I've set the TiVo for the President's speech tonight. At the moment, I have it set for CNN, but I'll change to C-Span if I can find it in their schedule.
I'm looking for one thing in his speech tonight. All I want is some sort of assurance that, somewhere in the bowels of the administration, they have some intention of eventually withdrawing from Iraq. Right now, I'm not convinced they do, and I just want to be told I am wrong. I know we'll never weasel a date out of them, or even a broad time frame, but can't he at least tell us that we aren't going to be over there forever?
On a fundamental level, I find it distasteful that my standards have sunk so low. Used to be that in wars, the public knew what the overall objective was. Creation of a government independent of the (former) colonial mother country, conquering territory, quashing a rebellion, defeating a dictator, etc. However noble or ignoble the purpose for the war was, there was some collective agreement as to the sign that the war's objective had been accomplished. This time around, I've given up knowing for myself what that sign is, and I'm resigned to knowing that the commanders know what it is and intend to stop when, whatever that is, it happens. It might also be nice to know that they are pursuing the eventual accomplishment of the objective, but let's not expect too much here.
No wonder I'm having a harder time than usual getting worked up about Independence Day.
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