Hypocrisy

As so often happens, we in America are forced to turn to foreign news sources for intelligent, in-depth coverage of our own politics. One such source is the The Guardian's Gary Younge who has been videoing reports of the recent election. Day 5 caught my attention.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/flash/0,,1935331,00.html

Younge visits a couple whose son is serving in Iraq. The wife describes how others react to hearing this news. They say how glad they are that their son isn't in Iraq, and even friends can't bear to hear her cry with fear and either change the subject or hang up the phone. These are all people, she notes, who support the war effort, and think it's the right course for America.

This is a phenomenon particularly associated with this war. Millions of Americans 'support' the war, but would baulk at actually going and fighting in Iraq. Mothers vote for politicians who, in turn, vote for war, but these same mothers would never send their own offspring to die; other people's children are preferrable. They put a magnetic ribbon on their car, but can't bear to even listen to the fears of a friend whose son is in mortal danger; it makes the whole thing a little too real.

It's much easier to make the 'tough choice' to support a war that is completely unreal. Other people's children die, and if the images on TV are too depressing you can just flip to American Idol. The wealthy (whose offspring are not serving) have not even had to suffer high taxes to pay for the war they say is so necessary. Instead, they gave themselves a hefty payout and cut the services that the poor (those who did not enlist, of course) rely on.

Cowardice

An interesting article in Vanity Fair in which David Rose interviews a number of the most outspoken supporters of the debacle that is the war in Iraq, and who ruminate on how things didn't pan out the way they thought.

The worst part of this litany of political cowardice is how, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions, each neocon systematically blames the administration for the failure. Now don't get me wrong, clearly the execution of the war has been incompetent - little boys playing war with big boy weapons - but the ability of these policy hawks to remain in a state of denial is quite breathtaking.

Richard Perle, for example, says "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.… At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible".

No Richard, you must accept responsibility also, maybe even more so. Bush is not too bright and clearly easily led. Those who led him with false hope and poor judgement are just as guilty for the thousands of deaths and he is for allowing himself to be fooled.

The worst thing is that these men now shake their heads in disbelief and say "if only we could have known how it would turn out" etc, etc. Now, the 'I told you so' argument is generally considered unproductive, and I normally agree, but let's be clear about this one.

We who opposed the war did so for a number of reasons, and I know that for many (including myself), a big one was the absolute surety of this kind of outcome. We marched in the streets, we waved huge banners, we wrote in op-eds, blogs, fora, anywhere we could, that this is exactly what would happen. And the neocons now wake up and say 'if only we could have known'??!!!!!

They truly are gutless wonders...