I know, it's Jonah Goldberg, but still....
i thought that this was a somewhat interesting column. He argues that foreign policy is not a legal practice, but an art. And so while we're caught up in saying that 43 didn't have "proof," isn't it more about whether or not Hussein was a world class a-hole that was poking and prodding like a petulant child - a child with the ability to massacre thousands of people. And do we let leaders like this continuously bluff and antagonize? Can we afford to do that? I sort of agree.
Different opinions?
Different opinions?
5 Comments:
Bush, who likes to think he is from Texas, forgot, or rather was not taught, two of the basic rules of fighting: hit first and hit hard.
So we got caught with our pants down in an elementary library, so what... take the schmuck out to the swings at recess, tape his hands to a steering wheel. Hold up a knife, "This is to cut your fingers". hold up the car cigarete lighter, "This is to stop the bleeding". How about a .30-06 Springfield? or a squadron of F-117 and B2s?
Oh, hell, lets send in the Army: black, white, brown, yellow, christian, muslim, arabic, etc... that will suprise the shit out of him.
uh, wow. dunno how to follow that.
i disagree with everything fatass jonah says, for several reasons.
one is that, no shit diplomacy is an art -- but it also has real, material manifestations. so actually, it's not an art in the abstract sense in which we think of art. maybe for idiots like bush and goldberg, who've never risked physical safety ever, diplomacy is all abstract. but getting the art wrong just b/c saddam was a world class a-hole isn't just failed diplomacy. it kills people.
this is why neoconservatism is a FAILURE. it forgets reality.
i think that any and all political ideology or theory has the failure of forgetting people/reality. That's the nature of the beast.
And, isn't art wrong sometimes? How else can you explain country music?
And, I think that sometimes decisions have to be made outside "reality," particularly when concerned with larger issues like security and war. Has iraq been worthe the 2500+ soldiers, and countless civilians. I don't know yet. But i'm not ready to say no.
i say it's not worth the loss of life, the billions of dollars spent, and the loss of american influence worldwide.
art can be wrong all the time -- i mean, country music is the wrongest crap ever. but when art is wrong, generally, a bunch of americans -- not to mention hundreds of thousands of arabs -- don't end up dead.
Lots to say here...
1) Stop harping on country. If you don't like it, change the station. I don't care for Jackson Pollock, but that just means I don't spend my time looking at his work.
2) I don't like the loss of American or Iraqi lives. Nobody does. Was the American Civil War good enough to die for? Yes. Is our current campain good enough to die for? Depends. Ask Cindy Sheehan. Ask the soldiers who are there now. Ask the soldiers who have returned. You'd get different answers.
3) I sincerely regret that American influence and respect worldwide have diminished since we invaded Iraq. Did we really have that super of a reputation before that?
4) I know a little too much, firsthand, about the petulant child who pokes and prods until there is little option left except to punish. I wish I had an answer for this one. I don't. I teach seventh grade. There are plenty of petulant adolescents who figuratively poke and prod me daily. If I had a solution for adolescents' petulance, I'd write a book and retire on the royalties.
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