Carpe Datum

Two Speeches: Reality and Fantasy

First off: great, great speech by Al Gore yesterday. Much too long to quote, but give yourself 5-10 minutes to read through it and ask yourself how much better off this country would be if we had this kind of intellect and ability in the Presidency after September 11. I would love another chance to vote for Al Gore for president someday, but it's my birthday and a day for purely wishful thinking. Meanwhile, in the depressing real world of American politics...

Art Silber's "The Light of Reason" has had some really great Iraq commentary lately from a Libertarian perspective, and he points me to this excellent article from William Saletan of Slate magazine, regarding Bush's most recent speech about Iraq, in which he basically said that what we need to do for Iraq is to continue doing exactly what we've been doing so far, only more so. Here's part of Saletan's commentary, which I believe cuts to the heart of the whole problem with Bush:

Here's how Bush, in his speech this evening, described Iraq's place in history:

In the last 32 months, history has placed great demands on our country, and events have come quickly. Americans have seen the flames of Sept. 11, followed battles in the mountains of Afghanistan … We've seen killers at work on trains in Madrid, in a bank in Istanbul, in a synagogue in Tunis, and at a nightclub in Bali. And now the families of our soldiers and civilian workers pray for their sons and daughters in Mosul, in Karbala, in Baghdad. We did not seek this war on terror, but this is the world as we find it. We must keep our focus. We must do our duty. History is moving, and it will tend toward hope or tend toward tragedy.

The description is almost biblical. The narrative—"this war on terror"—is a moral test arranged by higher powers. Postwar Iraq, like 9/11, Madrid, and Bali, is "the world as we find it," not as we made it. "History," not Bush, has placed the demands of occupation on our country. "Events," not Bush's mistakes and their consequences, have come quickly. We must focus on the "duty" defined by our situation, not on how we got here.

Bush's ignorance of his part in the tragedy infects everything he says. "The swift removal of Saddam Hussein's regime last spring had an unintended effect," he observed tonight. "Instead of being killed or captured on the battlefield, some of Saddam's elite guards shed their uniforms and melted into the civilian population. [They] have reorganized, rearmed and adopted sophisticated terrorist tactics." Note the passive construction. The mistake isn't that Bush failed to prepare for guerrilla tactics commonly adopted against occupiers. It isn't even a mistake; it's an "unintended effect." The cause of that effect is Saddam's "swift removal," not Bush or anyone in his administration who engineered the removal.

This goes back to the Bush press conference where he famously couldn't think of any mistakes that he had made when asked repeatedly. There's a reason for that, and it's not (only) because he's a dimwit. It's because he genuinely doesn't think he's made any! How could he? God himself is guiding Bush, in Bush's mind, so there can't be any mistakes! I heard a Bush-supporter claim the other day that liberals "hate" Bush, wish him failure and paint the Bush administration as evil, so the poor conservatives, they can't have a rational debate about things. The people who think they were anointed to power by God are complaining about the absence of rational debate? Complaining about their opponents labelling *them* as evil?

Truly, the concepts of irony and shame are dead in this country. Certainly among Bush-supporters. Here's more from Saletan:

Is Bush embarrassed that a year of occupation has failed to substantiate his claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and links to global terrorism? No. He hasn't even noticed. "I sent American troops to Iraq to defend our security," he repeated tonight, adding, "Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror … This will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power and a victory for the security of America and the civilized world." Never mind the emerging evidence that North Korea, not Iraq, was engaged in the kind of WMD proliferation that Bush attributed to Saddam. In his speech, Bush simply repeated that Iraq was the headquarters of terrorists who "seek weapons of mass destruction."

For a still more airbrushed version of history, consider Bush's account of his relationship with the United Nations. "At every stage, the United States has gone to the United Nations to confront Saddam Hussein, to promise serious consequences for his actions, and to begin Iraqi reconstruction," the president asserted. Forget the part where Bush reneged on his pledge to call a Security Council vote on the use of force. Forget the part where he invaded Iraq against the wishes of a majority of the council.

Now wait a minute. Wait juuuuust a minute. Are you telling me that Bush made a pledge, and then flip-flopped??!? It can't be! He's never wrong!

This, of course, gets to the heart of my depression and cynicism about this country. It's not enough that these clowns have at minimum 237 days left to fuck this country up (my countdown timer goes all the way to inauguration day, if I have it set right), not enough that the media is falling down on the job, not enough that America is in more and more danger with every passing day as Bush plants the seeds for future terrorists far and wide. No, what gets me down is that Bush has a very good chance of getting re-elected.

And yes, part of it is the fault of the political campaign finance system, the bought-and-paid-for legislation, tax breaks, etc., that fund the media onslaught (it isn't just commercials, of course, conservatives save themselves money by just buying up whole networks and slanting everything). But a more important (and more fixable) part is the supposedly objective mainstream media that refuses to do its job. And from what I can tell, they have zero accountability. Remember Judith Miller, who channelled Chalabi's WMD claims through the front page of the New York Times, providing critical support for the administration's baseless claims (follow the link for even more damning details)? She's still working. Hell, I'll bet she got a fucking pay raise for selling so many papers with her horseshit.

Ah well. Happy 36th birthday to me and happy 36th birthday in a couple of days to Cody's soccer coach, and happy 10th birthday to Cody in three days. I'm going to eat some good food (Cheesecake Factory!) and forget about politics for the rest of the day.

Posted by Observer at May 27, 2004 07:29 AM