Iraq Teaches Us to Think Long-Term

One of the things that bother me about some people is their refusal to look at things in the long-term, or the Grand Scheme of Things. I’ve observed that many conservatives fall into this category, and I believe this is due to a predilection to maintain tradition. This can be a good thing, but it does tend to dissuade change. If a conservative is going to agree to change, it had better produce some quick results. Their haste to produce, however, blinds them to certain long-term effects. Such is true of the economy, politics, and the environment. Ironically, the conservatives are the worst conservationists in government.

For example, my school, Texas Tech, will soon stop funding their recycling program. Why? Well, it cost a lot to maintain and when the numbers came back they weren’t making enough money. The business assholes that run our “institution for higher learning” were only thinking about the bottom line. Certainly money is an issue, but don’t forget what the program was doing in the first place: recycling. Sure, it may cost a little in the end, but it’s the long-term benefits that we are seeking. Our ethics should guide our spending, not our greed.

Which brings me to my main point, and that is the “ongoing” war in Iraq. For whatever reason, the Bush administration decided it was going to war with that country. To gain public support, they had us envision a fantasy world which included a democratic Iraq, liberated from their generation’s Hitler, kissing soldiers in the streets, and embracing Christianity. Okay, no one ever admitted that last one, but you know they secretly hoped for it. The fact is, Iraq is a mess, and we (Americans) are going to be blamed for it, even if we’ve been protesting it from the beginning. But now that we’re engaged in this thing, we have to see it through to the end. It is going to cost a lot (which, incidentally, doesn’t seem very conservative to me) both in dollars and lives, and I don’t think people stopped to consider that before they started chanting for war. I can only hope that one of the benefits of this war is that people start to consider the long-term.