Ever Get Asked "Yeah? Well How Would YOU Fix Iraq?"

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

I've been asked it several times by republicans as a response to my criticisms of this administration's policies and utter failures there. Normally, I respond honestly by telling them my personal feelings on how I would in fact go about it differently.

But today, when someone confronted me with that question, I responded differently. Instead of honesty, I responded with sarcastic analogy. Today, I said the following:

"I'm not exactly sure how to fix it. I'm not a policy maker or diplomatic expert. But I also don't need to know how to build rockets in order to recognize that an engineer who keeps building ones that blow up right after lift-off doesn't know what the hell he's doing and should probably be fired. In that case, I'd think hiring a new engineer to build the rockets would probably be the smart way to go, even if I didn't know up front exactly what the new engineer was specifically going to do to build them appropriately. Makes sense right?"

Unfortunately, the conversation ended there as there were work matters that then needed to be attended to. But I was just re-running the scenario in my head and couldn't decide on something. Which strategy is the better one to take in the future? Offering an honest assessment on how I personally feel the mess could be fixed or offering the wiseass logical analogy to clarify the point? Is there a better way to respond than either of those that you'd use?

[tuvor]

1. They don't WANT your honest assessment.

They want you to shut up so that they can continue believing in gingerbread houses in Gumdrop Lane.

Use your analogy.

[Beartracks]

12. Go with the sarcastic stuff...

... 'cause only a soft-on-terror pansy-ass would actually offer a nuanced, thought-out response. Right? :eyes:

[meatloaf]

You could begin by saying you wouldn't have been immoral or criminal

enough to invade the wrong country to begin with.

[noamnety]

2. I like your approach

I also liked The Poor Man's analogy: "…And, before you ask: no, I have no clue about how we can improve things in Iraq. I don’t have a single idea for how we can un-shit the bed, and I don’t hold out much hope that this whole bed-shitting episode is ever going to be brought to a lemony-fresh conclusion. I do, however, know who shit the bed, and have some sense of how frequently he shits there. Let’s stop shitting for a start." http://www.thepoorman.net/archives/003609.html

And sometimes I shrug and say I'm not into colonialism. It's their country, they know it better than us, their solutions are better than mine. We can provide resources, but at this point not people, because our people occupying their country is making it worse. I guess the analogy for that is if some guy named "w" rapes me and knocks me up, I'm gonna be righteously pissed at him and do my best to destroy him. And how I deal with the consequences is my own business, but if I need abortion money or child support money I expect him to pay. I do not want some other dude (insert your favorite dem's initials) to waltz in and start telling me how I need to raise that baby.

[renate]

24. that analogy is SPOT ON

:applause:

[Mythsaje]

3. "I didn't break it, asshole..." eom

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. ROFLMAO

I don't know why exactly, but that literally just made me chuckle aloud, even though everyone else is asleep right now. Love that response. Just love it!

:toast:

[Mythsaje]

7. It was the only thing I could think of off-hand. LOL

[Cleita]

4. I was asked that this Sunday.

I'm usually pretty much a recluse since my husband died and I probably shouldn't go out in public that much, but I did this Sunday. Well, what I answered was that we left Vietnam in a hurry, yet they seem to have pulled their shit together pretty well without interference from the French and us since then and I could imagine that the Iraqis might be able to do so as well.

Well, my opinion was rather not well recieved by the Fox brainwashed. I think I will go back into being a recluse. No one wants to make comparisons with history it seems.

[file83]

6. That's another good response - they can't argue with reality.

After the Vietnam war, both nations did quite well in the end, after the U.S. "cut and ran". So why should Iraq be any different?

[tech3149]

11. Cleita, that was the best response to give

It wasn't pushy or over the top, just plain and simple truth. The situation reminds me of that old adage "there are none so blind as those who will not see". Some people just don't want to know that they were decieved and will fight against anyone thaat tries to help them see the truth.

On a personal note: I'm in pretty much the same situation. It's not good to hide from the world and it gets harder every day to get back to a normal life. You don't have to make big change just take it in small steps and it'll be easier. If you can't do it for yourself, just remember that we need your help to fight these fascist bstards.

[Cleita]

14. Thanks both to you and "file83".

I was feeling even more isolated by this than just being reclusive until you validated what I said as being sort of right.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

17. Actually, It Got Me Thinkin As Well. I Had Never Thought About

that angle, but I think it's a dead on logical point. I give you kudos for it.

[Change has come]

8. I try to respond with the reasons the war

is a huge mistake and shouldn't have happened in the first place. Arguing strategy seems to give these types ammunition and suggests a justification for this bloody mess.

[leftofthedial]

9. they don't care what you say

they've just been instructed by limpballs and o'really that that is how to respond to the Iraq issue

[Marr]

10. "Two points:

Point one is to remove the people that caused it from office. Point two is to ignore and marginalize anyone stupid enough to have been snookered by them in the first place. We're working on the first point, but I can institute the second right now".

Then walk away.

Honestly, I don't argue with these fools anymore. I just try to piss them off. They're hopeless, brainwashed morons.

[stopbush]

13. My standard response is:

First - can we agree that what we're doing now (the bush plan) is not working? Can we agree that all of the American and Iraqi deaths
are tragic and unnecessary? OK. We agree it's not working. We've just found common ground, so,

Second - if we (ie: a D and an R) can agree it's not working, then why can't bush admit that it's not working? It seems to me that the first
step to fixing things is getting the president to level with himself and the world and admit his plan is not working.

Third - if bush can admit that his plan isn't working, then he has the capacity to move the conversation outside of the insular world of
the advisers who gave him the non-working plan in the first place. And as long as he's moving outside of that circle, he can just as
easily enlarge the circle to include ideas from Ds as well as Rs. That means talking to Murtha, Biden, Kerry and others on the other side of the
political fence who have for months advanced alternative plans to bush's "stay the course" disaster. He can find common ground with the Ds
and the Rs and move forward from there.

Fourth - now that we're finally to the point where we are being honest about things, we can address the political problem in a unified and
truly bipartisan way (think of the scene in Bridge Over the River Kwai where Gen Saito finally admits he's wrong and allows Alec Guinness
to plan how they'll build the bridge - not as slaves, but as engineers). We can throw all the competing ideas in the pot, stir it up and come
out with a multi-faceted plan that works on many levels, a plan that will have "buy in" from both Rs and Ds.

Of course, they don't really want to hear your solution, so I never get past my second point.

[Selatius]

15. I hate to sound Bill Maher-esque, but put Saddam back in and get the fuck out.

The war is over. We're just bleeding until we realize we failed again at nation-building.

[stopbush]

19. I'm OK with that IF we pay war reparations to Iraq.

Surely they could do something CONSTRUCTIVE with the $250MM WE'RE SPENDING THERE EACH DAY.

[WinkyDink]

16. I would just say: Let them who broke it, fix it. They're the geniuses.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

18. Wouldn't That Mean Letting Them Maintain Power And Control Of Congress?

No thanks.

[WinkyDink]

22. No. It means I'm under no obligation to come up with the solution to

these maniacs' criminal enterprise.
The OP was what would I do.
I suppose a straight answer would be: Vote Democratic.

[alittlelark]

20. Wise ass analogies work best.

They are accustomed to those types of rationalizations. Think limbaugh, hannity et al (evil beings).

[Quantess]

21. I'm a really nice lady,

and I don't usually get into boiled conversations.
However, I recall back in early 2003, when I was trying to meet men on the internet. There was a man who seemed funny and charming online, and so, we met for coffee and had a pretty good time, just walking around in NW Portland.

However, I had a difficult time imagining us in bed together. The clincher was when he told me that the Iraq War was a good thing. At that point I told him that the Iraq invasion made me hopping mad, and his approval of the Iraq invasion was what made me reject him.

[renate]

23. why in God's name is it OUR responsibility to come up...

...with a workable solution to an insane problem?

To any Dems who voted for the war (or for giving Bush the power to start the war), yeah, sure, it's a valid question.

But for those of us who opposed the war from the start, why are WE supposed to come up with a solution to an unsolvable problem most emphatically NOT of our creation?

DAMN IT that question frustrates me.

[DeSwiss]

25. Ultimately, what they're asking you....

....is how to end a war that shouldn't be. The war in Iraq was fabricated. Until they can accept this as a premise first, there's no point in discussing what you might do to end it. They need to FIRST accept responsibility for this mess. I haven't heard that, and I don't expect to.

Tell em'...... you'll let them know in January.