Taking the Pledge, Part 4

Paul Ezell takes The Pledge:

Chris,

I have no blog site, but I am a Dean financial supporter who appreciates the gravity of your pledge and plea to all of us. This is the text of a letter (yes, snail-mail) which I sent to the Clark campaign on the day of his announcement:

Dear Sirs and General Clark,

I am a supporter of Dr. Dean, and I am writing to express the warmest welcome to the campaign.  I am, frankly, thrilled with your decision to enter the race, and I am sure that excellent leaders are never in oversupply.  I hope I can speak for most Dean supporters in saying that if you win the nomination, you can expect as much effort and financial aid from us as we can muster.

I'm sure that General Clark is familiar with this passage from the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides that, mutatis mutandis, applies to the situation leading to the current Iraq war:

"In going to Sicily you are leaving many enemies behind you, and    you apparently want to make new ones there and have them also on your hands . . .. Even if we did conquer the Sicilians, there are so many of them and they live so far off that it would be very difficult to govern them. It is senseless to go against people who, even if conquered, could not be controlled, while failure would leave us much worse off than we were before we made the attempt . . .. The next best thing is to make a demonstration of our power and then, after a short time, go away again. We all know that what is most admired is what is farthest off and least liable to have its reputation put to the test . . .. The right thing is that we should spend our new gains at home and on ourselves instead of on these exiles who are begging for assistance and whose interest it is to tell lies and make us believe them, who have nothing to contribute themselves except speeches, who leave all the danger to others and, if they are successful, will not be properly grateful, while if they fail in any way they will involve their friends in their own ruin."

No one else in the nation has more standing to make this case; 
about what we must face in history's lessons so that we not condemned to repeat them, and demonstrate that clear leadership transcends partisan ideology.

Respectfully, Paul Ezell MD.

I know I meant every word, and that there is no reason to cannibalize each other in the party, just as the Bush team and media whores would have us do. You can reproduce my letter in any way you will. Anyone but Bush in 2004!

Paul.