July 17, 2007 6:34 AM

Greetings from Cloudcuckooland

Bill Kristol: On the Train to Delusionville

Why Bush Will Be A Winner

I suppose I’ll merely expose myself to harmless ridicule if I make the following assertion: George W. Bush’s presidency will probably be a successful one. Let’s step back from the unnecessary mistakes and the self-inflicted wounds that have characterized the Bush administration. Let’s look at the broad forest rather than the often unlovely trees. What do we see? First, no second terrorist attack on U.S. soil — not something we could have taken for granted. Second, a strong economy — also something that wasn’t inevitable. And third, and most important, a war in Iraq that has been very difficult, but where — despite some confusion engendered by an almost meaningless “benchmark” report last week — we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome.

The great thing about being a neoConservative Republican is that you never have to bother yourself with messy concepts like integrity, dignity, or intellectual honesty. You can make up the truth as you go along, because the “truth” is whatever version of reality can most effectively be employed to support your ideological interests. Why worry about having to support an argument when you can simply wish your political reality into being?

It’s not a matter of Bill Kristol exposing himself to “some harmless ridicule”. It’s that Kristol and so many of his fellow neoCons are so willing to ignore abject reality because it just doesn’t fit with the way the want things to be. That they can find it within themselves to do so without even the barest pang of conscience is something I find personally frightening. After all, these are the people who, though they may not be running the federal government, occupy the most influential ideological bloc.

And just who do you think Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © is listening to these days? Here’s a hint: it’s not Barbara Boxer or Harry Reid.

I know it’s a pretty high bar, but Bill Kristol, the founder of the Project for a New American Century that spawned the Iraq war, the man whose editorials often seem to be inserted directly into the president’s speeches, and who once boasted that “Dick Cheney does send over someone to pick up 30 copies of [The Weekly Standard] every Monday,” has now just written the single most deceptive piece of the entire war.

The charitable view is that he’s lost his mind. The less charitable view is that he’s now officially surpassed Dick Cheney as the most intellectually dishonest member of the neocon establishment (the highest of all high bars). The truth-shattering piece appeared…on the front page of the Washington Post Outlook section….

Instead of sending their boss out with the real facts or logical arguments, Bush’s aides and their friends (see Kristol) concoct some nonsense phrase in the spin lab, hand it to him and tell him to go out there and repeat it as often as he can. The latest is “precipitous withdrawal.” It’s the new “cut and run.” It’s actually not all that new: back in January 1969, Richard Nixon used it again and again in his famous “Silent Majority” speech: “The precipitate withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster not only for South Vietnam but for the United States and for the cause of peace.” Again and again throughout the speech, Nixon used the phrase to paint the nightmarish consequences of a “precipitate withdrawal” from Vietnam. Almost forty years later, George Bush is using the slightly tweaked “precipitous withdrawal” to paint his own nightmarish scenario of what will happen if American forces leave Iraq. And for that, apparently, we have Bill Kristol to thank.

Propaganda always has and always will play a role in government; that’s just the nature of the beast. This Administration plays the propaganda card every bit as cynically and skillfully as did the criminals and thugs sprinkled liberally throughout the Nixon Administration, and who majored in Josef Goebbel’s political theories. Truth and reality are merely commodities to be marketed and massaged into messages designed to keep the American sheeple in line. This would, I suppose, explain the constantly high level of fear-mongering that emanates from the BushWorld spin machine. If we’re busy being scared and fearing for our safety and security, then it becomes increasinly unlikely that anyone will begin asking uncomfortable questions.

The biggest problem, I suppose, is that the Mainstream Media gives significant amounts of airtime and column inches to trolls like Kristol, thereby giving their delusions a undeserved and unwarranted imprimatur of credibility. Hey, it’s not as if any reporter worth the title is going to call Kristol on his mindless, delusional propaganda…and before you know it, we’ll be at war with Iran. Bill Kristol will be chuckling all the way to the bank.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 17, 2007 6:34 AM.

Wow...you really can find anything on eBay.... was the previous entry in this blog.

Sometimes the cure is almost as bad as the disease is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12