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October 30, 2005

The definition of insanity

A nation gripped by fear laid down upon it not by terrorism but by the political machinations of a reelection juggernaut may finally be jolted from it's paralysis.

The indictment of the aid to Vice President Cheney this week and the masterful press conference of the prosecutor have finally, it seems, given the nation pause.

The big questions: why was a top White House official giving classified information to reporters? Why did the White House pay so much attention to an unknown former diplomat? And why out his wife? And if the yellowcake uranium from Niger story is a put up job, then which other arguments for invading Iraq were put up jobs as well?

Jonathan Alter offers some perspective in today's Newsweek:

According to Fitzgerald, Libby had conversations with at least seven other government officials about Joseph and Valerie Wilson that he did not disclose to the grand jury. Why were top White House officials and Vice President Cheney so concerned about an obscure former diplomat like Wilson? Because he had the temerity to offer public dissent. By showing how evidence of Saddam's WMDs had been cooked, Wilson undermined the very reason Augie Schroeder and the rest of the U.S. military went to war. He was more than "fair game," as Karl Rove called him. He was a mortal threat.

This has been the Bush pattern. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill presciently says a second tax cut is unaffordable if we want to fight in Iraq—he's fired. Bush's economic adviser Larry Lindsey presciently says the war will cost between $100 billion and $200 billion (an underestimate)—he's fired. Army Gen. Eric Shinseki presciently says that winning in Iraq will require several hundred thousand troops—he's sent into early retirement. By contrast, CIA Director George Tenet, who presided over two of the greatest intelligence lapses in American history (9/11 and WMD in Iraq) and apparently helped spread "oppo ammo" to discredit the husband of a woman who had devoted her life to his agency, receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Some might write this off to the hard ball game of politics in Washington. Except the demand for loyalty above everything else has up until now obscured the fundamental incompetence and dangerous insulation from critical discussion at the highest levels of the US government.

We've been watching the quagmire of Iraq unfold mercilessly before our eyes. The massive onslaught of hurricanes leaving so many of our fellow citizens helpless while a hapless FEMA neglects it's duties. A national debt that has once again spiraled out of control while another Republican President signs spending bill after spending bill...tax cut after tax cut.

This has been allowed to take place under our noses because of men like Karl Rove...who instill fear of brown people in robes to the electorate. And then put up their guy as the only patriot who can possibly deal with the scourge. To prop Bush up as this lone patriotic figure is a feat indeed. A man without curiosity or a breadth of intellectuality is a tough sell. Absolute loyalty and lockstep message control has to take place.

And in the meantime anyone who speaks up is an unAmerican, unpatriotic, yellow-bellied leech who is sucking off the very teat of the freedom provided to them by the Cowboy-in-Chief.

Alter's piece in Newsweek also includes a quote from a father who lost his son in Iraq:

"When you do something over and over again expecting a different result," Augie's grieving father, Paul, told me, "that is the definition of insanity."

Indeed. When Americans reelected George W. Bush to the presidency after a truely horrible first term expecting him to do better, that was insanity. But maybe...finally...the people and the press have decided that being whipped into a state of fear-riddled paralysis is no way to live. And no way to elect a President.

Posted by Carla at October 30, 2005 07:05 AM