Author's posts
Jan 21 2008
Rethinking Iraq: We have to do better
We are mired in a false narrative about Iraq. Getting out of the false narrative will require us to to gain a better understanding of the political factions in Iraq, their manuverings, and their attempts to both deal with the American occupiers and to evict them.
In brief, over the past few months political factions in Iraq have moved from making largely violent arguments in their bids for power and independence to making largely political ones. As a result, we, the progressives in the United States who wish to end the occupation of Iraq, have been caught totally flat-footed. We have been relying on their deaths, and the deaths of American soldiers, to make our arguments for us.
Jan 21 2008
“A weird mixture of total cynicism and moral fervour”
The Guardian has posted the first of three excerpts from a new book, Defeat: Why They Lost Iraq, by Johnathan Steele, about Tony Blair and the run-up to the Iraq war.
In November 2002, six academics with backgrounds in Iraqi history and international security met with Blair and tried to convince him that invading Iraq would be disastrous.
“We all pretty much said the same thing,” [George] Joffe [an Arabist from Cambridge University] recalls. “Iraq is a very complicated country, there are tremendous intercommunal resentments, and don’t imagine you’ll be welcomed.” He remembers how Blair reacted. “He looked at me and said, ‘But the man’s uniquely evil, isn’t he?’ I was a bit nonplussed. It didn’t seem to be very relevant.” Recovering, Joffe went on to argue that Saddam was constrained by various factors, to which Blair merely repeated his first point: “He can make choices, can’t he?” As Joffe puts it, “He meant he can choose to be good or evil, I suppose.”
— snip —
The experts didn’t seem to make much of an impression. Blair “wasn’t focused”, [Charles] Tripp [Iraqi history expert] recalls. “I felt he wanted us to reinforce his gut instinct that Saddam was a monster. It was a weird mixture of total cynicism and moral fervour.”
More below . . .
Jan 17 2008
Thank You, G.
Dear G,
The writers’ strike goes on.
In a TV comedy drought, your once-in-an-epoch, no-reason-for-it-but-sheer-hilarity jerk-hump of your own campaign has been pure gold. Even asking your staffers to go without pay to continue the laughter. We want you to know we appreciate it, G.
As your election prospects go down the drain, this post is in honor of you, from us, your adoring fans.
Jan 16 2008
Romney, Michigan, and the GOP’s Little Problem
The conventional wisdom is that the GOP base is looking for a Reagan clone, and is having trouble deciding on a candidate because none of the candidates on offer does a sufficiently good “Dutch.” The conventional wisdom is that the GOP base wants such a Reagan clone to bring together the fiscal, religious, and foreign policy conservatives under a single cult-of-personality tent.
The fact that the GOP base has quite visibly refused to fall for any Reagan impression has thrown GOP watchers into a tailspin of conflicting interpretations as to what the typical conservative voter wants, this year. But few of these watchers have drawn the obvious, if counter-intuitive, conclusion: that the GOP base is not looking for a new Reagan.
This thought is probably too Earth-shattering to contemplate for the GOP elite. Lacking an old model, they would have to invent a new one. And they are nowhere near equipped to do so.
Romney’s win in Michigan provides a window into this puzzle. I’d like to muse on it for a while.
Jan 15 2008
Is This Why The Iraqi Parliament Passed the de-Ba’athification Law?
[Update 1:14 am 1/15/08 by LithiumCola]: I think the speculation in this post is incorrect. In the thread MO Blue links to a Juan Cole post with important info, and some other stuff I’m looking at leads me to think there is a more complicated struggle going on than is being accounted for by the sources in this essay and in this essay itself.
_______________________________
Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst who writes for the Asia Times, provides the first explanation that has made any sense to me for the Iraqi parliament’s recent passage of a reversal of de-Ba’athification law.
In brief, Prime Minister Maliki is running out of friends willing to support him, and therefore running out of options. With Kurds running out of patience, the Prime Minister needs factions in his camp, and Sunnis are about the only untried group left.
First, some background.
Jan 14 2008
Clinton on MTP
This has not been a good couple of days for someone trying to decide which Dem to back in the primaries. Senator Obama has come out with a less-than-progressive stimulus package to stave off the impending recession. Krugman critiques it here — hestal has a diary on Krugman here.
I was pondering Krugman’s column last night, and looking at other articles on Obama’s stimulus ideas . . . not encouraging. I was also reflecting on something Clinton said on Meet the Press on Sunday. That’s what I want to focus on, here.
Jan 13 2008
Books I Will Never Read Again
(1) Books that promise to tell me “why the left is right and the right is wrong.”
I don’t need the help, thanks. Anyone who does should not be reading this book — as it will surely result in me having to associate with Democrats who are Democrats for all the wrong reasons. I want shallow conversations, I’ll talk to a Republican.
(2) Books of poetry written by songwriters.
If it wasn’t good enough for your last album, I’m not dropping 20 $ on it. Keep it on stage, loser.
(3) Books with subtitles that begin with a misuse of the word “How”.
Some examples:
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens (Author)Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One Side Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve by Bernard Goldberg (Hardcover – April 17, 2007)
Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart by Patrick J. Buchanan (Hardcover – Nov 27, 2007)
There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind by Antony Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese (Hardcover – Oct 23, 2007)
Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole by Benjamin R. Barber (Paperback – Mar 10, 2008)
War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back by Lou Dobbs (Paperback – Sep 25, 2007)
The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America by Ronald Brownstein (Hardcover – Nov 1, 2007)
No, sorry, hack. If you don’t, or rather your agent doesn’t, know the difference between “how” and either “that” or “why” (better yet, just to delete the first word altogether) you’re not getting my money.
(4) Collections of columns by columnists.
You writee book, I buyee book. You no writee book, I no buyee book.
(5) Books written by stand-up comics.
Unless your name is Steve Martin, I’m not buying your book. Chapter titles such as “The Battle of the Sexes: Toilet Seat Edition” do not make we want to stay up half the night, howling in laughter. Keep it on stage, loser. Better yet, keep it at home.
(6) Any book with an “Oprah’s Book Club” sticker on the cover.
If it looks like a good book, I’ll find a different copy. The calories I waste tearing off that horrid symbol of Cultural Monotheism would be better spent changing the channel on my TV.
(7) Novelizations of movies.
Though I will consider sonnetizations of architecture or stream-of-consciousness-i-zations of reality TV.
(8) Any book by Nelson DeMille. Period.
I made the mistake of being a passanger on a road trip with Wildfire playing on audiobook. I want my soul back, you miserable hack.
(9) Crazy Wacky Romantic Adventures.
He’s a forensic tax accountant. She’s a former trapeze artist. Together they find adventure and romance and fun! in the ice caves of Antarctica.
(10) Fantasy Science Fiction.
Elves on Interstellar Frigates. No. No, really. That’s fine. Thanks. But no.
Jan 12 2008
White Male Idiots
Speaking Tuesday to the New York Post’s Fred Dicker, whose show airs on Albany’s Talk 1300 radio station, Cuomo said of the early primaries: “It’s not a TV-crazed race. Frankly, you can’t buy your way through.”
He added later, “You have to sit down with 10 people in a living room. You can’t shuck and jive at a news conference; you can’t just put off reporters, because you have real people looking at you, saying ‘answer the question.'”
Meanwhile, at the internet cafe . . .
White Male Idiot #1: “Shucking and jiving” wasn’t meant as a racist comment. In context, Cuomo was talking about all the candidates. He was making a general point.
White Male Idiot #2: Cuomo knew what he was doing. He was trying to make race an issue in the election.
White Male Idiot #1: I don’t think so. In fact, you’re the one making race an issue by interpreting Cuomo’s words that way.
White Male Idiot #2: Oh sure, that’s nice. Cuomo says “shucking and jiving” — a phrase about African Americans — and I’m the one making it about race. I’m just responding to what the Clinton camp has put out there.
Jan 11 2008
You Want Far-Left?
Kevin Holsinger’s diary today reminded me that certain people on the political right like to characterize websites such as Daily Kos, Media Matters, and MoveOn as “far-left”.
Holsinger quotes O’Reilly:
The reason the Democratic candidates boycotted Fox News was that the far-left Internet crazies told them to do it. Websites like the Daily Kos and Media Matters, which spit out anti-conservative hatred everyday, made it clear to the Democrats that anyone dealing with Fox would be punished. The creepy radical-left organization MoveOn.org, which raises serious money for liberal candidates, seconded the motion.
Clearly, certain people on the right are so denuded of imagination that they really don’t understand what “far-left” means. I think it might be good to give them an education.
Jan 10 2008
Rasmussen on the NH Mistake, and the Power of Story
In this post I relay Rasmussen’s preliminary report on why they got New Hampshire wrong. Their explanation is not simple or single-faceted. I also offer some reflections on the power of simple narratives.
I don’t like “stories” when it comes to campaigns. I don’t like, for example, to be told that “the women of New Hampshire” were “moved” by Clinton’s “teary-eyed moment.” This is too quick, too easy, too lazy, and too insulting. It makes too many people’s jobs — pundits, reporters, campaign staffs — less taxing for me to believe it is really getting at the truth. The truth might be more mundane, less psychological, messier . . . and above all, the truth might not fit into anyone’s “story” about this or that “campaign”.
Jan 07 2008
Charlie Got His Wish
MR. GIBSON: So I hope we have time to get to some of that. But before we get to it, talking about domestic policy, I want to get to the concept of change.
The word “change” was uttered 74 times in the New Hampshire Democratic debate on Saturday. A total of 42 of these came during the segment in which Charlie Gibson asked the candidates to say the word “change”.
Like many battles, this one began quietly. Sen. Clinton tried to meet Charlie’s challenge by uttering the word “change” a mere four times.
SEN. CLINTON: Well, let me say first that I think we’re all advocating for change. We all want to change the status quo, which is George W. Bush and the Republican domination of Washington for so many years. And we all are putting forth ideas about how best to deliver that change.
But I don’t think you make change by, you know, calling for it or by demanding it. I think it is a result of very hard work, bringing people together, stating clearly what your goals are, what your principles are, and then achieving them.
But that wasn’t going to do! Edwards explained things to her . . .
Mr. Edwards: Thank you. Thank you. No, you’re welcome. You’re more than welcome.
Let me just say a quick word about this. You know, Senator Obama and I have differences. We do. We have a difference about health care, which he and I have talked about before. We have a fundamental difference about the way you bring about change. But both of us are powerful voices for change.
And I might add, we finished first and second in the Iowa caucus, I think in part as a result of that.
Now, what I would say is this: Any time you speak out powerfully for change, the forces of status quo attack. That’s exactly what happens. It’s fine to have a disagreement about health care. To say that Senator Obama is having a debate with himself from some Associated Press story, I think is just not — that’s not the kind of discussion we should be having. I think that every time this happens — what will occur every time he speaks out for change, every time I fight for change, the forces of status quo are going to attack. Every single time. And what we have to remember — and this is the overarching issue here — because what we really need in New Hampshire and in future state primaries is we need an unfiltered debate between the agents of change, about how we bring about that change, because we have differences about that. But the — the one thing I do not argue with him about is he believes deeply in change and I believe deeply in change. And anytime you’re fighting for that, I mean, I didn’t hear these kinds of attacks from Senator Clinton when she was ahead. Now that she’s not, we hear them. And anytime you speak out — anytime you speak out for change, this is what happens.
Edwards took Clinton’s four “changes” and fired back ten! Clearly, he was having none of this “four” bullshit.
The tension mounted . . .
Jan 06 2008
Best American Essays
If there were one thing I could get everyone to buy, it would be the annual Best American Essays anthology put out by Houghton Mifflin Company. I’ve been getting them every year since 1992, and they have some of the best writing in the genre of the personal essay you will ever read.
Some of these clips are funny, some serious. These are essays that, once read, I have never forgotten.