…and if anyone knows insane, I suppose it’s RedState.
Thinking Out Loud
TomDispatch has reposted an important essay on the Bush administration’s inability to translate its imperial dreams into functional policy. I’ll excerpt a bit, but you should go read in full.
Kicking ass — playing cowboys and Indians with the world, as little boys once did on playroom floors or in backyards — has remarkably little to do, however, with anything that might once have been defined as imperial planning or the knowledge necessary to implement such plans. For example, a year after his “axis of evil” State of the Union Address, when informed by Iraqi exiles that there were both Sunnis and Shiites in their country, “emperor” Bush allegedly responded that he thought “the Iraqis were Muslims.”
[…] Given the tabula rasa in Bush’s mind regarding the world outside “the homeland” (a word his administration has regrettably contributed to the American language), it is hardly surprising that he selected as his main foreign policy advisers two people with very limited global visions of their own: Condoleezza Rice as National Security Advisor and, as Secretary of State, Colin Powell. (Rice herself admitted in 2000 that, as a “Europeanist,” “I’ve been pressed to understand parts of the world that have not been part of my scope”; and Powell’s qualifications were based on his military savvy — and loyalty — not his geopolitical perspectives. The general, as Bill Keller of the New York Times reported in 2001, was “a problem solver, not a visionary.”As became clear after the horror of 9/11 — a foreign policy failure of the first order, if ever there was one, that no “empire” in its right mind would have allowed — Rice and Powell essentially became talking-point briefers on day-to-day events they had not foreseen and did not control. Compare them to Henry Kissinger, who held each of their positions at some point in his White House career. A cynical maneuverer who may not have been to everyone’s liking, he nonetheless worked in the realm of global strategy. In the way he attempted to play off the Soviet Union against China in relation to the Vietnam War, he was an imperial planner of the first order (if not always with the greatest success). Contrast his meaty books on Metternich and on nuclear weapons to the sole tome that Rice authored by herself — a bland monograph on the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army, 1948-1983, excoriated by the scholarly American Historical Review in 1985. What her sad little historical “study” demonstrated, if anything at all, was that Rice was, from scratch, anything but a geopolitician of Soviet — or any other — affairs.
The intellectual and emotional immaturity at play here really is hard to understate. The administration dreams of empire but ignores the basic mechanics of making one work. They prosecute a “global war on terror” that is not strategically integrated, unless you count shortchanging one conflict to feed the other “integration.” Nor, judging by our Iraq adventure, is the war particularly focused on terror. Or did I miss the day we caught bin Laden? Our “democracy promotion agenda” cultivates the most repressive regimes in the middle east and central Asia. I designed more coherent campaigns as a dungeon master in middle school.
Worse than an idiot administration, I still shake my head at how eagerly our public intelligentsia chased them down the rabbit hole. Some of the best-read, left-of-center members of my family still view Tom Friedman as the go-to-guy for foreign policy thinking. Friedman’s support for invading Iraq, and particularly the morally superior tone with which he dismissed critics of the invasion, did more than practically anybody other than Colin Powell to drum up liberal support for the war. The same Tom Friedman justified his decision like this:
Friedman: What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, “Which part of this sentence don’t you understand?” You don’t think, you know we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we’re just gonna to let it grow? Well, Suck. On. This. That Charlie is what this war is about. We could of hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. Could of hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could.
It is a dangerous kind of stupid that drags the intelligent down with it.
Open Thread
Start the day with some good news- another report that people are slowing starting to return to Baghdad as the levels of violence drop. No, it doesn’t mean everything is great, no, it doesn’t mean that the long-term scenario is any rosier, but if nothing else, it means some of these poor folks over there are getting a slight reprieve from the hell they have gone through the past few years. Good work from our troops- let’s cross our fingers and hope it lasts.
Michael Vick in Jail
Awwww, poor guy. Rot.
In an apparent attempt to speed his return to football, Michael Vick began serving time in prison yesterday, more than three weeks before he is scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty to federal dogfighting charges.
Vick, the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, turned himself in to United States marshals and was brought to the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va.
Vick is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Henry E. Hudson on Dec. 10 in Richmond, and by beginning his jail time, he will be credited with time served. According to the sentencing guidelines, Vick faces from a year to 18 months in prison.
I hope he never plays football again. I hope he can never get a job when he gets out. Yeah, I know someone will probably hire him, but I’m just hoping no one ever will. What a worthless human being.
But just watch, after last night’s game against the Jets, John will probably want him!
Absolute Bullpockey
Reid Wilson, via Larison:
Four-term moderate Republican Rep. Mike Ferguson will announce he will not seek re-election, PolitickerNJ reports, opening another seat for Democrats to target and Republicans to lose sleep over. Ferguson, who is just 37 years old, will say he prefers to spend more time with his young children.
[…] A [Tom] Kean bid would be the GOP’s best hope in keeping a district that gave President Bush just a 3,000-vote margin over Al Gore in 2000, and a wider 6-point edge in 2004. Still, the loss of a seasoned campaigner like Ferguson is another blow to the NRCC, which can’t take much more punishment these days.
The NRCC, which coordinates fundraising for GOP Congressional races, faces a retirement deficit of historic proportions and currently has a negative account balance to work with. Then there’s the weird way that America’s public restrooms seem designed to drag good Republicans into all manner of embarrassing sex acts. Contra Wilson, even barring another Foley scandal I bet that these guys can take plenty more punishment before the ’08 election winds to a close. However tempting it must seem right now, they can’t exactly give up and go home.
Naturally it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
Someone Translate The Anger, Please
I can’t figure out what Michelle is mad about:
I’ve often wondered what it would take for MTV to clean up its act. Now, we know. The aging music network wants Middle Eastern eyeballs, and it’ll do anything to cater to its audience–including toning down raunchy content and covering up scantily-clad hostesses. If it were America, the libs in charge of MTV would consider this caving in to Neanderthal social conservatives.
Is Mrs. John Doe mad because MTV is caving in to the Islamic extremists? Or is she mad because they won’t cave in to the religious fundamentalists here in the hedonistic US of A? Or is it possible that she is mad at both of those things (the most amusing and sadly, probably the most likely)?
Or is it just a slow news day and there are no Graeme Frost’s to Beauchamp?
*** Update ***
An alert commenter points out that in Mexico, MTV doesn’t even broadcast in English- no doubt codes for infiltrating the border. When will the treason stop?
Monty Python’s Holy Grail
I promised myself I wouldn’t drink on my vacation and get some stuff done around the house, play with the dogs, etc. I just went over to Kroger to pick up a couple things, and walked past this. How could I resist?
It’s Monty Python’s Holy Grail, and it was brewed to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the comedy legends. It’s 1:00 here now, but since I’ve been up since 5 (another thing I promised myself I wouldn’t do on vacation) I decided to go ahead and drink it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really great at describing beer, but this stuff is pretty good. For the aficionados out there, here is the description from Beer Advocate.
Dusty orange-gold with an abundance of fine, suspended bits. The pastel orange tinted, cream colored head is sticky enough to lay down a better than average amount of lace in chunky, concentric rings. A good look.
The nose, unfortunately, isn’t so good. It smells like lightly musty grain with a subtle whiff of English hops. I’m not sure that I want it to be more aromatic because what’s appreciated isn’t all that wonderful.
Things start out promisingly enough on the palate with a fruity, spicy hoppiness. Because of undermalting, the flavor deteriorates quickly to become harsh and mineral-like with a ragged, unsupported bitterness. The beer doesn’t feel flat in terms of carbonation, but flat in terms of flavor. There’s an echo of reasonable hop flavor on the finish, but it’s too little, too late.
I disagree completely. I didn’t see any bits, and the flavor lasts. Little to no head though, which is a downside, in my opinion.
Here’s the official Web site.
Added: By the way, the little blurb at the bottom of the bottle reads: “Tempered over burning witches.” Heh.