Macbeth’s Dilemma

About half way through the play Macbeth says…

I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
Macbeth Act 3 Scene iv

He has already killed a whole bunch of people and it dawns on him that listening to the witches’ prophecy and allowing himself to be led by his wife’s ambition was probably a bad idea. He has waded into a river of blood and knows that he is going to be just as bloody if he goes back or presses forward with his original plans.

Although George Bush is clueless and this type of insight is far beyond his mental capacities – I think the rest of us are faced with the same kind of dilemma. Mike Castle, for example, having supported Bush from the beginning probably now knows that he made a mistake. Does he press forward and continue to support Bush’s non-plans for Iraq in order to somehow make the point that his original choice was the right one? Or does he break with Bush and head back to the original shore but get just as bloody along the way?

If we pull the lens back a bit, we can see that we are facing the same kind of dilemma. We are a people that must deal with the consequences of our leaders horrible choices. Iraq is a river of blood and there is no good way forward.

Stay the course and we are looking at another twenty years, billions and billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives wasted, and for what?

If we turn back we will pay a heavy price. Wingnuts will think that the heavy price will be having handed Osama Bin Ladin a victory. Not only is that not a price, it is so childish I can’t bring myself to address the underlying stupidity of that line of thought right now.

The real price we will pay will be our moral culpability for the death of everyman woman and child who dies in the eventual ethnic cleansing of the various regions of Iraq. It will be a black mark against our alleged humanity that could rival Germany and it’s gas chambers.

And for those of us who are un-moved by moral arguments (and we are many) – the real price of turning back will be exposing the fact that the sacrifices that have been made so far have been made pointlessly.

Unable to move forward and unwilling to move backward, we have adopted a third way. Stand still in the middle of the river of blood and hope for some kind of deus ex machina. That seems to be Harry Reid’s position, “We’re working on consensus,” Reid said. “We’re willing to go halfway with [Republicans].” Half way to nowhere is where he will find Republicans like Mike Castle.

I’ve been watching Castle closely for six years and I can say with 100% certainty that his plan as a candidate and his plan for the country is to stand still and hope for the best. How else can you interpret his repeated calls to wait for the next report and then the next and then the next? His most candid expression of this desire to just stand still was expressed by his now famous quote, “This war just has to grind to the end.” At first I thought he was being cynical, but now I realize that it is a childish statement of hope. Something akin to “When the house burns down, at least the fire will be out.”

Thanks for that “work” Mike. You said we were “sending our best.” So much for that.

Thanks for these choices George Bush. Thanks Mike Castle. Thanks Tom Carper. Thanks media for going along with this bullshit. Rotting in hell will be too good for the lot of you.

Revised 3:05pm