Bush Bunker
Posted December 11th, 2006 by Chip Bok
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'I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.' - Bush to key Republicans according to Bob Woodward in his book "State of Denial".
Here's an interesting take on American ambivalence about Iraq by Shelby Steele in the Wall Street Journal .
December 11th, 2006 at 8:40 am
That's right folks, the inability to win in Iraq is because of your ambivalence and not because it's the " biggest mistake in the history of the United States" according to Pat Buchanan.
December 12th, 2006 at 5:02 am
It was an interesting article, Mencken. Too bad you didn't read it but why bother when a TV celeb is coining such great quotes?
December 12th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Larry, I read it twice and what I read was an articulate but transparent attempt to deflect the blame for the failure in Iraq
from where it belongs to a lot of blue-sky rationalization, including the American public's ambivalence. And who created this ambivalence? Except for the soldiers and their families, the overwhelming majority of Americans haven't been asked to do any more than take their shoes off on their way to Fort Lauderadale. Hell, Bush even threw in a tax cut to make sure you noticed or cared even less. If you listened to what Bush has said since the war started, all you've heard was that everything was going swimmingly and that the insurgents were in the last throes. Christ Larry, ambivalence was one of the Bush Administration's main domestic goals. When people and the media started paying attention- that's when it went starting going south for Bush here at home.
Steele made some good points about the lack of hegemony in Iraq and that it can be read as colonialism, but jeebus, why the hell didn't anyone tell that to Bush 3 years ago? Any second year history major knows the problems with occupations. My guess is some administration officials did know that and were told to shut the hell up. I know Colin Powell knew it.
Any finally, Buchanan didn't coin that phrase. I said it over 3 years ago on a Sunday morning in a booth at Dodies. Didn't get much media coverage though.
December 13th, 2006 at 4:45 am
I guess I read the article a little differently, Mencken.
"Ambivalence" is not the same thing as "apathy." It's more akin to "angst," I would think, which emanates from the media and intelligensia (for lack of a better word) rather than from the general public.
Ambivalence suggests a dilemma; while we don't want to be imperial colonialists, it is also morally wrong to ignore the Middle East or to otherwise shirk our responsibility as the world's foremost superpower by simply withdrawing from Iraq.
It's the kind of decision that marginalizes that part of the world and that got us in the terrorism mess in the first place.
This dilemma is being glossed over in some quarters as we hurtle towards a return to Cold War-era foreign policy.
December 13th, 2006 at 6:38 am
"It's the kind of decision that marginalizes that part of the world and that got us in the terrorism mess in the first place."
You can't possibly support that statement.
Ask Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
December 13th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Steele's article spells it out more clearly than I can Mencken so I am at a loss.
December 13th, 2006 at 10:34 am
For however eloquent Steele is in making his case, he opts out of squarely placing the blame for Iraq where it belongs.
Every point Steele cites in his piece was well known before the war and roundly ignored by the Bush Administration. That the American public has no effing idea on how to feel about this situation is hardly the point now.
December 14th, 2006 at 5:07 am
An article that blames the Bush Administration would certainly be novel and interesting. If there's any out there, can you provide some links?
December 14th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
I'm sure you know how to navigate the web as well as anyone Larry. You don't need my help on this one.