cognitorex

For years I wrote letters to editors in my head and waited for some similarly prescient paid or unpaid scribe to get the same thought published. When Mayor Gavin N. started blessing gay marriages in S.F. I thought and decided that what all the pundits were missing was that the gay marriage issue is an actuarial issue. I.e. young people could care less and as they replace older voters by dint of time there is/was a time certain coming when the majority of American voters would be down with gay marriage.
It seemed such an important point that I screamed at all the "missing-the-point" pundits and deemed myself most wise. Then my 'New Yorker' arrived, making the exact same point complete with voting polls, having been conceived, researched, written and published prior to my efforts. I laughed out loud.
Of course I finally succumbed to actually writing a letter which without fanfare appeared, holy Toledo, published by the Cape Cod Times. Then, double holy Toledos, the Kerry campaign asked if they could use this letter and it seemingly morphed into the slogan, "We want a president who is a uniter, not one who says he's a uniter." This was used by Ted, Hilary, John, Barack and others at the Dem convention 0f 2004. Thus the blogger/writer was born who is still having fun, although now actually writing my thoughts before waiting for others or events to confirm such thoughts.
In this vein, my own, self aggrandizing favorite has been my post of January 2005 circa when Arafat died. It seemed clear that America needed a highly regarded Sunni leader that would both hold out his palm for American lucre and make political accommodation. Back then, Rummy said "It's not like you can just pick up a phone and call these guys."
Now the Military is making nice with perceived bloody handed scoundrels, which as I wrote, was always an eventual necessity.

(excerpt "The Ghost of Arafat" Jan. 2005):

The ghost of Arafat will appear from the Sunni side and George B. to his enormous bile-choking displeasure will have to deal. Were that it were otherwise but this is written.
Fielding one per cent of the Sunni fighting-age men as active insurgents/freedom fighters with three percent as cadre (40,000) creates a stalemate. They can not dislodge us and our Shia forces nor can we pacify them.
Personally I would find this leader (or group) now and begin the next phase. Offer them administrative control of electric and water reconstruction projects. They create no-kill, no-maim zones, implement the projects, Halliburton yes, Halliburton no, who cares, and we release the money on a quasi 'completion' basis.
This gambit lacks all pride and ego but we do get to stay a while.
Sarge might say "Light em if you got em," for a change.

Craig Johnson

Labels: Arafat, making nice with Sunnis, political accommodation, Rumsfeld