Item 1: Leaving Iraq Loved, Hated, or Held in Contempt. George F. Will mocks "sending Frisbees to combat zones", part of one American approach to making peace in Iraq. He simultaneously draws attention to Daniel Boorstin's observation that "history is 'a cautionary science'" and adds "but only if you know some". How about this history? Triumphant U.S. soldiers stationed in defeated Germany and Japan handed out candy bars to kids. Stupid? Or brilliant?
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How many German and Japanese policymakers today have fond memories of American GIs because of those candy bars? And how many kids given Frisbees and soccer balls by American soldiers who also fix up fields for soccer pitches or softball diamonds will come away from this war with warm feelings for Americans and the civilization that created these great guys?
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Conversely, George Will wants the U.S. not to be "paralyzed by squeamishness about violence and its collateral damage . . . The [Iraqi] population may detest an America that fights its way to control of cities, but the population will have contempt for an America that is unable or, worse, able but unwilling to wrest cities from insurgents." So he's fine with killing innocents and destroying cities to "wrest [them] from insurgents", on the theory that, what?, it is better to be hated than held in contempt? Is there no third option?
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And if in fact there IS no third option, no chance of coming out of this war liked and admired, is that a good outcome? Geroge Will and his ilk want us to control Iraq as Israel controls Palestine: heartlessly, viciously, violently. Israel is hated rather than held in contempt. Is that what Will wants for us? I don't. (Responsive to "Frisbees at War", April 30, 2004)
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Item 2: Our Second Imitation President. The 9/11 Commission interviewed "the President" yesterday, but three people went into the Oval Office to speak to them: Dubya, a lawyer, and Vice President Cheney (whose name, in case you didn't know, is properly pronounced CHEE-nee; he was raised Cheenee but when he came to Washington people started to call him Chaenee, and he let them. He didn't care how people pronounced his name as long as he got power).
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One can understand a President needing a lawyer along to protect him from potential criminal charges and civil lawsuits, and to protect the rights and privileges of the presidency against invasion by other organs of government. But the Vice President?
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Three days ago in this blog I called Dubya our second imitation-President, Ronald Reagan being the first. Some people might have thought that an extravagant claim. Think again.
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In October 1986, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and "President" Reagan met in Reykjavik, Iceland to discuss weapons limitations. Gorbachev, the real President of the Soviet Union, proposed that he and Reagan meet alone, with no advisers, only the two of them and translators. Reagan accepted, and Gorbachev took him to the cleaners. Gorby knew that Reagan wasn't really the President, and that if he could get that puppet into a room alone, he, Gorbachev, could pull his strings. And he did.
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But as soon as Reagan emerged from that private meeting and his handlers/puppeteers saw what he had agreed to, they, the real President, renounced it, and wrote heroic lines for their puppet demanding the Soviet side back down on one key demand or there was no deal. Gorbachev, who had done so nicely pulling Reagan's strings in private, couldn't grab the strings away from Reagan's handlers in public, so lost his bold gambit.
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Still, the lesson was clear to the Republican politburo: NEVER allow an imitation-President to be alone with anyone smarter than he is. In the case of Dubya, that is practically anyone at all. (A "politburo", by the way, is a collective leadership, from "political bureau": "The chief political and executive committee of a Communist party", which controls, collectively, everything the head of the government does.)
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So when the 9/11 Commission asked to speak privately with the President, they got the imitation-President, Dubya, but they also got the real (collective) President's representative, Vice President Cheney, who was trusted to control the situation and keep the puppet, Dubya, on his best behavior by pulling just the right strings at just the right moments. You see, there's only so much "prep" you can give an idiot. In important situations, you cannot let his mouth move. You have to do the talking for him. Thus the otherwise incomprehensible and bizarre double interview, President and Vice President together. Once you understand that Dubya is not really the President but only the single face given to a collective leadership that has many different faces, the incomprehensible becomes comprehensible.
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George W. Bush is President in name only. Cheney alone is not the President either, of course, but he is the part of the team that the rest of the team could trust to say what they want him to say. Dubya can sometimes remember his lines. But then again, sometimes he just screws everything up and jumble-bumbles his lines. And why wouldn't he? He doesn't understand what they've written for him. Intelligent words make no sense to him. It's like trying to remember a long string of phonetic renderings of foreign song lyrics. If you don't know the language, you may not be able to remember the sounds. If you can read them, fine, and Dubya can read. He can do that much. But if he has to memorize intelligent lines, he has problems. Let me make this suggestion to the Republican politburo: Next time, find a smarter puppet.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 1:08 PM