Scripting News: Nothing Accomplished!

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Nothing Accomplished!

Relatively speaking I have very little to be angry about about the war in Iraq. Except for the information that comes to me in the news, and that's very abstract, hard to feel unless I really try, the war has no direct impact on my life. I don't know anyone who is serving in Iraq. I don't know anyone with relatives in Iraq. My taxes haven't gone up to pay for the war. There is no rationing, no shortages. I don't drive much so the increased price of gas isn't having much impact.

But the war does make me angry.

To call it a war is an insult to all other wars.

World War II really was a war against an Axis of Evil. It was unavoidable. A war for our existence. A fight for freedom.

Watching 60 Minutes tonight, on Memorial Day, it's hard to imagine how we go on living our lives as other Americans give up so much, for something so utterly pointless. As the program ended, it became clear that our soldiers are having the same discussions about the war that we're having here. They know about the lack of support for the war in America. They process it in different ways. Listening to the soldiers, I can tell they were lied to as we were lied to, and of course because they have so much at stake, it must be so hard to consider that the lies were actually lies.

This week, for the first time, the President is floating the idea that a massive pullout is coming soon.

Oh what an effect that must have on our soldiers in Iraq. The futility in risking so much knowing that the outcome, instead of Mission Accomplished will be Nothing Accomplished. Other than the unnecessary sacrifice of a nation, ours, and its army.

Robert Byrd: "Today I weep for my country."

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:49 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

Apr Jun