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Musicmystery -> RE: Taliban supporter in U.S.: 'Moral Equivalent of Founding Fathers' (4/18/2012 7:25:01 PM)
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Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
--W.B. Yeats
Well. This has been enlightening, amusing, and befuddling. I'd never have guessed the insane tangents to which this discussion would branch. A stone has many ripples, I guess.
Of all the speculating, defending, interpreting, reframing, second-guessing, and more from a palette of posters, one dissection of the OP was left ignored and untouched:
What I wrote.
First, there's a laughing smiley. Generally, we take that as indicating sharing a joke. But no--early on, "I'm assuming it's not a joke..." Um. Okie dokie then.
But wait! There are words in the OP, typed in my own hand!
About negotiation.
Reagan was right to negotiate with the Mujahideen. Yeah, he had this insanity for whacking at anything communist, but in fairness, he inherited the strategy from Carter, who had hoped to lure the Soviets into the "Afghanistan trap." Interestingly, the Soviets didn't want to go. They were repeatedly asked by the government of Afghanistan (quite different than an invasion), but hey, they were communists, so that's bad. It just is.
Why the ridicule today from dime-store cowboys with Internet connections?
Interesting that "negotiate" also means to navigate through safely; to manage or conduct satisfactorily; to arrange for or bring about -- not "to cowardly give in to our enemies or tribal people or other national leaders." To negotiate is to talk. That talk can include, "Well fuck you, we're not doing that!," though this may not be the most tactful phrasing, even if that's the negotiating position.
To negotiate our way through international relations, we need to negotiate. It's just reality.
And like it or not, Colin Powell was right: "Today's terrorist is tomorrow's prime minister."
Bush really should have listened to that guy once in a while. That mess was sheer arrogance.
Reagan, at least, was a man of good will. Simplistic and mistaken, yes, but honestly so.
It's not his fault he was elected.
But only the convenient parts of St. Ronnie are emulated.
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