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SyndicatePardon My Flipness
By Robert Ringer - Thursday, December 10, 2009
By Robert Ringer
I caught a lot of heat for my recent article “One Person at a Time,” so much so that I felt compelled to respond. The paragraph that sent a lot of readers into outer space was this one:
“I don’t think we ever should have gone into Vietnam, but, once there, we could have ended the affair in one day by dropping a nuke on Hanoi — and saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars in the process. Now, President Wuss is timidly keeping a minimum of American troops in Afghanistan, where thousands more are sure to get maimed and killed. But that quagmire, too, could be ended in one day by dropping a nice, neat string of nuclear bombs on the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
In retrospect, I think I was a bit too flip here when it came to mentioning the N word. Most civilized people (including myself) are against decimating whole populations with nuclear weapons. The point I was trying to make was that the U.S. should do everything possible to avoid going to war, but if politicians find a way to get us into one, they should do everything possible to win and get us out — quickly.
In the real world — a world where there are no perfect solutions — I don’t see my view as inhumane. On the contrary, I see it as the most humane thing a country can do once it has gotten itself into a war.
Having said this, I decided to do something I have never done before — revise an article that is already on my blog. I didn’t compromise my principles or beliefs, but I did manage to remove the flip tone that seemed to offend a number of readers.
As the late and legendary sportswriter Red Smith once said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”
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ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
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7 Responses to “Pardon My Flipness”
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The advantage of words is that they can be reexamined, taken back, and replaced with an apology. How do you do that with a nuke?
When I first read Mr. Ringer’s words, “But that quagmire, too, could be ended in one day by dropping a nice, neat string of nuclear bombs on the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.” then, at that poignant moment, I knew to a moral certainty that if this highly rational and peace loving tortoise could find it inside himself to sanction—even just for a minute— the *first* use of nuclear weapons as an expedient means to an end, I knew, absolutely, without any doubt whatsoever, that it’s only a matter of time before some-one or group actually employs that strategy.
Having said the above: Do I really think that a man like Mr. Ringer really believes, in the pit of his heart, that talk of this kind is nothing more than shear insanity?—That this kind of talk is the absolute antithesis of The Voice of Sanity Blog?!?!
Not for a minute—yes, not one minute— do I think that Mr. Ringer has the heart or the stomach to actually agree with launching a nuclear first-strike—not even in the heat of the moment.
You can believe me or not believe me, I don’t care; but, I knew right from the get-go, when I first read those words, “But that quagmire, too, could be ended in one day by dropping a nice, neat string of nuclear bombs on the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”—- I knew that Mr. Ringer would regret that he ever wrote those words and that he would also retract them.
I also knew at that moment, when I read those words, that if I said, “O.K. Mr. Ringer, so you think we should nuke them huh? O.K. then, here is the damn f***ing button, now you push it! Go ahead, push it and nuke those F***ERS, twice!!!
Well let me tell you something, there is no way in God’s world that Mr. Ringer could do such a thing. How do I know for sure?
I know, because I know the difference between a tortoise and a rabid snapping turtle. Mr. Ringer is a peace loving tortoise. He’s not evil. He made a big mistake, but he’s not been turned into Darth Vader, the destroyer of planets, who loves to ride inside the Death Star.
Wake up! Mr. Ringer is not the enemy. There are those out there, somewhere, right now, who are evil. And they are plotting, right now, as you read this, how to infiltrate and nuke America. And I have no doubt that the plotters will any regrets over nuking us.
I don’t think you need to be pardoned!
You’re right – if we’re going to fight, we need to go win and get it over with.
It’s a Blog! Mr. Ringer – Please don’t revise your previous article. So you were a little passionate in your expression…so what? It is unfortunate that people are offended by speech. To them I say “to bad, get over it.” It is speech for cyin’ out loud. Civilized people use speech to influence, persuade, vent, and yes, to impel thought. Can we all just relax a little bit and enjoy the blog? Let’s dispense with the urge to restrain ourselves and our passions with politically correct speech. Long live FREE SPEECH!
A flip comment, maybe yes, but that can be excused if the comment has credibility and the outcome would actually accomplish something. I think your recommendation is noteworthy and should be taken seriously. I came to the same conclusion as I viewed all the commentaries on Obama’s speech at West Point, the following few days. Much time has passed since then before I came to this and decided to read your comments.
Now that Obama has committed those troops are they to actually go into harms way without being able to do anything? Or are they just going to be there to be blown up as they go out on one patrol after another, not knowing whether their efforts for the day will actually have an impact of defeating these maniacs.
You had some hesitation it seemed when you stated that a deicision to decimate whole populations is made. But would this decision decimate a whole population? The srtike would be over a contolled area, the Afghanistan border, which is to my knowledge made up of rugged mountains in which the terrorists hide and from where they do their dirty work in the country, probably during the cover of night.
How many villages of productive Afghani’s actually reside in this forsaken, rugged and generally uninhabital area? My quess is not many. So what population, exacrly would be decimated? The terrorists who are hiding and encamped there? Isn’t this the very population we are supposed to have every intention of killing and decimating?
I say nuke ‘em all along that border, one day of unending bomb strikes covering every inch of that area. And if you want to be humane give ‘em a warning and pick them off as they try to escape. That’s how a war in that kind of geography must be waged.
Robert,
Flip: Perhaps, only because a contemplated action is put up for public opinion ridicule instead of just doing what needs to be done. You could have used the words surgical strike instead of “nice, neat string of nuclear bombs.” You have an alliteration of N words. At least you did not use the word “little” (nothing little about a nuclear blast) in the string.
Fractured and isolated thinking is manipulated because there is not a cohesive “world view” to funnel the myriad “facts” from purposeful corrupted data- i.e. “e-mail gate” on global warming.
Single issue brushfires are so numerous as to fracture cohesive thinking of the body politic. This thinking results from extracting “solutions” out of a vacuum. These thoughts have no cohesive over-arching original cause progression that would allow for simple observation and two pages of notes that a high school physics professor could follow to conclude E=MCsquared.
Confusion is emotion driven thinking coming from lack and not from abundance. The source of thinking is the key. Principles derived from the source of reality produces two distinct paths of embracing or not embracing the source: 1) The path of freedom, love, abundance and bliss. 2) Slavery, lack, fear and destruction.
Finite thinking and the temporal frailty of the human condition requires principles rooted and grounded in the truth of one reality. A revelation from the Chief Thinker of the Universe is required. Einstein intoned “I want to know the thoughts of God, the rest is details.”
The question becomes: “Is this a friendly universe?” Einstein said yes! Therefore, you can choose abundance and bliss or destruction. Thinking out of a vacuum will produce destruction.
It has been said we are a “Post God-fearing nation.” Good luck with that plan!
Randall
I am surprised being the hard nosed captialist that you are I was postive you would believe fervently in the right of Military Contractors to make a million dollars a year per soldier in the middle east war for profit.
This is the flaw in your dog eat dog capitalist religion it leads to exploiting anything including war in the name of profit at any cost. Evey war since WW2 has been a war for profit and nothing else.
Mr Ringer welcome to your Capitalist Utopia where War, human dignaty[porn] and the enverioment are exploited with out mercy in the name of Almighty Profit. I hope you are very happy in this world because you and your kind created it.
Kind of reminds me of the line, “Winning Through Intimidation”. Misunderstood by many but the figure of speech is understood here.
You once wrote that General Patton had this attitude of driving full force toward the goal without distraction. That was back in the days that we used to win wars. That is, to whatever extent winning was possible in a war.