The domino quagmire

[UpInArms]

http://www.pressherald.com/insight/stories/031019eyewash.shtml

It's all beginning to sound familiar. The Iraq adventure may have been a strategic mistake, our intelligence and tactical calculations may have been faulty, the cost in money and blood may have exceeded estimates, the expectations for success may have been inflated, but we can't reverse course now.

<snip>

George W. raised the specter of falling dominoes before his receptive audience of Legionnaires. Our military, said the president, was fighting "terrorism" in Iraq so Americans wouldn't have to face terrorists in New York, St. Louis or Los Angeles. Delaware's Joe Biden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a strong supporter of the Mideast intervention, echoed the Bush rationale and even expanded on it. If we didn't succeed in Iraq, warned Biden, a regional catastrophe would take place: terrorism would rise, and friendly Arab governments would fall, domino-like, in sequential order. In short, we may be hip-deep in the Big Muddy - the Big Sandy in this case - but there's no alternative except to slog on for another two, five, 10, 15 years, whatever it takes.

<snip>

A similar logic played out in Southeast Asia a generation ago, giving rise to the term "quagmire," which Webster's defines as "a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position." The Vietnam quagmire - I use the word advisedly - drained American manpower and resources for well over a decade. Iraq threatens to do the same; its rehabilitation and redemption, promoters regretfully inform us, may take at least that long, or longer. The dreaded "Q" word, linguistically mothballed lo these many years, appears poised to enjoy a splendid revival in the American lexicon.

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was hard to snip this editorial, because I had to leave so many wonderful writtenly words behind..

[jokerman93]

1. What about the other Q word?

Quicksand.