FACTS VS. FANTASY: COSMIC WAR

Bob Gates,Sec.of Defense, is a
stickler for facts. He is as
prickly as a hedge-hog: do we
have all the facts, he asks? How
do they stack up? What do they
tell us, exactly? Facts are all-
important for him. Without them,
policy is bootless. Contrary to
them, policy is foolish.

The Decider? Not so much. He is a
fact-bender. He decides what are
facts, and what aren't. "We don't
torture," for instance. He can fly
without facts, or in the face of
them (Sunni-Shia hatred in Iraq.)
He flies by the seat of his pants,
regardless of what instruments say.
He's a true believer. He's on a
mission, like the man from La Mancha,
Don Quixote.

His mission (he has said) is
eradication of evil in the world (and
evil doers, don't forget). It is a
God-given mission, even though God
himself has heretofore seen fit to
allow free-reign to a lot of evil.

And the Decider has decided that it
is in Iraq that it all has to stop!
Not in Darfur. Not our problem. Not
in Tibet. The Chinese are our friends.
Not in Palestine. The Israelis are
God's chosen: they can do what they
want. Iraq is where we'll wear evil
out. No matter what the costs, we'll
pay it. And keep on paying. No matter
what the faint hearted, unbelievers,
claim: we will prevail because by (and
with) God we're right!

It's a cosmic war, you see. Reza Aslan
author of No God But God (of whom I've
spoken previously) explains cosmic war:
"Many religiously inspired terrorists,
confronted with a conflict that cannot
be won in any real or measurable terms,
recast the conflict into cosmic terms,
so that they're not fighting a real
war; they're fighting an imaginary war
that's actually taking place in heaven,
not between nations or armies, but
between angels of good and demons of
evil. That's the kind of conflict the
Jihadists are fighting. And the reason
that we are doing such a poor job of
counteracting the jihadists' mentality
is that we're fighting the exact same
unwinnable conflict. The way you win a
cosmic war is by refusing to fight in
one."

In answer to the question: How then
should we be fighting that reality?
Aslan answers: "We define it as a
criminal investigation of people that
need to be brought to justice. You
can't win a battle against an idea
with guns and bombs, you have to win
it with words." May I interject here
that "the pen is still mightier than
the sword?" "Words become the greatest
tools", adds Aslan: "The rhetoric that
we have been using to define this
conflict, this religiously charged, us
versus them rhetoric, has made victory
a more distant prospect. The way that
we are talking about this conflict, as
though the jihadists have it in their
power to bring down human civilization
as we know it, does nothing more than
validate the jihadists' cause and
provide them with the illusion of power."

And that's a fact. It's a fact that
Bob Gates, with his love of facts,
needs to give more attention. Until
he does, and acts accordingly, we'll
keep spinning our wheels in Iraq.
Lord knows the Dems in Congress and
running in the primaries, either
lack the knowledge or lack the
courage to expose the folly of this
present fiasco,and explain the true
dynamics of it.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net