I don’t if it’s because I’m sick, or tired, or sick and tired. The whole Iraq thing has been depressing me of late. (Nor, and perhaps by no coincidence, am I the only one finding the waiting, the fear, the uncertainties so wearing.)
I know a lot of people — people who I respect — are opposed to the war. And others, who I also respect, favor it. I stand with the latter, but that doesn’t mean my mind and heart are so certain that the longer things stand still, the longer people have to natter and equivocate and call for delay and call for patience and call for more and more of the same … It wears at me. And it makes me wonder.
It makes me wonder if I should be completely certainly, 100% dedicated the cause, in order to legitimately suggest we go to war.
The more it makes me wonder whether being so certain is, on the other hand, a sign of fanaticism (no matter which direction it points).
The more it gives me time to worry. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe only thinking about the impending conflict can lead you to actually think of how horrible a war could be. Is that a good thing? Does contemplating the little picture distract you from the big one? Or can the big picture be a distraction from the little one?
Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do something so well that no one could find fault with it.
— Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Many risks fail because they were not taken in time. Too many risks are postponed until unnecessarily elaborate preparations are made. This does not mean that one should say, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” That is foolish and self-destructive. … But don’t sit back waiting for the perfect moment. It almost never comes.
— David S. Viscott (b. 1928)
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
— Frank Tibolt
This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.
— Omar Bradley (1893-1981)
ESTRAGON: I can’t go on like this.
VLADIMIR: That’s what you think.
— Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), Waiting for Godot (1952)
Or maybe I shouldn’t be thinking about all this stuff when I’m sick. Or tired.
Don’t let yourself be held hostage by the fear and the waiting. That means that THEY’VE won.
“Wait to be certain of anything and you’ll find yourself looking out from the inside of an urn.”
–Vakar Lorska, in De Camp’s The Tritonian Ring
We’d be 100% certain when thousands or tens of thousands of Americans were 100% dead.
We need to remember we are not Commander in Chief. Sometimes I get the impression that the President needs our personal approval before he does anything. There is a reason why this country is a representative Republic.
This is not to say there is no cause for concern. I continue to pray for wisdom for all World leaders, particularly tomorrow. As if there is not enough to worry about see this.
It’s certainly the prerogative of the American people to provide feedback to their elected representatives about what they should, or shouldn’t, do, not just during election season, but at all times.
That being said, actual leaders sometimes do things that the folks they represent don’t agree with, initially, sometimes never.
I was keying off your concern over certainty. We don’t need to be certain we are right but the President does. If our wisdom fails us, it is no big deal. On the other hand, if the President’s does, it is. That is why we need to pray for the President’s wisdom. We can afford to be foolish here, he can’t.
True. Prayer, no matter what foreign policy position one holds, is probably not a bad idea.