Comments on: The Comfort of Being Irrelevant

By: joeo

joeo — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 23:23:26 +0000

>Nevertheless, itâ€s useful cold water poured over the heads of both passionately anti-war and pro-war Americans: that perhaps what we do now doesnâ€t matter, that Iraqis have already seized the reins of sovereignity, and that the ability of pro-war neocons (or anti-war feminists) to dictate that particular desired liberal outcomes manifest in the constitution or society of Iraq is more or less nil. I don't think this is cold water for the anti-war movement. The current focus of the anti-war movement is to get US troops pulled out. Set a timetable and stick to it. That is only strengthened by Oâ€Leary's position. History is going to show invading Iraq was a bad idea; not a good idea that was handled poorly.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 17:05:56 +0000

That’s a good observation. The issue really is whether the conduct of the United States at this point is a significant variable in determining outcomes in Iraq. If you were to determine that it was, then the question would first be what outcome you could define as desirable, and then whether the contingent behavior of the United States was important in reaching that desirable outcome. If representatives and leaders of the United States want to reach a particular outcome and you think that their specific behavior is inhibiting them from reaching that outcome but that a different set of behaviors would enhance reaching that outcome, that’s incompetence. But if you judge, as I think O’Leary does, that what the Americans do at this point is largely besides the point, I’m not sure you can be incompetent or competent.

By: barry

barry — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 17:05:42 +0000

In the sense of true irrelevance, I dunno. In the sense of Iraq, I’m certain that the administration has the power to casually screw up things still more.

By: Marcus Vitruvius

Marcus Vitruvius — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 14:35:18 +0000

Here is an important question: Can competence and incompetence even be defined, or have meaning, in a context of irrelevance?

By: barry

barry — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 13:59:19 +0000

Timothy,

I’d temper that feeling, because this administration has a proven track record of tunneling beneath whatever low expectations one has set. They’re the limbo champs.

And right now Bush needs a distraction. I don’t think that the aid and reconstruction efforts in New Orleans (and Louisiana and Mississippi!) will go well, because this adminstration can’t resist the urge to screw it up, and it’s a huge freaking job which would strain an administration packed full of competant leaders, let alone one packed full of spinners, hacks and cronies. Right now this has primarily affected the poorer people, but all of those middle class people who did evacuate have no homes and no jobs. That’s rough now, and will only get rougher over the next year.

Add to that the impact on the energy and grain logistics, and our chances of a cold recessionary winter look very good.

This means that foreign adventurism will be looking better and better over the next year.