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You are here: Home / Politics / A Modest Question

A Modest Question

by Tim F|  February 13, 200810:03 am| 14 Comments

This post is in: Politics, General Stupidity

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If private contractors insist on treating major crimes like gang rape about as seriously as using the boss’s parking space, it seems like there isn’t much incentive for the perps not to just shoot women after raping them. As long as the administration remains dead set on looking the other way while corporate chums make off with the reconstruction budget, and considering the PR problems when living victims talk to the press, where’s the downside?

Before anyone misunderstands my meaning, I don’t think much of murder as an accounting policy. The idea is inhuman and repellent, but that’s the point. Guaranteed crony contracts and minimal oversight are not just a waste of money, they create an incentive system that ensures fraud by management and crime by worker bees as inevitably as gravity pushes water downhill. Even granting that America had to knock over Saddam and park our blood and treasure in Iraq, which we didn’t, it still amazes me that the government rebuilt like a pack of morons who never hired a roofing contractor.

The absolutist kneejerk ideology that wrecked every aspect of Iraq is just part of Republican disease. It’s the basic reason why thinking conservatives like this blog’s proprietor won’t think of voting for even a seemingly reasonable Republican like John McCain. One “reasonable” guy won’t change party’s profound illness. Maybe an old-fashioned bleeding plus some fresh wilderness air will bring the patient back. Maybe even that won’t clean out DeLay corrupticons, Malkinite authoritarians and slobbering neocon torture fetishists, in which case it’s time to start shopping around for hospice care. Either way it’s gratifying to see large majorities recognizing that political power is no more in the patient’s best interest than America’s.

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14Comments

  1. 1.

    John Cole

    February 13, 2008 at 10:09 am

    The absolutist kneejerk ideology that wrecked every aspect of Iraq is just part of Republican disease. It’s the basic reason why thinking conservatives like this blog’s proprietor won’t think of voting for even seemingly reasonable Republicans like John McCain.

    Why don’t more people understand that?

  2. 2.

    Punchy

    February 13, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Wow. The pic of the one woman in that NYT link puts her damn near grandmother age. What kind of sick fuck rapes someone’s grandmother?

    Congress? Fix this? No chance. Clemens’ trainer said he took steroids. Must do the important stuff, first.

  3. 3.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 13, 2008 at 10:39 am

    What kills me about this:

    Lawful capitalism and private enterprise should run the war more efficiently than the government could, supposedly. What’s so bad about that?

    Try: Iraq is a wasteland of lawlessness and insurgent violence!!

    Goddamnit ideologues are stupid. When do we get to reinstitute the feudal system so I can start running these people’s lives? They need my help, and I need their servitude.

  4. 4.

    jenniebee

    February 13, 2008 at 10:43 am

    Somebody explain to me how this wasn’t always the inevitable end result of anything one could describe as Republican ideology since they gave TR the brush?

    Seriously, as a check on progressivism’s excesses, the existence of Republicanism is a fine thing. Every ying needs a yang. But as soon as “Government is not the solution to all problems” (a fine and truthful sentiment) is given its head, it morphs into “Government is not the solution to any problems,” which leads inexorably to “Government actually causes problems,” which is only one victory speech from “and let me show you how.”

  5. 5.

    Wilfred

    February 13, 2008 at 11:07 am

    As much as I detest all things Bushco related to Arabs and/or Muslims I don’t think all of that ‘kneejerk ideology’ can be blamed solely on them. They just applied an always already existing Imperial mindset towards wogs in general. Many, many people tried to change things, and still are, but it’s just useless. This is an account about A.J. Rossmiller’s book on intelligence failures in Iraq:

    Rossmiller joined the DIA in 2004, fresh from Middlebury College with a degree in political science and a concentration in Middle East Studies. A bright future lay ahead, with a multitude of possibilities. But “infuriated” by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he writes, “it felt wrong not to contribute in such a time of national need.”

    The training at Fort Benning, Ga., “was mostly tedious but occasionally entertaining,” he says. “The sections on the region were like Middle East for Morons.” The one-page summary of the “Culture Guide to Iraq,” for example, included such gems as “Arabs are an emotional people who use the power of emotion in forceful and appealing rhetoric that tends toward exaggeration” — a description that just as well fits Bush officials railing about “mushroom clouds” to build support for invading Iraq.

    A one page summary of Iraqi culture. One page. Sure, if you don’t believe that Arabs have any culture, or that yours is superior to whatever they do have, why waste paper? You get what you pay for.

  6. 6.

    Joey Maloney

    February 13, 2008 at 11:48 am

    If private contractors insist on treating major crimes like gang rape about as seriously as using the boss’s parking space, it seems like there isn’t much incentive for the perps not to just shoot women after raping them

    Similarly, it creates a pretty good incentive for the victim of such an attack (or her family) to track down her attackers and execute them out-of-hand rather than bother with a legal process that will come to nothing.

  7. 7.

    Cyrus

    February 13, 2008 at 11:49 am

    If private contractors insist on treating major crimes like gang rape about as seriously as using the boss’s parking space, it seems like there isn’t much incentive for the perps not to just shoot women after raping them.

    But if you call them “mercenaries” instead of “private contractors,” conservatives bite your head off. Go figure.

  8. 8.

    Cryptic Ned

    February 13, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    If private contractors insist on treating major crimes like gang rape about as seriously as using the boss’s parking space, it seems like there isn’t much incentive for the perps not to just shoot women after raping them.

    No, it seems like if rape was actually punished, they’d be more likely to shoot the woman after raping her, to remove the main witness. Assuming that actual murder isn’t punished either, of course, since this is a war zone after all, and collateral damage does happen.

  9. 9.

    gypsy howell

    February 13, 2008 at 3:07 pm

    Similarly, it creates a pretty good incentive for the victim of such an attack (or her family) to track down her attackers and execute them out-of-hand rather than bother with a legal process that will come to nothing.

    I’d be amazed if this hasn’t occurred to some women there already. It certainly was my first thought, and I’ve never picked up a gun in my life.

  10. 10.

    Enlightened Layperson

    February 13, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Another reason privatizing the military such a bad idea: in order for an army to be effective, there has to be a single, unified central command coordinating actions. Use of defense contractors means, in effect, that we have all sorts of private armies running around operating independently and sometimes at cross-purposes. Not a good idea!

  11. 11.

    Delia

    February 13, 2008 at 4:30 pm

    Use of defense contractors means, in effect, that we have all sorts of private armies running around operating independently and sometimes at cross-purposes

    But isn’t this the ultimate example of the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace in action? What’s not to like?

    Of course, those who remember their Western Civ courses may recall that the real fun starts when the governments who ordered up the mercenaries get tired of paying them. Said private armies have a tendency to stay in the field doing whatever they damn well please to make a little ready money.

  12. 12.

    Thepanzer

    February 13, 2008 at 4:46 pm

    I think being burned down and sowed with salt is a pretty good start for the republican party. Or maybe have an exorcism performed first. The power of christ compels thee bitch!

  13. 13.

    Antonius

    February 13, 2008 at 6:52 pm

    Technically, gravity pulls water downhill.

  14. 14.

    Xenos

    February 13, 2008 at 9:42 pm

    Somebody explain to me how this wasn’t always the inevitable end result of anything one could describe as Republican ideology since they gave TR the brush?

    Exactly – this is the end state of Taft Republicanism. The closest person to TR in the modern age, McCain, has given in and become a Taftian. Time to flush out the whole lot and start over with a new conservative party that has a principle other than self-enrichment.

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