just an ordinary post

I work with this Russian guy. I frequently complain about the management, often trying to put it into the larger context of unfairness to workers in general. He says to me, "What can you do? It has always been this way?"
What can I do?! I can do lots of things.
I can complain, loudly, bitching, moaning, swearing, ranting. I can do the same thing on a blog. I can vote for the lesser of two evils. I can support others who've been wronged by the system. These are little things, but my slights are little slights. My protests are generally ignored, on the whole. But I'll still make 'em.
The Russian is a naturalized citizen. He has grabbed capitalism with both hands, and is happily jacking it around, waiting for his Reward. But he seems to have missed the greatest thing about Americans: They dont take shit lying down.
The BushCorp would like people to just stop complaining about the War. But complaining is the American Birthright, and it's entered our souls, and if we ever stop doing it, then we're no longer Americans.

Maybe what distracts people from American hard-headed pragmatism is our, for lack of a better word, "reasonableness". We like to think we're a reasonable people, and over all I'd guess we are (this is not to say that we're not also a bunch of arrogant, self-centered, self-satisfied bastards. We are). So we think that everyone else will be reasonable, too. And we sit back, and we wait for everyone else to be reasonable, too. Eventually, if we figure out that others are not going to be reasonable, we stand up, and try to sort it all out. The Republicans, as we enter yet another round of stealing from the poor, and giving to the rich, may soon have their noses rubbed in this also.

Do you know why people like Harry Potter? It aint 'cause they're crazy about magic. It's because Harry Potter, plain mediocre Harry Potter, wizard ordinaire, does what he has to do against the bad guy. He doesnt care much for it, it tortures him sometimes, but he does it because he has to. Same with Star Wars, same with Lord of the Rings, same with Die Hard, same with John Wayne, same with Jackie Chan (yes, I know he's not American). American Heroes are all ordinary guys. Not Princes, not Kings, not ready-made Champions. Ordinary people.
Ordinary people like those on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. Here in the U.S. we just went, yeah, heroes, "let's roll", that's right. I have to wonder what Osama thought when he heard that a random plane load of people, when they realised that they werent getting out alive, decided they werent just going to sit there and wait for the end.
When that changes, then truly, be fearful for the future of America.

What made me bring all this up was that I was thinking about Iraq, and the call to bring home the soldiers. And, much as I'd like to do that (because all the killing, both us and them, is doing no one any good) I'm not sure we can, and still like ourselves afterwards. We went over there thinking that we were going to kick the Bad Guy's ass. And we did, we most certainly did. But then we discovered that maybe the Bad Guy wasnt as bad as we'd been told. But there we were anyway, in the midst of a huge mess that we had created, surrounded by people who were really starting to hate us. But when you make a mess, what do you do as a respondsible adult? You clean it up.
The biggest problem? Iraq is a country filled with ordinary people who are starting do whatever they think it takes to get rid of us. But it's not reasonable to leave this mess. And we're surrounded by bad guys... they are bad guys, right? It cant be us, because we're not that way... are we? Plus, so far, we've done a really, really bad job of cleaning up. One sometimes is forced to wonder if those in charge are even interested in cleaning up.

Someone, it may have been Rude Pundit, said that Americans like things to be concrete. That's why we went to Iraq: we were shown a concrete danger, and we went in and got rid of it. Except now it may not have been so dangerous after all. And the Iraqi arent acting like they're very grateful to have been delivered from it. And there's been so much death and destruction by us and against us, and no one is quite sure why any more.
So now we seek something concrete: A day that we leave, a day when we dust off our hands and say, "there we go, it's a bit tatty, but I think she'll hold", then go back home to the wife and kids.

The last time we had a mess like this was during that favorite bug-a-boo of both sides, the Viet Nam War. A lot of bad decisions were made then, some by soldiers, but most by Leaders. A lot of bad decisions are being made now, most by Leaders, and some by soldiers. But the thing to remember about the soldiers is that any bad decision they might make is done under a level of stress that few of us safe in our homes in America can imagine, while the bad decisions made by our leaders are made under a pressure no greater than "how am I going to dodge those reporters on the way to dinner?"

During the Viet Nam War, soldiers were famously spit at, and jeered as "baby killers". This time, instead of harrassing a bunch of ordinary guys just trying to do what's right (even if they fuck it up sometimes), lets send some spittle in the proper direction: towards the Leaders whose only extraordinariness was in their failure.