In my youth, I read comic books. There are certain issues that remain vivid in my memory. When I think of Superman, for example, I think of a particular story in which Superman faced an opponent who was a thinly-veiled copy of Captain Marvel, the one who said "Shazam!" long before Gomer Pyle ever did.
In those days, the DC Comics style centered on clearly defined good and evil. The issue was probably memorable because the ersatz Marvel was treated as a villain for most of the issue, but he was revealed to be a good guy at some point (though I think Kal-El and he still didn't like each other by the time) and that was quite unusual for a DC Comics story.
The clear cut nature of good and evil was less popular to the comic-buying public than the more complex and ambiguous plots of Marvel Comics, in which flawed heroes struggled against villains who often could blame sources in their environment for their troubles and their powers, gaining some level of sympathy from readers. I certainly found the "Marvel way" more consistently interesting, and I owned three times as many Marvel as DC books.
Yet, there was a beauty in the pure good vs. evil stories found in Superman and Batman and their cohorts. Today, I miss that simplicity. We hear news from around the world and there are so few clear answers. Saddam Hussein was a bad guy; there's little doubt. Yet, in the nascent democracy being nurtured in Iraq, there appear to be few "good guys." Sectarian distrust, prejudice and hate are putting peace at risk, and as much as the "regular people" in Iraq want peace, many cannot fathom how it will come about because of that distrust, prejudice and hate directed at the other "regular people" who have religious and/or cultural differences.
To me, the problem with Bush politics is the desire to characterize the complexity of the world in ways that make "black" and "white" the only answers. And, honestly, while I think of it as a Rove-inspired Republican problem, the Democrats seem to be picking up the same attitude. Nevertheless, it's Bush and his policies that have put us in this situation, and he still does not seem willing to admit that shades of good and evil exist, and that the "gray" includes some questionable decisions on the part of his team.
I'm finding it hard to fault every lawmaker who ever voted for this war. When I remember what was going on in post-9/11 America, as we searched (seemingly fruitlessly) for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, it was so tempting to believe that another leader in the Middle East was planning grave harm against us and our allies. And we knew where Saddam was! It was clear. We had to stop him. I never had the level of information that the senators did, so I hoped they were hearing the truth and doing their best to think clearly, but I can see being seduced by the simplicity, especially when the facts were so carefully prepared and presented.
Now, however, it's time to own up to the reality of the world; it's not simple. The "war" against Iraq was "won" but the peace cannot be won -- it must be managed. We need to move beyond military thinking to diplomacy. I want to hear the candidates talk about that. I want to stop hearing about time-lines for withdrawal from Obama and Clinton, and I want to stop hearing about how The Surge worked from McCain. What's next? How do we proceed? Why should I believe you can help peace have its best chance?
And don't think you can just pretend to be Superman. We might want a hero, but what we need is a real-world leader.
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