Ambiguous Behavior

Okay, I’ll admit that all of the problems in the world are more complicated than the average person can understand. Life is not always strictly black and white, and many days there are so many shades of gray that we can’t always tell where the horizon ends and the clouds begin. Still, we should be able to agree on what is right and wrong, and what constitutes good behavior from bad.

I bring this up because it appears that our noble leaders in Washington cannot differentiate between the two extremes. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi toured the Mideast with a particular emphasis on Syria. I imagine the purpose of her trip was three parts fact-finding and one part opening the door for further diplomacy. The problem was that she didn’t get permission from the Bush administration and, Uncle Dick Cheney in particular, to make the trip.

Cheney characterized her trip as “bad behavior”. Granted, the Speaker's trip might lend some legitimacy to a country that sponsors terrorist activities, but sometimes, as all politicians know well, you do have to sleep with the devil to get the desired results. Unfortunately, Cheney’s criticism is not spread equally over Congress. Pelosi’s trip happened on the heels of another congressional delegation traveling to the Mideast, but Chaney didn’t say one word about that trip.

The only difference I can see between the traveling Congress people is that Pelosi’s name has a “D” after it, and the others had an “R” after their name. If you are a Republican and want to achieve regime change militarily, which could destroy thousands of more lives, then you are good. However, if you are a Democrat and want to achieve peace in the Mideast with diplomacy as advocated by the Iraq Study Group report, than you are bad. Thank you, Uncle Dick, for clarifying right from wrong for us in Washington!

Kids, this is the biggest crock of bull in Washington this week.

I can only imagine why Pelosi’s trip is bad for the administration. What is she thinking when she goes gallivanting off to strife-torn countries? Good Lord, if she is successful in bringing peace to the region then we won’t have to spend any more money on rebuilding Iraq! Haliburton might actually collapse! The entire military-industrial complex could be in jeopardy! Doesn’t Pelosi know how much of our economy is dependent on this war?

So what is right, and what is wrong? The answer is in the eye of the beholder and their respective spin-meisters. Apparently ramming a flawed policy of regime change through Congress while making your most trusted public servants (Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice) look like total fools on the world stage is good behavior. Abandoning one country where our most despised enemy lives (you remember Osama bin-Laden, don’t you, Uncle Dick?) to start another conflict in a more geographically strategic area is good behavior.

I don’t get it either, kids. Today’s moral has got to be that many people in the world have a skewed sense of right and wrong. It’s up to the rest of us to figure out the difference for ourselves.