http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=3562 Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:14:39 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=3562&cpage=1#comment-206332 Decreased Violence in Iraq and the Surge - Liberal Values - Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:04:25 +0000 http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=3562#comment-206332 [...] of the decrease in violence has been a consequence of political changes which actually began before the surge started. There has been more evidence this month showing that those of us who opposed the surge were right. [...] [...] of the decrease in violence has been a consequence of political changes which actually began before the surge started. There has been more evidence this month showing that those of us who opposed the surge were right. [...]

]]> http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=3562&cpage=1#comment-204171 Jerry Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:36:38 +0000 http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=3562#comment-204171 I've come up with a metaphor that might be useful when explaining why the surge wasn't a great idea to people like Katie Couric.  It's not a perfect metaphor, but it helps: Imagine a family that isn't making ends meet. Tough, I know, but try. This family has two credit cards. They decide to use one to buy essentials - food, gas to get to work, etc. Let's call this credit card "Afghanistan". Now the husband decides that he really, really wants a n xBox game system. He lies to his wife, claiming that if he had an xBox he could get a promotion at work due to his greater eye-hand coordination. He buys the xBox system with the second card, which we'll call "Iraq". Time goes by and the Afghan card starts filling up. They can't make the minimum payment on either card. What to do? Desperate to keep his xBox, the husband convinces his wife (that would be "we the people") to pay down the Iraq card. By focusing all of their resources, they manage to avoid the dreaded xBox repo man. "Isn't this a great thing?" exclaims the husband. "I'm not so sure," says the wife as she opens the Afghanistan card statement. "We might not have enough on this card to buy food for the kids or gas for your car to get to work." "What do you mean - the surge worked!  It worked, I tell you!!  I don't understand why you can't see that the surge worked!!!" I’ve come up with a metaphor that might be useful when explaining why the surge wasn’t a great idea to people like Katie Couric.  It’s not a perfect metaphor, but it helps:
Imagine a family that isn’t making ends meet. Tough, I know, but try. This family has two credit cards. They decide to use one to buy essentials – food, gas to get to work, etc. Let’s call this credit card “Afghanistan”.
Now the husband decides that he really, really wants a n xBox game system. He lies to his wife, claiming that if he had an xBox he could get a promotion at work due to his greater eye-hand coordination. He buys the xBox system with the second card, which we’ll call “Iraq”.
Time goes by and the Afghan card starts filling up. They can’t make the minimum payment on either card. What to do? Desperate to keep his xBox, the husband convinces his wife (that would be “we the people”) to pay down the Iraq card. By focusing all of their resources, they manage to avoid the dreaded xBox repo man.
“Isn’t this a great thing?” exclaims the husband. “I’m not so sure,” says the wife as she opens the Afghanistan card statement. “We might not have enough on this card to buy food for the kids or gas for your car to get to work.”
“What do you mean – the surge worked!  It worked, I tell you!!  I don’t understand why you can’t see that the surge worked!!!”

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