Why We Fight

By: Bernard Chazelle

I try not to make it a habit to quote David Brooks but sometimes his wisdom is too un-unquotable to resist.

He explains to us why we ain't leaving Iraq any time soon. He is 100% correct. He prioritizes the reasons as follows:

There would be private but powerful opposition from Arab leaders... There would be irate opposition from important sections of the military... There would be important criticism from nonpartisan military experts.

Not to mention the pizza deliverers who cater for think tanks (I hate it when Times columnists forget pizza deliverers. Unintentional? Yeah, right...)

Look Brooks, I understand as well as the next guy that the No1 reason we're there is to please Arab dictators. Fine. I get it. Then we need to please the generals. You've heard the expression "going postal." Well, when generals have no wars to fight, they "go general" and that's ugly. Then, of course, we need to satisfy the needs of the experts who advise the generals before they go general. (And then the pizza deliverers...)

Brooks should take his logic to the next step. We need drunk drivers to serve the needs of ER doctors. We need criminals to give lawyers something to do. We need children to satisfy pedophiles and women to keep rapists in business. We need large urban centers to make Shock & Awe possible. We need the New York Times to showcase the twisted minds of its columnists.





Posted at February 12, 2008 09:55 AM

