The Democrats need to achieve two things with respect to the mess in Iraq: 1) They need to help move the U.S. toward the best possible policy to deal with this mess; and 2) They need to make sure that the responsibility for the mess attaches to the people who made it.
The second task is not less important than the first. That's because the disaster the Bushites have created in Iraq is only one part of the serious damage they have done to America and to the world. And if the Democrats' handling of Iraq enables the Bushite forces to maintain power after their present public faces leave office, this serious damage --to our Constitution, to our political discourse, to the environment, to the just distribution of power and wealth-- will continue.
This issue of the politics of responsibility arises because --at least so it seems clear to me, but of course not only to me-- the "best possible" outcome in Iraq will not be anything good.
Despite W's continuing use of the word "victory," the chances of anything like victory are--evidently-- negligible to nil. Despite the Bushites' talk of "success," it is --apparently-- unlikely in the extreme that the outcome will look to the American people anything like success. Despite the rhetoric about wanting the sacrifice of American troops not to have been in vain, there would seem to be virtually no chance whatever that the "best possible" outcome will have achieved anything remotely worth the many costs paid by Americans, let alone the suffering Iraqi people.
A great many chickens, in other words, are heading home to roost. And as the Democrats influence the course of policy in Iraq, it is vital that they make sure that those chickens roost where they should-- with the Bushites who chose this war, who lied to bring Americans along with the decision, who alienated the whole world with their lawlessness and arrogance, who bungled the venture with repeated misjudgments, and who have been practically the last people on earth to grasp how profound a disaster they have created.
To anyone knowledgeable, it's perfectly clear whose responsibility this disaster is. But it is also clear that --however else they've proved incompetent-- the Bushites have shown themselves masters at manipulating public opinion to believe the manifestly untrue. As soon as the Democrats' fingerprints have been placed on the Iraq policy, the Rovian propagandists will be at work to peddle the lie that it is the Democrats who "lost Iraq." (Imagine if Kerry had become president in 2005, and the Iraq situation had become what it is now, what the Republican propagandists would be doing.) If only the cut-and-run Democrats had not meddled with the in Iraq, this mythology will declare, we would have achieved the glorious outcome in Iraq that our great war-time president originally promised.
Incredible, yes. But not only have such Rovian gambits worked in the past, but also there is in the more distant American past plenty of precedent for just this kind of distortion.
The "stab in the back" myth has a long history among American conservatives. Throughout the cold war, right-wing Americans never tired of accusing FDR of giving away Eastern Europe at Yalta, for example. This accusation was made despite the fact that, at the time of this alleged "betrayal," the Red Army already had Eastern Europe in its grip. Then there was the "who lost China" mantra in the early 50s. Following that, there was the American failure in Vietnam: there remain millions of Americans on the right still trumpeting the idea that the defeat of the United States in Vietnam was the fault of the peace movement at home, and the meddling of the Democratic Congress in withdrawing support (after the war had already been going on for a full decade).
A lot of Americans, in other words, have shown themselves willing to believe the incredible falsehood in order not to accept the unacceptable truth that the United States cannot always achieve its will in the world. And a lot of Americans are glad to find a scapegoat --some faction of Americans on the other side of the vital line dividing those strong and righteous Americans, like them, from the wimpy and disloyal Americans like the Democrats-- on whom to heap the blame for anything that looks like an American failure.
So there is a genuine political danger here for the Democrats.
Fortunately, there is also a simple strategy for warding off that danger. And it is one also that pays the additional dividend of helping to clarify what the best course of action actually would be, and to create some national consensus behind it.
The Democrats should start off their weighing in on the Iraq issue by conducting public hearings of the right sort, which I will now describe.
HEARINGS: ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS OF THE RIGHT PEOPLE
The main question that should be answered, in public hearings, is: What are the options for the United States for dealing with the situation in Iraq?
That question entails, for each of the various possible options: What are the possible outcomes? What are the probabilities of each outcome? What are the likely costs and benefits of those outcomes?
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
Assign blame to Bush and company for using the events of 9/11 to put a plan into effect that was born many years before the birth of ALQaeda, blame him also for the intractablility and lack of flexibility to adapt when things began to sour in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Blame the Democrats for being too cowardly to appear unpatriotic when standing firm and speaking loudly against the absurdity of that invasion was the correct path. Blame them also for the same cowardice when they voted for the Patriot Act, allowing themselves to be railroaded and us to be betrayed.
But also blame ourselves, the American people, who have failed to realise that democracy is a participatory form of governance, who have allowed unscrupulous and unprincipled politicians to make decision after decision using the Constitution as so much toilet paper. We have sold our souls for cheap plastic crap purchased with usurous credit card interest, and buried our noses in XBoxes and the like and feared that standing firm and demanding justice and truth might somehow endanger our ability to buy more such garbage. We have allowed far too much dishonesty and lies within our government and the sound you hear are the chickens coming home to roost.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 7:02:55 PM
Ardee, you are so right. Though, I for one never bought the story, many Americans did. I argue with them daily, especially here in Montana. This is where the sore losers keep telling me that I'll end up in a burka.
by
Pat Herrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 166 comments)
on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 5:16:17 PM
but I advise nonthreatening discourse around those you have to live among...of course.
I,too, fight daily among the blue collar workers I am among every day. I appeal to their real sense of patriotism and question what they believe our nation stands for, is it war, torture, spying on us all, is it all the money flowing to the very few and the rest left with higher health care costs, higher tuition payments for our children, is it unrepaired roads and poor public transit, is it high fuel costs, with the poor and elderly unable to even heat their homes?
Sometimes personalizing the issues works best in cutting throughthe naked appeals to testosterone coming from our idiot-in-charge.......
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 5:53:17 PM
3 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
