When The Only Sane Act is Jumping

“Or like darkness in a wide, wide sea,
waves surging upon waves, with clouds overhanging,
darkness on darkness.
If you stretch your hand, you could hardly see it.
For whom God does not give
Any light, there is no light.”

- The Koran


“The day was overcast and the air was heavy with vapor. Ahead of is the shrouded river stretched between dim walls of forest, half-seen in the mist.”

- Teddy Roosevelt


If you were to interview the Koran you might hear it quote from the Bible and the situation might be the same the other way round. Both books contain information on killing and murder in the name of a higher power. They both contain rules and laws, opinions and stories of example. But to find the common ground between the two I am reminded of a quote from a former fighter pilot who served in Vietnam. In discussing the Ho Chi Minh trail he asked the question, “How do you bomb a dirt road?” The answer is you can bomb the road but you won’t destroy it. Repair will have to be done but you can’t do anything to make the road permanently inoperable unless you drive the explosive into the earth’s core. An extremist believer in the Koran Bin Laden who is also an expert in demolition has twisted the contents of the Koran to suit his uses, as have many in the United States and the English-speaking world. Belief is the constant spark in most acts of aggression.
Just as you may not be able to surmount extremist views, flames or black smoke, sirens or people rushing around in terror you also cannot easily align yourself with the rows and rows of computer screens, satellite phones and rooms of gigabytes sending hundreds of thousands of messages around the world. Both seek to do harm and you must ask yourself which will do the most harm; a crazy man hell bent on the destruction of an entire nation or a liar who seeks a role in war based on his own inadequacies of stability and his taste for fear.
Helicopters can fly over razor wire with no problem but when that same helicopter becomes entangled in the razor wire it finds itself at the mercy of its enemies until it is freed. Our troops patrolling out in the open are at grave risk to roadside bombs. However, the lawmakers, the congressional historians and the cabinet of the presidency thousands of miles away at the safest distance away from wither the razor wire or roadside devices and it is there that the decisions are made concerning those who place their lives at risj everyday.

Dick Rumsfeld: Mr. President we have to begin slowly reducing troop counts in our oversea bases such as Korea, Germany and on American soil.

Karl Rove: We have to do it in such a way as to not draw attention to our already desperate situation of decreasing manpower and also we still need another six weeks or so before we invade and we can get some more data.

President Bush: I’m not going to make the mistake of taking it easy on Iran. We should just bomb these sum bitches until they comply. It’s not like we’ll have Hans Blix on CNN every goddamn thirty minutes.

Karl Rove: All quiet on the Syrian border. (laughs)

Condi Rice: God is great, God is great! (laughs)



- Chris Mansel