Got Timeline?
The current wisdom generated by many apparently thoughtful conservative pundits in Washington is that, in the case of Iraq anyway, timelines just won’t work. We hear about tying the hands of the military, micromanaging the war, and so forth.
Yet, today I saw a picture from Northern Ireland that I never believed I would see in my lifetime. Another case of the it is impossible until it is not impossible anymore and then it is inevitable image that I come across from time to time. Like the fall of the Berlin Wall. Or the imam and rabbi embracing in a synagogue in Philadelphia last year. Or that same imam praying in the sanctuary of a Catholic church. We all have such images. Why are they so surprising, I wonder.
Now then. Back to Northern Ireland. Seems like Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams have come to an agreement on power sharing in Northern Ireland. And there they were sitting at a table together smiling and taking questions from the press after signing the agreement.
And what brought these two life-long adversaries together? Seems like the answer is a timeline. Or perhaps it was the deadline that occurs at the end of a timeline. Today was the last day for the two sides – Ian Paisley’s Democratic Union Party (aka Protestants) and Gerry Adams’ Sinn Fein (aka Catholics) – to make an agreement before Britain imposed one on them.
Apparently, nothing focuses the mind quite like a date certain.
There may be a lesson here for the Iraqis.