one of the things that vexes me about the extreme right in america is their ‘black and white/take no prisoners’ approach to issues of loyalty and policy. the new right (as personified by the bush administration, although with his coterie of old men his administration can hardly be called ‘new’) have some good ideas. they have many more bad ideas (building more nuclear power plants, cutting down old growth forests, trampling on the bill ofrights, kowtowing to the nra, opening pristine wilderness to oil exploration, cutting funding to the arts, having religious fundamentalists determining public policy, subsidising coal production, rejecting environmental accords, etc), but occasionally they have a good idea. endingiraq’s ability to create and use weapons of mass destruction is a good idea.
it’s such a good idea, in fact, that it’s actually a u.n resolution. many people and political leaders around the world are in favor of sending inspectors back into iraq to end iraq’s ability to create and use weapons of mass destruction. but it’s george bush’s rhetoric and the rhetoric of his administration that is so damaging and so counterproductive to the process and to the u.s’srelationships with its allies. you almost want to sit these angry bush-ies down and say, ‘listen, everyone agrees with you, settle down and stop being such bellicose assholes, ok?’
the situation in the middle-east is incredibly fragile and delicate, and the rhetoric from bush and his cronies in no way acknowledges or reflects just how fragile and delicate the situation in the middle-east actually is.
the bush camp just seem like a bunch of angry bullies who have never stopped to consider that their approach to a situation might not be thebest one. they never seem to stop to think that alienating their allies might not be the best way to deal with a situation. they never seem to stop to think that actually listening to some of their allies might actually yield positive results. there are a lot of faults to be found with the policy aims of the bush administration. but even when they have policy aims that aren’t inherently offensive they still manage to present things in such a way that good ideas end up sounding terrible.
and that’s a shame for all of us.
moby
