Message Test - Ignoring Facts Gets You Into War

Joe Biden just missed a golden opportunity that I would have swung at. That doesn't happen often, given his feistiness. Biden characterized the cascading failure in Iraq as a "disaster," to which Sen. Allen reposted with: "We can't get so depressed about it that we ensure failure."

Here was my reply, ranting at the tv:

That's really the Republican Bush supporter's thinking encapsulated, isn't it? "We can't get so depressed by the facts on the ground that we ensure failure." I never said I was depressed, but I do think the likely outcome in Iraq is a disaster because of the facts on the ground. And since the facts are what convince people of this, the only way to march forward with a happy face is to ignore the facts. Ignore the facts that lead to a conclusion you don't like. It's that precise philosophy towards facts and empiricism that got us into this war in the first place! Hell, you wouldn't want someone with that philosophy to build your HOUSE, much less invade and rebuild a country!

Furthermore, it's classic tinker-bell logic. "If we only clap louder," my colleague says, "and we'll win the war in Iraq!" No, clearly we need an actual plan on the ground to deal with the facts on the ground. But you can't have a real plan without acknowledging the real facts. I'm telling you, this is the same thinking that got us into the war in the first place, and made us lose so many good men for a corrupt, militia-ridden, Iranian vassal state "democracy?"