Golf balls, and the lesser topic of Iraq

I was going to post an interesting little tidbit about a small cut on my leg, but I just posted it as a comment on Brian's blog and I don't feel like writing it again. It goes much better as a companion to his Amityville Gutter story than it does as a stand-alone on my blog, anyway.


Tonight, I went and hit 22 balls at the Derby Festival Hole-in-One contest.

I didn't even get one close enough to measure, but I do believe I got an assist. One of my shots landed just short of the pin. When it hit the ground it must have hit two other balls. One ball bounced hard off the back of the green, another ( I think it was mine) took a fairly large hop and then stopped several feet from the flag, and the third ball rolled forward just three feet or so.

The crew in the little tent jumped up immediately and went out to measure less than two minutes later. The ball they measured was less than a foot from the hole, placing it in the top 10 for the day.

I feel certain that I helped it closer to the target.


Anyway, since the blog title says I think I know everything, I guess it's time I start acting like it. So on to a short observation about Iraq:

Our leaders spend half their time insisting that we are only there to aid the Iraqi government, and the other half trying to make things go OUR way.

It seems to me that if I were offering my assistance to someone, I would expect to be doing things THEIR way. And if I don't like it then I don't have to help.

Suppose I offered to help someone move. If I came to their home(s) and insisted that the furniture be moved out in the order I wanted, and that things were packed in the way I wanted, and tried to override their decisions on the matter, the result would be that my assistance would garner very little good feelings from those I was trying to help.

I think we're seeing the same thing in Iraq, and I think we have three choices.

1) We can leave and let them sort the mess out for themselves. This obviously leads to all sorts of other problems for us and for them, but it's a viable option.

2) We can make it clear that things are going to be done OUR way, and stop half-assing it. This will lead to enormous ill-will, but if OUR way truly is the best way then it would eventually sort itself out- in say 20 years or so. And that's not really that long in the grand scheme of things, though of course most everyone would not see it that way.

3) We can put our resources completely at the disposal of the Iraqi government. This would basically consist of letting THEM decide who we kill and when, and lead most probably to our helping set up another tyrant. And it would probably lead to stability in the quickest fashion. No one of consequence in our government would ever go for this, though. They don't even want our troops under U.N. command during U.N. operations.