Letters to the Editor
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Two competing War Myths
The waning power of the War Myth, which may have never been as potent as we imagine, has been shadowed by the crumbling state of the political infrastructure. We saw some of it when the response to Katrina fell short. Then a bridge in Minnesota fell down. The global economy will probably be dragged into the swirling water of credit excess, business deals with Communist thugs, and poison toys in the mouths of our children.
Like all lame duck Presidents Bush is trying to reflect on his place in history. Reagan dreamed he was going to win the Nobel. Bush daydreams that he might get to the end in one piece, and preserve some level of confidence in the ability of government to govern.
If he meant to drown this government in a bathtub he couldn't have done a better job. Before he begins building Stab in the Back II, he better be careful. The Left now realizes that it was their failure to purge the Rumsfelds and Cheneys that caused this problem. Bush himself was content to adopt a Conservative shadow version of Reagan, who in turn emulated FDR. Bush has carried out the tradition, from 9/11 as Pearl Harbor, to the ownership society, to the treachery at Malta, now carried on through visits to China by Hank Paulsen. All the glory and pratfalls of Democratic party history are evident.
The Iraq war myth connects the dots in this history, from the war to vanquish the Axis powers, to the leadership in Tehran. Vietnam was a diversion from the longer and wider struggle againt Fascism in all its various manifestations. The message is continuity, not Vietnam, per se. Vietnam was part of the Cold War chess game. And we won that game, right?
Leaving Vietnam was a mistake, entering the war was a mistake. The logical analogy to Iraq should be evident. The Bush presidency was a series of failures to close the deal. He couldn't close the deal on Iraq, he couldn't put the port deal over and place troops on the Dubai side of the Hormuz Straights. They couldn't prop up the economy, or prevent the foreclosure of thousands of homes. They couldn't close the file on Bin Laden.
With all three branches of government under Republican control, and the Democratic Congress cowering in the shadows, and their signature on every war appropriations bill since the war started, its hard to make a case for American omnipotence, on or off the battlefield. The war myth is historical continuity, and Bush the radical, speaking of continuity is a bit odd, but this administration has never been as good at propaganda as everyone believes, or the aftermath of the war in Iraq would have been a slam dunk too.