The Economist and British polling company YouGov recently polled Americans on a wide range of subjects. Down the list I found this:
27. Which of these is the most important issue for you?
The war in Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1%
The economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36%
Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
The environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6%
Terrorism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Gay rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3%
Education . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8%
Health care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Social security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10%
The budget deficit . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7%
The war in Afghanistan . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1%
Taxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
What I want to know is this: Who the HELL are these 2% of the American people who give a flying fark about Iraqis or Afghans and where are they?
I've never been able to find anyone at all. But, then again, it's a big country.
In the meantime, billions a month and the best of us are asked to die, for less-than-nothing: Muslim savages.
Who, no surprise to me, no one in America gives a rat's ass about.
One of them is right here, Jourdan. A believer that people can change if given the opportunity, if allowed to taste the fruits of freedom. Yeah, I'll die an unrequited optimist, having seen no change. But be fucked if I'll give up.
ReplyDeleteLuther, let me introduce you via email to comrades of mine who have served in both countries....A few emails from them will cure your optimism.
ReplyDeleteOr, if you're the historical type, check out the reports to the Foreign Office in the 1920's from Iraq...they read exactly the same as today, and as the reports will read in 2110.
But, on the other hand, I'm glad to finally meet one of the 2%!
And the US is pulling out when.....
ReplyDeleteWhen do you expect to move out to your post Jourdan?
ReplyDeleteHiya Fay..I leave June 22 for arrival June 23. I got some jpegs of the apartment in Vienna two days ago and the view from my living room is downtown European rooftops with the forest in the distance.
ReplyDeleteI simply could not be happier about it, even though it appears from WashDC that the job is going to be very demanding and difficult.
Mad Maynard: Oi! This is a private members bar, exclusively for supporters of the greatest football team in the world, Manchester United, now please. Enlighten me.
ReplyDelete[shouting]
Mad Maynard: Who the fuck are you?
Scott: Um... we're the Manchester United Fan Club... from Ohio.
Jeez, I really, really like Eurotrip. What a great film. Fun stuff. A foreign service favorite, btw.
Hostel Clerk (Joanna Lumley): Hello, and welcome to Amsterdam's finest and most luxurious youth hostel. We feature one medium sized room containing 70 beds which can sleep up to 375 bodies a night. There is no bathroom. Nor is there one nearby. If you do not wish to have your valuables stolen I suggest destroying them or discarding them right now. You can also try hiding your valuables. In your anus. This will deter some but of course not all thieves. Once you are inside, the doors are chained and locked from the outside. They will not be opened again until morning, no matter what. Should a fire occur due to our faulty wiring or, uh, the fireworks factory upstairs you will be incinerated along with the valuables that you have hidden in your anus. Tips are greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAw, crap. Thread confusion. Apologies. I blame the vodka.
ReplyDeleteI've read the reports from the twenties, Churchill's thoughts, and many others. I don't think I'm oblivious of the problem. But as I see it, it is a problem with only two answers. Change or annihilation. I'd rather give a good honest blow at the one before engaging the later. The problem can't be ignored and won't go away just because we wish it so.
ReplyDeleteHey Jourdan, good luck on the 22nd. I hope that Europe lives up to your expectations.
ReplyDeleteI don't have unrealistic expectations; I have lived there before and realize it's not paradise nor an answer to my problems. However, there is good coffee and castles.
ReplyDeleteWhich of these is the most important issue for you?
ReplyDeleteSo for about 2% of the population, war is the most important issue.
This feels about right, even to an unrepentant neo-con imperialist such as myself.
I would select the economy as my most important issue, since without an economy, all victories are Pyrrhic. The economic battle is IMHO existential at this point.
That said: I'm very sympathetic to the few percent for whom the wars are most important, because it is likely that they are the ones who are either fighting or have loved ones who are fighting.
Apparently Iraq and Afghanistan are only two of the 75 countries that the Special Forces are deployed in. Obama is certainly getting his war on. Perhaps he has assessed the threat from global jihad to be more severe than that great scaremonger Bush had made it out to be.
One wonders about the great mass of progressive activists who marched against Bush and proclaimed the "fierce moral urgency of now" - obviously they've found new sources of urgency now that Obama is in power.
My fearless (and cynical) prediction is that Obama is as committed to Afghanistan as Nixon was to Vietnam; we will be out before he is up for re-election, and the Taliban will be in power two years later.
I think there is a little of the chicken and the egg in the discussion of economy and war. Should the war become large enough any discussion of the economy will become, if not moot, certainly down the list of priorities.
ReplyDeleteI hold no illusions about any degree of success in Afghanistan but I do hold hope that Iraq might in some way succeed.