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10/07/2003 Archived Entry: "Dionne nails it, as usual."
Dionne nails it, as usual.
I often overlook the redoubtable E.J Dionne, and every time I post one of his articles I wonder why. Maybe because I just don't visit the WaPo editorial page often enough. This one's good.
President Bush should be searching his soul over how he took a legitimate war against terrorism and systematically undermined the support he needed to wage it. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush's domestic opponents and much of the world joined him in supporting tough action against terror and agreeing on the urgent need to advance the values of democracy, free expression and tolerance.
That sense of shared purpose has evaporated. It was destroyed less because of what our enemies and wayward friends did than by the administration's almost casual disregard for the link between facts and arguments. The president used the tactics of a political campaign to sell the war in Iraq. Now comes the fallout.
It's increasingly obvious that the administration was willing to say whatever was necessary to get the Iraq war done on its schedule. It made the war a partisan electoral issue in 2002 and turned off potential allies abroad. The president lost the high ground that he and the United States occupied when our forces waged war on al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The administration's primary after-the-fact case for the war against Saddam Hussein is that Iraqis are much better off without him. But it didn't have enough confidence in the humanitarian argument to make it the primary basis for war before the shooting started. And it was not candid in advance about the high costs of the enterprise.
Replies: 3 people speak up
Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.) Fables.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
The Wolf and the Lamb
ONCE upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. “There’s my supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize it.” Then he called out to the Lamb, “How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?” 1
“Nay, master, nay,” said Lambikin; “if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.” 2
“Well, then,” said the Wolf, “why did you call me bad names this time last year?” 3
“That cannot be,” said the Lamb; “I am only six months old.” 4
“I don’t care,” snarled the Wolf; “if it was not you it was your father;” and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and— WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA—
ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out—
“ANY EXCUSE WILL SERVE A TYRANT.”
Posted by kuma @ 10/07/2003 09:18 AM NY
Kuma,
Aesop's Fables are a millennia-old font of wisdom, unfortunately forgotten.
Of course with Bush, the Boy Who Cried Wolf would also be appropriate.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 10/07/2003 11:27 AM NY
'Racists don't need reasons, just excuses.'
Posted by Paul @ 10/11/2003 05:11 PM NY
