E Pluribus Unum

by Mark Adams

A war of choice cannot rest on one asscheek alone. ~~ Atrios

Here's my dilemma. Is the inestimable Digby right? Must we get/stay ugly, mad, and fight the Republicans with every ounce of our being -- and play as dirty as them?

I realize it is churlish of us liberals to attempt to defend ourselves from this kind of bad faith and even worse for us to lose our Gary Cooper cool. But, you know, when you push people far enough and hard enough they start to fight for their survival. The level of vitriol and hate emanating from the right --- and encouraged by Republicans leaders of all stripes --- has been overwhelming. These past twelve years alone have been characterized by smears, toxic rhetoric, impeachments, abuse of power, stolen elections, power mad governance, corruption and ineptitude. So yes, we're angry --- but more importantly, we are fearful for our country.

Until Republicans admit what they have wrought and recognize that their trash talking and boot-to-the-throat mode of fetid politics are responsible for our state today, then for the good of the country, I hope the left remains angry and battles them back with everything they've got.

Or do we listen to our inner Gary Cooper, wearing a Duncan Black Hat, taking aim at wanker de jure, Dean Barnett, at Hugh Hewitt's?

[Barnett's] Conclusion: We Need to Bomb the Everliving Shit out of These Ungrateful Little Ill-Mannered Foreign Peckerheads.

No, he really says that. The only answer, as it has always been, is to stamp out that ferocious, pitiless savagery ferociously and savagely, without pity.

At the end of this war, Iraq must necessarily be composed of people who always wanted to live in peace and the one-time enemies of peace who have come to realize they have no other choice but to live in peace. How much killing will this take? That will depend on how many enemies of peace there are and how determined they are to live in a state of war.

Though he does add, 'One thing's for certain - the more resolute we are, the less killing there will be.' Indeed. The more people we kill, the fewer people we will, uh, have to kill.

The reason this whole Iraqi adventure was always doomed was precisely this inability to decide if we were out for retribution or justice, revenge or charity, occupation or liberation. A war of choice cannot rest on one asscheek alone.

Is wrong simply wrong? Reading Atrios' critique of the wingnut tactics which got us into the Iraq mess tends to support the idea that such bahavior is exactly the opposite of what we are, what we believe. Fighting barbarism with barbarism is anathama to civilized behavior.

This is what the GOP warmongers have reduced us to, our basest animal instincts, fighting them here, so we don't have to send our children to fight for them over there.