On Tolerating Weimar Republicans
I forgot my need to get up and fetch another cup of coffee when I read this:
. . . .All I read were critcisms, many of which were harsh but no alternatives to the current Elephant plans in place. The Elephant plans are without a doubt flawed and big mistakes have been made in Iraq. On the other hand the Donkeys don’t really have a plan from what I’ve concluded. I have the impression they’re only focused on withrdrawing from Iraq. If they do withdraw before Iraq is stabalized then I must honestly say that I’ll consider it as a defeat. . . a very bad defeat and a second Vietnam. Here comes the question: Which one is better having no plan or having a flawed plan?
At the risk of slapping up the most presumptuous comment ever, Drima, I have to say that the tragedy is that you are too young (perhaps) to realize that Bush's un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI) has amounted to and continues to be a major departure from the American tradition in foreign policy. Neocons are not just an ultra conservative administration: they represent a militarist mutation of conservatism which tracks its origins only back to Leo Strauss, not to settled American traditions or political thought. As such, they are alien.
If they were only a 'very conservative' Republican administration, there could be room for confidence in a belief that the merciful pendulum of history would swing back naturally in a couple of years. In which case, we could say, suck it in, manage the mess in Mesopotamia as best we can, honor Bush's commitments as if they were our own, etc.
But this is not the case. Bush and Cheney and Rove represent the worst American can be and, left to cycle out in 2008, will yet become. After 2008 they will not be long gone. They'll be back, metastasized in an even more virulent form.
All this is to say, there are stakes bigger than Iraq involved here. In foreign policy alone, the doctrine of preventive war, preemptive war, or whatever - in hell - you want to call it, has to be repudiated and banished from our American lexicon. Until we do this, we can accomplish nothing of value for Iraqis or for ourselves. This has to be accomplished by 2008. If not, it will be done by future historians which is to say, too late.
Bush and Cheney have to be forced to eat their war before they're excused from the table.
Cross-Posted on The Sudanese Thinker
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