. . .
A “In the past, proclaiming ‘National Defense’ supported any project or excused any invasion. Today, merely alluding to ‘National Security’ rationalizes anything however short-sighted or foolhardy or counterproductive or illegal or unconstitutional.”
B “Chanting ‘State Secrets’ is allowed to terminate the inquiry. We need to repeat the need for diplomacy over and over to advance our real ‘National Security’ interests. We cannot bomb our way to peace.”
. . .
A “Making sense of Syria is problematic. And a problem. We support one group this year that becomes our reviled enemy next year. The enemy we despise this year is our tenuous ally next year.”
B “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy, now or later.”
A “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy, just you wait.”
B “I don’t know if a person with a clear head and a thousand hours of spare time and a generous budget could discern what has gone on and is going on over there.”
. . .
A “Today, we are blessed because we don’t need to know the issues or the factions or the politics, we just need to know the players in America. The same folks who brought us the Iraq nightmare now propose to bring us the Iran nightmare.”
B “Elections have consequences. Romney would have us at war. O’Bama is avoiding the bait.”
A “He should have been prescient or at least astute enough not to proclaim a line, because the line often is just one side of the box that imprisons you.”
B “Mark my words, more is going on than we can even generally intuit.”
. . .
A “Everyone is concerned about the financial mess we are bequeathing to the proverbial grandchildren who are trotted out during spending debates. If America could transition from an unsustainable Empire to a sustainable Republic, we could reduce offensive military spending and bestow less debt to the proverbial grandchildren. We also could bequeath a world with proverbial grandchildren in other lands who have not learned from their grandparents to hate America.”
B “Hate is contagious.”
A “And inherited.”
. . .
A “China and Japan are playing mouse and cat over some islands.”
B “Who is the mouse?”
. . .
A “And the Falklands are returning to the international radar.”
B “Some pronounce it the Malvinas.”
A “Oil, baby, it’s always pronounced oil.”
. . .
[See the “e-ssays” at The Drums of War (February 20, 2012) and Syria: Gas and Fog (August 26, 2013).]
Bumper sticker of the week:
Diplomacy is what happens when the body count gets high enough
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