Letters to the Editor
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Before we get too crazy about her name...
...let's remember that Louise Slaughter, an unapologetic Liberal, is cut from entirely different cloth.
I really can't stand these broad brush strokes, anymore. They've lost their charm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Slaughter
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Well mannered invasion vs brutal occupation
It's hilarious -- in a bad way -- to hear anybody claim that the American invasion of Iraq was "well-mannered", but compared to the Mongol Hordes in 1258, maybe it was. I wouldn't know. Only some thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of Iraqis are said to have died in the invasion itself, including who knows how many surrendering draftees whose heads were blown off -- to protect our troops, don'tchaknow, from those damb devils who would as soon strap explosive vests on as look at you, except they didn't during the invasion, but they might have, so it was better to blow their heads off than take the risk that these surrendering draftees were what they purported to be. Of course there were plenty of scenes like this:
http://www.pissedonpolitics.com/Iraqi-Girl.jpg.jpg
but, oh well.
That was just the invasion. The occupation has proved to be one of the most brutal exercises of the kind since Germany occupied Poland.
Oh! Dasn't say that! No, no, no! OK, how about the British reaction to the Sepoy Mutiny? Something like that seem a little less, how shall we say?, provocative?
The idea that imperialist aggression managed by a crew of seriously deranged psychopaths headed by Big Dick Cheney could be "well-mannered" is laughable.
And compounding the brutality and bloodshed is sure to make things... better. Yeah, that's the ticket!
Once all those nasty Arabs are out of the way, what problems could there possibly be?
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Something happened to the tail end of that comment
Thinking about those two misconceptions, or half truths, might be useful.
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LOL@ shooter
He is starting to sound like Ron Paul. It's cool man, keep living in upside-down bizzaro world where Conservatism involves massive spending and bureaucracy in order to Make the World Safe for Democracy.
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Actually, the "facts" agree with Shooter -- sometimes...
Jeebus! I never thought I would say that.
Any occupation is farking Brutal. BRUTAL.
Depending on who you talk to, Iraq has lost between 60,000 and 1.2 million killed.
A good comparison is Poland. The population prior to the war was roughly the same as Iraq, @ 34,849,000. By the end of the occupation, which again is roughly about as long as America has been occupying Iraq, they had lost 5,600,000 people or 16.07%
The Germans killed 5 times as many people as the Americans. One could compare Iraq with occupied Norway, who lost "only" .042 of their population but then the Germans considered them fellow Aryans.
France lost 562,000 -- a "mere" 1.35% of their population, but then they, despite the fact that after the war, every second Frenchman claimed to have been a Maquis, did not resist to the extent that the Iraqis have.
If the low number is true, then, in historical terms, the Iraqi occupation has been kind indeed, even the higher number does not approach the Germans, forget the Mongols who tended to kill, well... everyone.
If America wanted to, using conventional weapons alone, kill every man jack in Iraq, in about a week.
Having said that 1.2 million dead Iraqis is still a stack of bodies approximately 189 miles high.
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Accountability
That's the dirty word in Washington: accountability. The war advocates should not only lose credibility for being wrong, wrong, wrong ... but held accountable. If the hypothetical surgeon botched an operation to the degree that Glenn describes, not only would the patient be unlikely to give that doctor a second opportunity to do damage, but would sue the bejeezus out of him or her.
Malpractice in the operating room has tragic enough consequences, but tends to only effect one life at a time. Malpractice in foreign policy has a body count of far greater magnitude. Yet, the main supporters of a foreign policy fiasco which has cost tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars is not only asking the public to forgive and forget, but one of their ilk -- Sen. McCain -- is seeking promotion to the Highest Office in the land, based largely on his expertise in precisely the area in which he was so wrong.
It isn't enough that Sen. McCain continue to have his bad judgment recalled -- judgment, of course, being a legitimate criteria for choosing a leader -- but that he be held accountable, which in a democratic system is at the ballot box.
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bachelard
Your inevitable support of Andrew Sullivan is really stunning, Glenn.
"Support" is too strong -- I highlighted one aspect of his "mea culpa" that I think is comparatively superior to the others while simultaneously criticizing it as inadequate.
Do you disagree with the part I excerpted? Do you think it's not better than most of the Slate justifications ("I didn't realize Bush would be so incompetent in overseeing what would have been this Great War")?
The subject of Andrew Sullivan is complicated for a lot of people, which I understand. In the 2001-2003 time-frame, he was probably one of the most toxic and destructive commentators around. Had I been writing then and been the target of that, it's quite possible that I'd consider it unforgivable.
And he has all sorts of flaws still that are worthy of intense criticism. But I still think he's far more honest about assessing his flaws and mistakes and was one of the earliest former Bush supporters to really turn on the administration and recognize its evil and his own. I think that counts for something - it's reflective of a good attribute that is as rare as it is important.
We all make mistakes, have episodes of poor judgment. There has to be a place for redemption, otherwise the almost universal belief in the virtue of acknowledging error and learning from it is meaningless.
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Timberman a loser ...
There've been other tin-eared zealots in history, to be sure, but none so steadfast and humorless as you are, bucky darling. I really do try to avoid provoking you most of the time, but your gross violations of the attractive nuisance laws are sorely tempting.
Perhaps I should re-read Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung after all, if for no other reason than to stiffen my resolve to ignore you.
-- William Timberman
Perhaps you should stop starting dust-ups. You are the one who in consecutive posts asked for a lwm performance as Ron P. and then went on to include my name in an entirely unrelated post.
Perpahs you are just afraid that you love of usa dominance around the world is not selling today.
The snide little Pseudo-intellectual jibes are all a tire old LBJ lover like you has these days I see. Enjoy your book. And I hope it works, as you are not my favorite war monger by a long shot.
I remember to this day the snark and slime hurled my way by your little group for saying that America should bring all troops home and mind its own business. Damn near gave several here a heart attack.