TYRANNY OF LOWERED EXPECTATIONS

If I hear one more “serious” expert say “the surge” is working I’m going to make the mythical vomitoriums of Roman life a reality - in said experts home. Let’s keep some perspective here.

First, the key political goals – which were the rationale for the surge – are far from being met. Second, we’ve been battered by such incompetence and ineptitude, which has put us in such a stupor, that we're now ‘settling’ ... Like bar patrons at ‘Last Call’ we have dropped our standards and are driven by the tyranny of lowered expectations. In this environment any hint of good news – both real and imagined – is seen as a success. Allow me to change metaphors.

If you left your teen-age kids to care for your home, and you returned early to find a mess from the party they threw, you are not going to breathe a sigh of relief and say, “Thank God. At least they didn’t burn down the house ... I think I'll give them the car keys as a reward.” Life doesn’t work that way (and if it does in your world, you probably deserve to have your house burn down).

Guess what? We left George Bush in charge of our national security house. Now we’re told, in spite of Team Bush taking us into a war of choice based on a pack of lies, that we should be grateful for recent successes. In fact, we’re told that we should embrace the surge’s Pyrrhic-like "victory" – as if reduced violence justifies years of poor judgment, ineptitude, and the continued drain on America's blood & treasure.

My friends, let's remember one thing: We are the United States of America. In war we don’t hand out medals for participation, or moral victories. And we certainly don’t lower our standards by moving the goal posts so the incompetent can be complimented for kicking easy field goals that should have been made early in the game.

The Surge – like George Bush’s presidency – is a failure. Unless, of course, you happen to be governed by the tyranny of lowered expectations.

- Mark