The thing I wrote a long time ago.

I wrote this a long time ago (re: January-ish) in response to President Bush's speech about his new plan to increase troop levels in Iraq.

First, he reminds me to be afraid. I want to scream. I want to see the new plan without fear coloring my vision. I want to measure it carefully and logically, but now I’m scared, and not just of terrorists. I’m afraid of being lied to and manipulated.

He is praised for newfound humility. I am skeptical. I long for deeper honesty. The honesty to admit that simple desire, or even seeming necessity, does not make success inevitable. The humility to admit that there are fights that may not be winnable, mistakes that cannot be perfectly fixed. That would be real humility, but we are, for better or worse, a proud people.

Resignation sinks in. I have not enough information. I don’t know how two hundred or twenty thousand more troops will change the fight. I have guesses and suspicions but no real knowledge. So I am left with this new plan that seems not very new at all, and I have no concrete reasons to agree or disagree, only an overwhelming sense of helplessness and unease. And I have sadness, that although our president may bear the responsibility, he will not be among those who bear the costs.