Decision making
Fortunately, all our choices are not soul rending. Which cereal to purchase this week. Which of my children shall I phone first this weekend. We can get through most days making the usual sorts of small preferences that help us manage our time and resources.
Then there come along some bigger ones. Shall I ask her to marry me? Should I buy a fuel efficient car or the SUV I really want? Or stick with the old heap? How much money should I put in my retirement fund? Even these pale in contrast to the large societal options.
At this point I must remember that for most human beings on this planet none of the above are choices. When you live on $2 a day and yours is one of the thirty thousand children who die each day there are few moral decisions beyond how to get through the day.
America is at a political decision point. It is a soul rending moment. We cannot ‘win’ the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan. If we leave soon the place is likely to disintegrate into even greater chaos than it is now. If we stay it is unlikely to be any different.
If President Bush is correct and this conflict is the equivalent of WWII and the terrorists are the equivalent of Nazism we ought to apply a similar effort in personnel and money. We should be making significant sacrifices at home and sending millions of men and women to the ‘front.’ After winning the war in Japan and Germany we kept soldiers there for....well, they are still there!
The moral choice we face is what to do as a people when no matter what we do there will be terrible consequences. Leave now; stay a little longer; send more troops. We have badly understood the cultures and politics of the Middle East and will reap the consequence. It is not only George W. Bush and his administration who are responsible for this debacle, but all who bought into the idea that reprisal was the best way to respond to September 11, 2001.
What we need now is a leader who will say, “People, we made a bad mistake. We are in deep trouble. We need to find a way out that will lead eventually a better world and we need to be willing to accept the result of what we have done.”
Any takers?
Then there come along some bigger ones. Shall I ask her to marry me? Should I buy a fuel efficient car or the SUV I really want? Or stick with the old heap? How much money should I put in my retirement fund? Even these pale in contrast to the large societal options.
At this point I must remember that for most human beings on this planet none of the above are choices. When you live on $2 a day and yours is one of the thirty thousand children who die each day there are few moral decisions beyond how to get through the day.
America is at a political decision point. It is a soul rending moment. We cannot ‘win’ the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan. If we leave soon the place is likely to disintegrate into even greater chaos than it is now. If we stay it is unlikely to be any different.
If President Bush is correct and this conflict is the equivalent of WWII and the terrorists are the equivalent of Nazism we ought to apply a similar effort in personnel and money. We should be making significant sacrifices at home and sending millions of men and women to the ‘front.’ After winning the war in Japan and Germany we kept soldiers there for....well, they are still there!
The moral choice we face is what to do as a people when no matter what we do there will be terrible consequences. Leave now; stay a little longer; send more troops. We have badly understood the cultures and politics of the Middle East and will reap the consequence. It is not only George W. Bush and his administration who are responsible for this debacle, but all who bought into the idea that reprisal was the best way to respond to September 11, 2001.
What we need now is a leader who will say, “People, we made a bad mistake. We are in deep trouble. We need to find a way out that will lead eventually a better world and we need to be willing to accept the result of what we have done.”
Any takers?
posted by Thomas Van Brunt | 11:35 AM
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1 comments
