A Rational Man

Read this article in the Town Hall. This article, and others like it, piss me off. In it, Dennis Prager makes an argument against leaving Iraq. He makes statements like this: ...even if the war was a major blunder and even if everything the Left charges -- including "Bush lied" -- were true (which they are, my addition), none of these contentions has any bearing on the question of what should be done now. The preoccupation of the Left with the alleged wrongness of the war and the alleged deceit of President Bush is another example of passion (even though they're right - again, my italics) rather than reason determining a leftist position on a major issue. So, first of all, Dennis is basically admitting that the war was a "major blunder", even though he doesn't come right out and say it. He actually uses it as part of the basis for the rest of his argument. He forgot to add athe bottom of the 2nd paragraph: Using the same "logic" that was used to get us into Iraq in the first place to evaluate what should be done now is the very definition of insanity. Somehow, I don't think he'd ever admit that. Prager then goes into this paragraph: A responsible, rational opponent of the war in Iraq and of George W. Bush (in other words, a person who would come to the same conclusion that Dennis would) would say, "I am appalled by the disastrous war in Iraq, appalled by the wasted American lives, appalled by the moral wasteland of Iraq, and I loathe this president. But we are in Iraq. And as much as I loathe supporting anything this president does and as much as I oppose this war, I know what is likely to happen if we leave Iraq. So I cannot in good conscience advocate an American withdrawal or fixing a specific date to do so." So, I guess it is totally obvious that any "responsible, rational" person thinks we should stay in Iraq forever, if the President wants us to. I'm glad we got that cleared up. Just after he finishes his admonishment of anti-war folks for their lack of "logic", Dennis launches into a massive barrage of fear-mongering: "It will mean the end of the possibility of the rise of a moderate form of Islam for the foreseeable future" - Oh no! "...they will have earned the right to claim that they constitute an unstoppable force." - Not that! "Iraq will turn into a far more potent terror base than Afghanistan could ever be..." - Yikes, terrorists! "One of the major powers of the Arab world, one of the most oil-rich countries in the world, may well be ruled by jihadists." - Gee, that must be bad! (Even though Bush tried to do business with thefundamentalist Taliban in the 1990's, but that's not the point...) "The American military will suffer a crisis of morale that it will not soon overcome. " - The US Army will quit! "It is almost inconceivable, for example, that the Jordanian monarchy would long survive an American defeat in Iraq." - Withdrawl = defeat, and people will DIE! (not that they're not dying now, but that's beside the point...) "The very best Iraqis -- and members of their families -- will be slaughtered like animals." - Oh my God! That's TOTALLY different than what's happening now! " those who have heretofore murdered fellow Muslims will focus their attention on murdering us. " - If we leave, YOU WILL DIE!!! Basically, he says that if we leave Iraq, the world as we know it will end. Excellent use of logic, Dennis.