Dr. Forbush Thinks

Living in the wilds of California we occasionally have a problem with hornets. They like to build their nests in the eves of our house, and forage for food and water. They buzz around our heads as if they are egging you on to swat them. We all know that swat a hornet generally leads to getting stung, even though the urge to swat them tends to always be there.

For the most part we can co-exist with the hornets. They do their thing and we do ours. They build their nests in the eves of our house and we spray poison on them and kill them. No one wants to be stung, and the hornets can move on and find another place to live.

Now, it would be impossible to find every hornets nest in our town and kill all the hornets. We could try to find the hornets that live in our yard, because we know that they will eventually begin to build a nest in the eves of our house again. But, we don’t venture off into the field behind our house to kill the hornets there. I don’t go to our neighbor’s house and kill their hornets for them. I don’t walk around the neighborhood trying to encourage the neighbors to fight the hornets.

Now, occasionally a hornet will sting someone and the sting can be very painful. And, if a person is allergic to the hornet’s venom the sting can even be deadly. There was a case when I was growing up when a little girl was stung by a hornet, and had a terrible allergic reaction. Her throat swelled up, and she couldn’t breath. She suffocated to death. It was horribly sad, and we talked about it for days.

Hornets have even attacked me myself. When I lived in The Woodlands, Texas we had bike paths through the wooded areas and golf courses. I used to bike to and from work every day, even with the 99% humidity and the 99-degree heat. On my way home from work one day I was minding my own business riding my bike down the path. I noticed a hornet seem to chase me down the path. It was a crazy idea, hornets don’t do anything if you don’t bother them I told the other guys that were riding with me. However, on the next day as I passed through the same area a hornet flew out of the woods circled around my friend, and stung me on the head. Actually it stung me multiple times, and each sting felt like a sledge hammer hitting me in the head. I fell off my bike, got up and ran away. What could I do? Later we found that the type of hornet that attacked me was a particularly hostile hornet that didn’t loose its stinger. We reported it to the authorities, but they laughed at me. Needless to say I didn’t ride my bike through that area for quite some time.

Hornets can be hostile. And, for the most part hornets are not particularly beneficial. They can cause damage and even kill people. It seems to me that hornets are a good metaphor for the terrorists that cause us trouble today.

Imagine the family of that little girl that died from a hornet’s sting. The family was surely devastated, much like our country after September 11, 2001. I am sure the family must have reacted to this death in a particularly predictable way. They must have gone around their yard and exterminated every hornets nest in the area. They must have taken precautionary steps to make sure that other family members were not allergic to hornets. After all, these things are often hereditary. They might have hung fly paper and sprayed insecticide around the house. They might have even hired a pest control firm to come out to the house every month to remove nests and spray. These are certainly akin to the things that our country should do in light of our attack. We should protect our country by securing the ports, and borders of our country like the family in the metaphor protected his house.

But, the question comes down to how far should you go. Is it possible to eradicate every hornet on the planet? If not, then where do you stop the eradication? Is protecting the house adequate enough, or should you talk to the neighbors? Talking to the neighbors would be like talking to our allies, Europe, Canada, Mexico and the rest. We are certainly doing that.

But, the problem I have is with Iraq. I am sure anyone that reads my posts already knew this. So, I have to write this. Iraq is like the hornets nest in the field behind the house. Does it make any sense to go out in the field and poke that hornet’s nest with a pole? Then stand around and complain about being stung. If that does make sense, does it make any sense to poke it again and again and get stung again and again and complain again and again? There are two solutions, return to the house, or kill the nest. Unfortunately in our real world situation the population of Iraq are the hornets. Killing the nest virtually means killing the entire population of Iraq. This has moral and ethical problems that most of us agree are not the example that the United States would like to set for the world.

I anticipate that some of my critics would suggest that the hornets in Iraq are not the entire population of Iraq, but only a small fraction of the population. And, to this I would say that you should read the National Intelligence Estimate that tells you that our presence in Iraq is the catalyst that converts the population into hornets. Poking the stick into the nest makes them angry and converts the docile into the aggressive.

It is certainly going to take a while for the agitation in Iraq to settle down, but we certainly need to stop poking the nest with a stick!





-----------------------------------------------------





Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Politics