From time to time, the odious burden of measuring lunacy falls to the pages of this blog. Measurement can be an epic ambition where mere illustration is, for a number of reasons, inadequate. When lunacy runs deep, illustration is a pointless exercise. And so we use measurement. Of course X is silly, but how silly is it?
And so we’ve been deploying the hypothetical of the dispassionate but reasonable space alien, which in turn is something we rather shamelessly purloined from such fine shows as My Favorite Martian, Mork and Mindy, and a bunch of other stuff that came between those two. Assume a stranger, well-versed in reason and logic but wholly unacquainted with our customs. The visitor has missed out on newsworthy events both recent and distant…he can consume our talking points only by viewing recordings of them, and considering them on their merits.
What would he say? When he asks questions, can you predict what they would be? And how, oh Lordy how, would you go about answering them?
We did it here, and we did it again here. And a few other places too.
I don’t know if Charles Krauthammer reads my blog. I would expect hardly anybody does. But how then do you explain this gem which was brought to my attention while perusing the page of blogger friend Buck out in Portales, NM.
Thought experiment: Bring in a completely neutral observer — a Martian — and point out to him that the United States is involved in two hot wars against radical Islamic insurgents. One is in Afghanistan, a geographically marginal backwater with no resources and no industrial or technological infrastructure. The other is in Iraq, one of the three principal Arab states, with untold oil wealth, an educated population, an advanced military and technological infrastructure that, though suffering decay in the later years of Saddam Hussein’s rule, could easily be revived if it falls into the right (i.e., wrong) hands. Add to that the fact that its strategic location would give its rulers inordinate influence over the entire Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf states. Then ask your Martian: Which is the more important battle? He would not even understand why you are asking the question.
I’ve been robbed, but I’m not calling the police. I’m quite flattered.
As far as the point Krauthammer is making: I’m afraid he’s put the hypothetical space alien to better use than I ever did. Some of the talking points coming from our donkey friends have been emboldened by a few too many move-on-dot-org rallies, it seems, and have now become so dizzy and disoriented that they make sense only to earthlings. Coming out of a genie’s lamp after a couple thousand years, trying to make sense of it all using reason and common sense — you’d achieve confusion and very little else. The oil and other resources in Iraq make it materially valuable to the United States…and to nobody else? How do you figure such assets can be used only to slime the current administration, and do nothing to advance the strategic value of the theater? How can the “real war” be fought somewhere else, after this patch of ground has been surrendered?