I want to hit things.......

"Stay The Course" and "Cut and Run" are words that make me want to brutally hit people.

So I was watching the Florida Gubenatorial debates which I should have known right away was a big mistake and I heard stay the course used as a word that failed to retain any semblence of meaning.

So I first want to slay these dragons as they are used in the Iraq war debate. Now their is a small minority which may be literal "cut and runners" and "Stay the coursers" but I am not talking about them I am talking about everyone else.

Stay the Course:

From a political party which elected a man who debated what the meaning of *IS* is this should not be so counter intuitive.

In the context of the political debate Stay the Course ment sticking with the Iraqi march to democracy. That doesn't mean stick with just a military strategy since we worked on political systems related to the post war period (poorly in some serious ways) BEFORE we even had the war. And out political interactions and actions have evolved and changed and adapted. So its not like the government all Guns and no butter... its just that butter makes weaker press then guns

Likewise the guns part doesn't stay the same. It can't stay the same because folks who are making a lot of money and wearing cool uniforms make corrections (and outright shifts) based on the details that folks who say Stay the Course as if it means something else.

Cut and Run

This likewise has evolved into political gobbeldygook.Setting a goal of "we want to be out of Iraq by___" isn't cutting and running. Saying "We will leave Iraq by ___ turn out the lights when you leave." is.

now both positions are rather foolish for reasons which fuel the pejoritive use of Cut and Run

But in the genere of intellectual dishonesty We have people saying they want a more political and not military solution. To use the bogus term they are "cutting and running" from reality to sell to a certain animus in the American political culture. Instead of speaking to the conditions on the ground they say things like "The Iraqi's need to take responsibility" to cover for their ultimate logic "being against the war gets me political points" rather then "The Iraqi's aren't being helped enough to take more responsibility for their own defense."

The truth is both sides need to be more honest with how they cover the events of this war. While I am not in the "cut and run they are going to cut and run" camp its very clear that by blatantly misrepresenting whats happening to the American People for political gain they simply aren't trustworthy right now with handling a war. Nor is a administration that at an institutional level shuts down information and access (both good and bad) and doesn't likewise level with the American people. They don't talk about the pressures from outside countries (and for some good reasons). They don't talk about their political solutions in Iraq (nor the political solutions applied by the Iraqi leaders) with any of the voice they do when guns come into play. Wars are lead by adults, all we seem to have are adolescent children.