Fan Mail: Part Two
"Does he act on his words of the campaign: aka increase Afghan presence / Iraq is a diversion from the true battlefront on the Afghan/Pakistan border. Does he act in accordance with the dovish Left and isolationist Right's wishes to come home (does their reasoning matter?) Does he find some middling waffling way that displeases everyone and drags the issue out longer to more consternation?I'll select the last one."
Like i said earlier, we've been getting a lot of that.
Please allow me a moment to put it in other terms if i may.
YEARS of incompetance and neglect have brought Middle Earth to a sorry state. You are the newest/hottest wizard on The Council though and you are just itCHing to jump into the fray. Saruman the White (and other Establishment sorcerers) are already whispering behind your back that you aren't experienced enough to understand the issues -much less address all of them. Economic downtimes and budget cuts at the Department of the Interior have led to sightings of dire wolves in the Shire. Crime is up and goblins are scribbling graffitti on the walls of Moria with impunity. We're on the verge of ecological catastrophe because Mount Doom has become volcanically active again. Worse yet, people are pooping their pants every time someone mentions the word "Voldesauronbinladen".
POPQUIZ!
What
do
you
do?
a. Resolve everything at once with a wave of your all-powerful arm. Or...
b. Join the Steward of Gondor in a desperate orgy of wine, women, and denial. Or...
c. Blow all your political capital by making a public spectacle of attempting everything simultaneously, kill everybody's esprit de corps by not getting instantaneous results, and eventually become a one-session member of the Wizards Council (like infamous Carter the Grey). Or...
d. Plod away behind the scenes, tirelessly marshalling your forces, relentlessly matching up each interminable problem with an actually-appropriate response -knowing full well that millions of men, women, hobbits, elves, and dwarves may have NO IDEA what was going on until years later after it's over.
Gosh, i wonder...
If you select c. though, tell me now so that i can euthanize my defenseless/delicious cats before one of those greasy orcs gets ahold of them.