One of the top news stories today is the report out of a Pentagon panel put together to decide on options for the war in Iraq. Their options, courtesy of Reuters, have been dubbed “Go Home,” “Go Big” and “Go Longer.”" This, besides sounding like the subject line of an e-mail in my spam folder, is what they came up with?
I try to keep my opinions about the war somewhat muted. At this point, I submit to the tired cliche “It is what it is” and simply long to support the troops. I certainly would not say anything to undermine the sacrifices that our soldiers make on a daily basis. It is their sacrifice that allows me the freedom to pen this God-awful blog (sorry to you, the reader). But this panel report has me all fired up. Honestly, this is the best they can do? These are our experts and they simply restate the three obvious solutions? In fact, I contend that all possible options are just derivatives of these three. Hell, for $50 I would have told them the same thing and we could have spared the expense and all the bureaucratic red tape. I would have even thrown in a complimentary copy via a Microsoft Outlook note.
This whole scenario is akin to you, the reader, saying to me, “Michael, I am in a pinch. My car has gone to the big junkyard in the sky. You know a lot about cars, what should I do.” I would get together with a few racing chums of mine, think about it for a while, and then say, “Well I figure you have three options. You can either buy or lease a new car, boost a car, or buy a used car.” What a colossal waste of time and effort - after all, how many soldiers were killed/injured whilst that report was being prepared?