Staying the Course

Some of my conspecifics have been infected with the "stay the course" meme-virus. Once proudly supportive of the war, they now can be heard to spout such nonsense as:

"It was right to start the war, but we went about it all wrong"
"Forget why we got there in the first place, we can't leave now or it will be a bloodbath/terrorist stronghold/bad message"
"Let's not dwell on the past, let's complete the mission."

The last one sounds almost plausible until I ask what the "mission" is. My conspecifics usually start to sputter and make vague comments such as "install a stable government", "wipe out Islamofascism" or "establish democracy". When I point out that the military is designed to destroy things and kill people, not accomplish the vague "missions" they postulate, my conspecifics have no retort.

Of course, my conspecifics want to forget the past and the fraudulent excuses for the war. Now they are left with nothing but to call for the US to keep on screwing up. After all, we spent all this money and got al these folks killed, and it would be embarassing to admit that we were wrong. "We" were not wrong. The criminal conspiracy in DC was wrong. My war supporting conspecifics were wrong. And they are still wrong.

What really stumps my conspecifics is when I try to tap into their empathy, such as it is. I ask them to imagine that another country decided that George "Not as Bad as Hitler" Bush was a menace and that the US needed regime change. This country invades and occupies the US, deposes the government, and blows a lot of things up and kills a lot of people. An insurgency that my conspecifics might well join has the occupiers pinned down and bleeding men and money out the wazoo. The "puppet government" is allying itself with the occupiers enemies. None of the strategic aims of the occupiers is being served by the occupation. Would they want the occupiers to "stay the course"? Would the occupiers be well served by "staying the course"?

The only reason to stay the course is for George "Not as Bad as Stalin" Bush to avoid accepting any responsibility for his evildoing. He should have done that 12 step program and learned to take responsibility and atone for the harm he does.