have to smoke to go hang out in the pit--unfortunately my running schedule precludes it but I do appreciate the others keeping the mosqitoes at bay.
"I'm kind of old-fashioned. I like to engage my brain before my mouth." Donald Rumsfeld
...maybe, someday, in a place where no one will see it.
Just so there's no misunderstanding, AE, I'm being sarcastic here. I'm trying to point out how the MSM can take something as truly inspiring as what you just wrote, and stylisticly pee on it, in hopes of masking its brilliance.
Charlie Mike, AE! (Ask Jeff to explain). If you can get over to the 3rd Infantry Division, tell Mr. Potter and the imagery section that I say hi. (You can access my real name through Redstate TOC, if you need it).
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
Is that so many of the Democrats and opponents of this war look at a guy like that and think he's the enemy, that he's on the wrong side, that he's the guy who is deluded, that he's the one who is naive. How are they going to answer those people 20 years from now if they get their way?
Or else they're completely relativist and believe that neither side in this conflict is better than the other.
Or they're just politically craven and are willing to ignore it all because it's politically untenable for them.
Please keep the reports coming.
The current liberal intellectual opposition to the war is probably best encapsulated in an editorial written by Robert Kaiser of the Washington Post a few months ago -- a speech that was evidently picked up by Jane Fonda and repeated virtually word-for-word a few days later:
For a gray-haired journalist whose career included 18 months covering the Vietnam War for The Washington Post, it is a source of amazement to realize that my country has done this again. We twice took a huge risk in the hope that we could predict and dominate events in a nation whose history we did not know, whose language few of us spoke, whose rivalries we didn't understand, whose expectations for life, politics and economics were all foreign to many Americans.
This anonymous Specialist on the ground in Iraq has a much clearer picture of why we're there and what we're fighting for than anything Robert Kaiser and the combined liberal intellectual braintrust has been able to assemble by referencing each other's opinions throughout the past five years.
Kaiser puts it all down to American hubris and some blockheaded inability to percieve reality, because we're "ethnocentric":
In truth, we are ethnocentric to a fault, certain of our own superiority, convinced that others see us as we do, blithely indifferent to cultural, religious, political and historical realities far different from our own. These failings -- more than any tactical or strategic errors -- help explain the U.S. catastrophes in Vietnam and Iraq.
But what is there that is mysterious or impenetrable or "ethnocentric" about attempting to quash an insurgency that is blowing up schools and bombing politicians and killing innocent civilians to wage a campaign of terror and fear and death and prevent any form of government or stable society from taking root in Iraq? What is ethnocentric in saying that if that campaign of ultimately triumphs, all that will happen is that is that the campaign of terror and fear will be validated?
You're right Kowalski--and that was so breathtakingly simple and profound about the moment. The three of us were so mired in details and nuances and then this kid just took a breath and came out with a clarity of vision that just floored us.
"I'm kind of old-fashioned. I like to engage my brain before my mouth." Donald Rumsfeld
I'm sitting here in envy and admiration that you're there to give us these dispatches. Kaiser and the rest have never been able to extricate themselves from the paradigm of failure in Vietnam, and they've had 30 years to polish that lump of coal and pretend that it's a diamond. It isn't surprising that our political leaders buy into it also.
The thing that they're still missing is that compromising on the concept of freedom and (even more nefariously) turning the quest for freedom inside-out and using it as a justifcation for defeat isn't legitimate. It has real consequences.
Robert Kaiser might be able to sit back in his chair at the Washington Post if the Democrats have their way and tell everyone in the Western world how correct he was, and how he was proven right because of the eventual outcome, but all of the people we abandoned in Iraq as a result of his thinking won't have that luxury. They're the ones who are still going to be "stuck in Iraq."
We can't let that happen. If the Democrats had the slightest shred of human decency, they wouldn't be trying to cause it to happen, but they don't.
America is ready for a multilingual president. Bush should sot back that America already has.
"What most people really object to when they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself."
-- Milton Friedman
I think this is my favorite of your pieces so far, V!
"I'm just beginning...The pen's in my hand...Ending unplanned"
This is a beautiful quote that encapsulates the very essence of the two sides fighting for control over the region. But in this simplification, fear vs. inspiration, I doubt you will find anyone arguing we should be trying to rule through fear (except maybe the "glass parking lot" crowd). We all know we should be ruling by inspiration. The problem seems to be (at least from these dispatches from Iraq) is that the Iraqis remain untrustworthy. I hope we can inspire them to rebuild their country, and from these reports it sounds as if we can, but it will take time. It will take years, hundreds of billions of dollars, and much blood. I think NOT following through leads to an even bigger disaster, but, despite the beauty of this young man's quote, we must accept as a country the fact that we MUST follow through until our objectives are complete, but the average American who lives so far removed from the truth on the ground has a hard time justifying why years of military involvement, hundreds of billions more, and the loss of American life is worth it. They act as if we can just snap our fingers, be done, and go back to American Idol, but we cannot do that. The disaster that leaving would cost is imeasurable, but we must also make people realize that, although unpleasant, we must stay in for the long haul, no matter the costs and deaths, for, to leave such chaos in the center of a part of the world that is already too chaotic is simply world suicide. Sure, hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of deaths, and years of involvement sounds really really really crappy, but the alternative is so much worse.
...and a hearty, collective handshake from us. The simple wisdom he espoused is inspiring.
GREAT ARTICLE!!
However I am constanly amazed that people who write professionally fail to use proper grammer. The following sentence should have ended with the word "me" NOT "I".
Tonight the group in the pit was an American reporter for Stars and Stripes, a Greek war correspondent, a young army specialist, and I.
Safeway Sal
is as polite as telling someone they can't spell.
“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15.”
-Ronald Reagan
AckyPacky's written a beautiful article, and her visit to Baghdad is not without some risk and expense!
Focus on CONTENT!!! Better yet, go read a dictionary, or parse some sentences!
Get that soldier to congress!!! Let him give testimony to the surrender monkeys that are trying to cut his funding! How could anyone disagree with such wisdom?
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
has learned one of life's lessons very well. He may not seek nor expect our praise, but he certainly deserves our respect. I choose to praise the young specialist as well.
Coincidentally, his analogy holds true when applied to the basic tenants that differentiate conservatism from liberalism --- self-achievement and responsibility vs. victimization and fear.
***
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.” – Ronald Reagan