|
What A Great Freakin’ War!!
By David Michael Green
27/01/08 "ICH
" -- -- - What a ding-dong I am!
For months – nay, years! – I’ve been ranting about how screwed
up the war in Iraq has been, and how disastrous have been its
consequences.
What a fool I’ve been! In reality, it’s actually turned out
pretty great.
That’s what I learned when I read William Kristol’s recent New
York Times piece, “The Democrats’ Fairy Tale”. In a stroke of
thoughtfulness, generosity and uncanny prescience, the Times was
kind enough recently to hire Kristol to write a regular column
for their op-ed page. I guess that’s because Ariel Sharon was
unavailable and David Duke was on vacation.
And bless his little heart, Kristol knows a thing or two about a
thing or two. Heck, he’s the one who got us into Iraq in the
first place! He’s been telling us for a long time what a cool
thing it would be to knock over that tin-pot Saddam Hussein
crank, and damned if he didn’t convince the president to do it,
despite Bush’s decades of foreign policy experience.
But it’s been a rough couple of years for Ol’ Bill, ‘cause the
whole damn country went into some sort of narcoleptic,
apoplectic, pathogenic tizzy about the war, crying fickle and
foul at every turn and seeming like all everyone wanted was to
end the darned thing. Imagine that. What a bunch of whiney
little self-interested twits, squealing like a continent full of
Europeans, and utterly failing to see the great wisdom of Young
William’s Grand Adventure In Mesopotamia. It’s really quite
nauseating, isn’t it?
In his article, Kristol really rips the Democrats, and don’t
they ever deserve it. Now that Iraq appears to be marginally
more peaceful than it was last year at this time, Kristol is
angry because, as he puts it: “It’s apparently impermissible for
leading Democrats to acknowledge – let alone celebrate –
progress in Iraq”.
Bill is angry because the Democrats (and the public – but,
oddly, he doesn’t mention that part) still want to end the war –
even though it’s been a huge success! They should “celebrate”
it, instead! Fortunately, he is clever enough to suss out the
real reason for this childish intransigence. It’s not, as
Hillary put it, because the Iraqis know the Democrats will shut
off the supply valve of endless wasted dollars and soon-to-be
casualties headed to Baghdad. As Kristol notes, “That is truly a
fairy tale. And it is driven by a refusal to admit real success
because that success has been achieved under the leadership of
... George W. Bush. The horror!”
I must admit I’ve suffered from some of the same confusion as
the Dumb Dems, whom I think we can all agree are simply
hopelessly naive pacifists intent on allowing our country to be
taken over by Very Bad People (of less than fully white
complexion) who mean us harm. You know the type I mean, like
George McGovern, who flew all those bombing missions during
World War II while Little Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Kristol and
the rest fought ... valiantly ... in ... Viet ... oh, never
mind. Anyhow, that hopeless and dangerous idealism is why, just
one year before the Iraq war, every single Democrat in the
Congress opposed the invasion of Afghanistan except for ...
well, except for ... every single Democrat in Congress other
than one. Okay, never mind on that one too.
Look, let’s get down to brass tacks here. Kristol just gets it.
The rest of us don’t. He realizes that in the grand scheme of
things – “World War IV” as his pappy likes to call it – what’s
important is not the big picture, but the very narrowest.
You may think, for example, that promulgating egregious lies in
order to shove your way into am Iraq war that no one else wants
is stupid and counterproductive, damaging the credibility and
interests of the United States, and probably accounting for the
lack of allied support in a more credible war in Afghanistan.
But Bill Kristol knows better.
You may think that fighting a war that massively drains
military, diplomatic and financial resources away from the real
enemies of the country in order to pursue a pet project that has
nothing to do with those genuine threats would be idiotic and
suicidal. But that’s ‘cause you’re not as smart as William
Kristol.
You might believe that it was a ludicrous waste of blood and
treasure to kill 4,000 Americans and one million Iraqis, while
borrowing and spending a trillion bucks (fast going up to two)
in order to invade a country that had neither attacked us nor
threatened us. And that doing so was an extremely poor choice of
resource allocation, especially when we have tens of millions of
children doing without healthcare in this country. But if you
were a clever neoconservative like Bill Kristol you’d know
better.
You might think that wrecking our military and compromising
American security over a non-problem – indeed, a problem that
people like Bushes and Cheneys and Rumsfelds and Reagans once
very much created and encouraged – would be a stupid choice of
priorities. But that’s only because you don’t have the foreign
policy insight of someone like Bill Kristol.
And let me guess – I bet you also think that launching a war
that brings chaos to a vital and volatile area, and that
massively increases the power of an Iran run by radical
theocrats was a really, really dumb idea. But if you were Bill
Kristol you’d realize that all we need is a third war against an
Islamic country, and we can clean up the whole mess all at once!
Or maybe you’re like all those American intelligence agencies,
who collectively reported last year that the Iraq war was
actually creating anti-American terrorists rather than
eradicating them. But if you were as smart as Mr. Bill and his
Kristol Ball, you’d know that they’re all just a bunch of
long-haired and bearded blame-America-first left-wing Berkeley
rejects running covert ops for the CIA, NSA and other
intelligence agencies. Of course they’re going to diss the war!
It’s going well, and those unpatriotic spooks can’t stand that
because they hate America!
Maybe you’re angry because you think the same American soldiers
whom people like George W. Bush are always hiding behind should
actually have adequate armor to fight the war they’ve been
thrust into, rather than their families having to hold bake
sales to buy it for them. And maybe you also think they should
be treated a wee bit better than they have been at Walter Reed
(and far beyond) when they come home wounded, or they have to
fight harder than in Anbar to get the benefits owed to them out
of the military. But what Bill Kristol knows is that you can’t
make an omelette without breaking some eggs! So lighten up on
that whole concern-for-the-troops thing already. (Unless you’re
the president doing a photo-op, of course.)
Don’t tell me you’re chagrined at the idea that American forces
may be in Iraq for another decade, or even for a full
“generation”. Probably that’s just because you or someone you
know might have to go fight there. People like Kristol never do,
of course, so why should he worry?
Are you angry that well-connected cronies and corporations got
rich off this war? That eight billion dollars in cash went
completely missing in Iraq? That multi-billion dollar no-bid
contracts got paid out for jobs never done? That American
soldiers worked and bled and died for peanuts alongside
mercenaries making four times as much salary? That we will be
paying for this war in interest on loans and expensive treatment
of the wounded for generations to come? Yeah? Well Bill Kristol
thinks you should get your priorities straight!
Have you somehow come to the conclusion that turning one-fifth
of Iraq’s 25 million people into either corpses or refugees
hasn’t exactly been a great liberating service to that country?
You know, sorta like when we told them to rise up but then stood
by and watched Saddam mow them down. Or when we turned a blind
eye to Saddam’s use of chemical weapons against his own people,
and even protected him from condemnation for those crimes at the
UN? Bill Kristol thinks that’s because you just don’t know the
true value of freedom and democracy. Oh, and you put too much
emphasis on that whole not-getting-killed thing.
Are you one of those whiney liberals who believe that this war –
whether one supported the idea of it originally or not – has
been ridiculously mishandled from the beginning? That there were
never enough troops sent in? That allowing rampant looting was
stupid? That failing to have plans for the occupation of a
country of 25 million people constitutes criminal negligence?
That firing the Iraqi army was just as idiotic as sending
thousands of armed and angry men home unemployed sounds like it
would be? That purging the national government and
infrastructure of all Baath Party members was a prescription for
chaos? That allowing civil war between Sunni and Shiite was
disastrous? Yeah, well, Bill Kristol knows better. He
understands that what’s really important is that the massive
levels of violence and pandemonium of these last FIVE years
(count ‘em) are now possibly slightly lower than the outrageous
levels they’ve long been at, and could conceivably stay that
way.
Can’t you see the small picture here? Kristol can. I guess
that’s why he has a New York Times column and you don’t. I guess
that’s why the president listens to his advice and not yours.
Who could blame him for being angry and vituperative toward
dangerously silly Democrats who don’t see the peril facing our
civilization?
Such quibblers! So what if the war was sold on completely
fabricated lies, was supposed to be a cakewalk but has now
lasted longer than World War II, has divided the country and
made the world hate us, has squandered our (borrowed) resources
and broken our military, has brought instability to a volatile
and crucial region and allowed a real national antagonist to
double its power, has diverted our resources from the
still-uncaptured guy who supposedly attacked us on 9/11, has
become a factory for producing anti-American terrorists, has
wiped out over a million innocent people and turned more than
four million into refugees? So what if this war has now
supposedly been ‘saved’ by precisely the same strategy that was
vehemently rejected by the same people in the beginning?
Let’s keep our priorities straight here, people. All that really
matters is that we’ve seen a possible slight improvement in
levels of violence in Iraq over the last couple of months (all
of which may be due to a host of possible factors, including
that there aren’t many people left alive to fight there
anymore). Get it?
Some people think that burning down your neighbor’s house and
having your own catch fire as a result is a highly stupid and
really criminal thing to do. What neocons like Bill Kristol
understand, though – and what naive liberals will never get – is
that what really matters is whether you can slightly diminish
the rate at which the flames consume those dwellings, five years
after starting the fire. That’s what’s genuinely important – not
the ashes where the houses once stood.
If you understood that simple principle, you wouldn’t be
complaining about this war so much. Rather, you’d be
“celebrating” how well it’s going.
If you understood this logic, you’d have supported the war from
the very beginning, as William Kristol did. (Which of course has
nothing to do with his apparent defensiveness about it today, we
can all rest assured.)
In fact, if you were as smart as Bill Kristol and the other fine
folks who brought you the invasion of Iraq, you’d quit with all
your smug complaints, once and for all.
And you’d realize what a great freakin’ war this really is!
David Michael Green is a professor of political science at
Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive
readers' reactions to his articles (dmg@regressiveantidote.net),
but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to
respond. More of his work can be found at his website,
www.regressiveantidote.net .
Click on "comments" below to read or post comments
Comment Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We encourage engaging, diverse
and meaningful commentary. Do not include
personal information such as names, addresses,
phone numbers and emails. Comments falling
outside our guidelines – those including
personal attacks and profanity – are not
permitted.
See our complete
Comment Policy
and
use this link to notify us if you have concerns
about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and remove any
inappropriate postings.
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
