There's an excuse that failed leaders and policy-makers have always used to justify their failures — it would have been worse had we not done what we did. As a way to salve their own consciences it's the perfect out, being impossible to disprove. As an excuse that appeals to the rest of us who must live with the consequences of what was actually done, not so good...
The Ultimate Cop Out
(A Poem)
'Twould have been worse, some leaders say
Had we not done what we have done,
Oh yes, to date the payback's poor
But sans our nostrums worse would come.
Tim Geithner's view: That trillion's spent
Though ending not the jobless rut,
At least inclined a Wall Street few
To take a modest bonus cut.
And Tony Blair is sorry not
For helping spawn war in Iraq,
It's left a fractured, shattered land
But hey, it gave Saddam the sack.
We'll not regain pathways more sane
If men of fame disdain all blame,
Refuse to feel the rightful shame
For woeful things done in their name.
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©2010 Michael Silverstein
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