January 15 - Pet Peeve Monday - Who Wants More Troops?

This week’s PET PEEVE MONDAY concerns the troop escalations in Iraq.

Now, I don’t know if a troop surge is RIGHT OR WRONG.

You know why? Because I don’t have the required information, background, or skill set to make that call.

Donald Rumsfeld said at a Department if Defense News Briefing on February 12, 2002:

“As we know, there are known, knowns.
There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know, we don't know.”

That is pure poetry and positively correct. I DO NOT KNOW, WHAT I DON'T KNOW.

Which brings me to my PET PEEVE. People want to run this war by committee or polls.

An AP-Ipsos poll taken before Bush's announcement of a "surge" in troops found 70 percent opposed to the idea. Two polls taken immediately after the Bush speech showed about 60 percent of Americans not liking the idea. So if Bush gives six more speeches on the subject, then it should be a no-brainer!!! It's amazing that 30% wanted MORE Troops. Who really thinks MORE war is BETTER.

I would bet you that 90% couldn’t find Iraq on a map.

Interestingly:

6% still think Elvis is alive (2002 Fox Poll)
24% believe in UFOs (2004 Fox Poll)
6% believe moon landing was hoax (1999 Gallup poll)
90% of adults believe in God (2003 Harris Poll)
84% of the public believes in miracles (2003 Harris Poll)
68% of the public believes in the devil (2003 Harris Poll)
24% believe in Witches (2004 Fox Poll)

One obscure poll I found was a 2006 Discovery Magazine Poll of 800 readers. They asked what was the greatest Science book ever written?

• The top vote getter (24%) was The Origin of the Species, by Charles Darwin (1859)
• The Bible received 4 votes – I wonder if any were from Kansas
• Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard received one vote. I didn’t know Tom Cruise was a Discovery Magazine subscriber.

Too many politicians govern by polls. It was in vogue when Willie Clinton was in office. Speaking of Clinton, I bet if they asked the 100 people if they would like to have syphilis, more than 10% would say sure, thinking it was a new diet drink.

I wonder how many people would have been for D-DAY if they would have known the costs. Approximately 3,000 Americans died on that single day, June 6, 1944. The 3,000 fatalities represents about the same number lost in Iraq to date.

If you remember a couple of months ago, the Democrats put out the talking points that we have now been in Iraq longer than the duration of World War II. Talk about your apples to grenades comparisons!!!

Over 407,000 Americans paid the supreme sacrifice in WW II. You can not correlate this to Iraq. We lost about 3,000 soldiers every 10 days in WW II. Every life is precious, but we need to gain some perspective. In 2000, there were only about 400,000 soldiers on active duty.

Let the people WITH experience decide the correct TACTICAL STRATEGY for waging the war. Don’t ask Joe Public, in the doublewide, what we should do.

In closing, I’ll share with you a funny anecdote, where certain polling can work:

In 1998, I was traveling on a 14-hour flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. About 12 hours into the flight, the pilot comes over the PA and said, “Due to severe head winds, we only have about a 60% chance of having enough fuel to make it to Hong Kong. We going to assess our options and get back to you”

I took a poll of my fellow passengers and advised the flight attendant to tell the captain that, “we (the passengers) are 100% sure, that he should land the plane at the nearest airport and get some more fuel.”

We made an unscheduled landing in Beijing and took on enough fuel to make it to Hong Kong. Now, I’m not sure if my poll influenced the captain’s decision making or not. My polling story is an anecdote not an antidote for managing something that I do not have enough knowledge to comment.

In summary, MY PET PEEVE is PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MANAGE COMPLEX SITUATIONS BY POPULAR OPINION POLLS.

Class Over.