July 28,
2004 #01: Political
Satire/Commentary where satire is always commentary
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author, Jim Wrenn.
John Kerry's multiple political personality leads to invention of Political Personality Forecast Machine.·
It doesn't diminish the nobility of heroism and courage to recognize that one's
possession or demonstration of such traits does not by itself vest one with
wisdom. Indeed, it's not uncommon for people able to summon extraordinary
courage and heroism in particular circumstances to lack the judgment and skills
to perform successfully and decisively in other contexts.
Determining whether one who demonstrated noble valor is suitably qualified for other roles requires evaluation of such person's performance in contexts relevant to such other roles. Although this is a daunting task, technology has provided the answer. PoliSat.Com proudly announces its invention of the Political Personality Scope capable of revealing the full range of political personalities of political candidates.
Some who demonstrate the capacity to make critical, instantaneous decisions exhibiting noble courage succumb to intellectual paralysis when confronted with decision-making responsibilities in other contexts affording the decision-maker the opportunity to evaluate a broad range of choices. What causes this phenomenon?
Highly valuing the nobility of risking one's life for another can motivate one to instantaneously undertake such risks regardless of whether the chances of success may be so low that failure would motivate others in hindsight to judge such action as foolish though morally noble. Such person's moral reward is not an assurance of success but rather the moral certitude about the moral rightness of the effort. Paradoxically, the desire to be morally noble can lead to intellectual paralysis in other contexts affording opportunities for reflection rather than demanding instantaneous decision-making. For some such people, the desire for moral certitude makes them ineffective and unwise decision-makers in other contexts by motivating them to always seek a course of action that could not be deemed foolish or morally unsound in hindsight. Obviously, this does not make them "bad" people, but it can make them poor leaders. John Kerry seems to be such a person.
A person capable of heroism and suitable for legislative responsibilities may be too wedded to a desire for moral certitude to be an effective executive. When Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower planned Operation Overlord, they did not have the luxury of expecting such plan to guarantee success or prevent disasters of both large and small proportions. Many rangers died climbing Pointe du Hoc in a mission designed on flawed intelligence. Did they die in vain? Of course not. Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower correctly understood the stakes to be high enough to deny them the luxury of achieving optimal margins of error in strategic and tactical planning.
George W. Bush correctly discerned the most important lesson of 9-11: It showed the stakes to be too high to afford us the luxury of seeking optimal margins of error in tactical and strategic planning in a world-wide war against us by barbaric adherents to medieval fanaticism. Regardless of whether Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Ladan were to have been sworn ideological adversaries, history has taught us that shared hatred of others often motivate such sworn enemies sooner or later to forge tactical and/or strategic alliances. Remember the pacts between Hitler and Stalin before World War II?
Given the decades of history of Saddam Hussein's behavior and capabilities, given that intelligence services reasonably believed he still possessed weapons of mass destruction, given that intelligence services also reasonably believed that even if such were not the case, he would resume developing them at the earliest opportunity, given that there would have been increasing motivations for Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Laden to sooner or later collaborate against their common enemy rather than merely maintaining contacts; given the fact that to maintain pressure on Saddam Hussein to "cooperate" with U.N. inspectors would have required us to maintain in the region a military force many times larger than the token-size force whose presence Usama bin Laden cited as part of the justification for 9-11, it would have been foolish for Bush to have done otherwise than to topple Saddam Hussein sooner rather than later. Why would we want a leader who would wait until the threat were to be "imminent" and the dangers and risks of casualties were to be far greater? Fortunately, Bush, unlike Kerry, has the vision and wisdom to make such executive decisions with full knowledge that 9-11 showed the stakes to be too high to afford us the luxury of optimizing the minimization of risks.
--Jim Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com
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