Sunday, July 02, 2006
A Story of Two Men
This is a story about two young macho men. Let me call then Ulysses and Icarus. There is bad blood between the two men. When Ulysses returned home from his long voyage, Icarus made fun of him, particularly his tale about the sirens. In the story, Ulysses had stopped up the ears of every man of his crew so that they would not be influenced by the singing of the sirens. He wanted to hear the singing himself, but had himself bound to the mast so that he couldn't get away and jump overboard to reach the island where the sirens waited. Icarus proved to all the listeners that Ulysses' story couldn't possibly be true. The two men got into a fist fight. Icarus won and left Ulysses with a bloody nose and, more importantly, a wounded ego.
What is the end of the story? One end is that Ulysses could not forgive Icarus for either the insult or the injury. The only way to settle matters was to have another fight. Only this time Ulysses planned to win by whatever means it took. The two men would box; Ulysses planned to load his boxing gloves with metal weights with thorny projections. In this way, he would be sure to bloody not only Icarus' nose but his whole face. History does not record the fight, nor how it came out.
To me this fable represents the attitude of the United States toward Iran. Iran insulted us by taking our embassy hostage. We tried to rescue the hostages with our mighty military machine, but we failed. We were insulted and our nose was bloodied. Now is the time for diplomatic relations and negotiations with Iran. But our wounded pride stands in the way of that at present. We first have to get even. We have to bloody Iran's nose and face. Only then can we have civil diplomatic discussions.
What is the end of the story? One end is that Ulysses could not forgive Icarus for either the insult or the injury. The only way to settle matters was to have another fight. Only this time Ulysses planned to win by whatever means it took. The two men would box; Ulysses planned to load his boxing gloves with metal weights with thorny projections. In this way, he would be sure to bloody not only Icarus' nose but his whole face. History does not record the fight, nor how it came out.
To me this fable represents the attitude of the United States toward Iran. Iran insulted us by taking our embassy hostage. We tried to rescue the hostages with our mighty military machine, but we failed. We were insulted and our nose was bloodied. Now is the time for diplomatic relations and negotiations with Iran. But our wounded pride stands in the way of that at present. We first have to get even. We have to bloody Iran's nose and face. Only then can we have civil diplomatic discussions.
