| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"gibson" |
| Date: |
28 Aug 2004 11:58:14 PM |
| Object: |
When reality gets in your way, go the Rambo route |
When reality gets in your way, go the Rambo route
Paul Krugman, New York Times
August 29, 2004
Almost a year ago, on the second anniversary of Sept. 11, I predicted
"an ugly, bitter campaign -- probably the nastiest of modern American
history."
The reasons I gave then still apply. President Bush has no positive
achievements to run on. Yet his inner circle cannot afford to see him
lose: If he does, the shroud of secrecy will be lifted, and the public
will learn the truth about cooked intelligence, profiteering,
politicization of homeland security and more.
But recent attacks on John Kerry have surpassed even my expectations.
There's no mystery why. Kerry isn't just a Democrat who might win: His
life story challenges Bush's attempts to confuse tough-guy poses with
heroism, and bombast with patriotism.
One of the wonders of recent American politics has been the ability of
Bush and his supporters to wrap their partisanship in the flag.
Through innuendo and direct attacks by surrogates, men who assiduously
avoided service in Vietnam, like ***** Cheney (five deferments), John
Ashcroft (seven deferments) and George W. Bush (a comfy spot in the
National Guard, and a mysterious gap in his records), have questioned
the patriotism of men who risked their lives and suffered for their
country: John McCain, Max Cleland and now John Kerry.
How have they been able to get away with it? The answer is that we
have been living in what Roger Ebert calls "an age of Rambo
patriotism." As the carnage and moral ambiguities of Vietnam faded
from memory, many started to believe in the comforting clichés of
action movies, in which the tough-talking hero is always virtuous and
the hand-wringing types who see complexities and urge the hero to
think before acting are always wrong, if not villains.
After 9/11, Bush had a choice: He could deal with real threats, or he
could play Rambo. He chose Rambo. Not for him the difficult,
frustrating task of tracking down elusive terrorists, or the
unglamorous work of protecting ports and chemical plants from possible
attack: He wanted a dramatic shootout with the bad guy. And if you
asked why we were going after this particular bad guy, who hadn't
attacked America and wasn't building nuclear weapons -- or if you
warned that real wars involve costs you never see in the movies -- you
were being unpatriotic.
As a domestic political strategy, Bush's posturing worked brilliantly.
As a strategy against terrorism, it has played right into Al-Qaida's
hands. Thirty years after Vietnam, American soldiers are again dying
in a war that was sold on false pretenses and creates more enemies
than it kills.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Bush -- who must defend the
indefensible -- has turned to those who still refuse to face the truth
about Vietnam.
All the credible evidence, from military records to the testimony of
those who served with Kerry, confirms his wartime heroism. Why, then,
are some veterans willing to join the smear campaign? Because they are
angry about his later statements against the war. Yet making those
statements was itself a heroic act -- and what he said then rings
truer than ever.
The young John Kerry spoke of leaders who sent others to their deaths
because they wanted to seem tough, then "left all the casualties and
retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude." Fifteen months
after George Bush strutted around in his flight suit, more and more
Americans are echoing Gen. Anthony Zinni, who received a standing
ovation from an audience of Marine and Navy officers when he talked
about the debacle in Iraq and said of those who served in Vietnam: "We
heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you,
is it happening again?"
Kerry also spoke of the moral cost of an ill-conceived war -- of the
atrocities soldiers find themselves committing when they can't tell
friend from foe. Two words: Abu Ghraib.
Let's hope that this latest campaign of garbage and lies leads to a
backlash against Bush. If it doesn't, here's the message we'll be
sending to Americans who serve their country: If you tell the truth,
your courage and sacrifice count for nothing.
------------------------
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| User: "Werner Hetzner" |
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| Title: Re: When reality gets in your way, go the Rambo route |
29 Aug 2004 01:49:02 PM |
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gibson wrote:
When reality gets in your way, go the Rambo route
Paul Krugman, New York Times
August 29, 2004
...
How have they been able to get away with it? The answer is that we
have been living in what Roger Ebert calls "an age of Rambo
patriotism." As the carnage and moral ambiguities of Vietnam faded
from memory, many started to believe in the comforting clichés of
action movies, in which the tough-talking hero is always virtuous and
the hand-wringing types who see complexities and urge the hero to
think before acting are always wrong, if not villains.
After 9/11, Bush had a choice: He could deal with real threats, or he
could play Rambo. He chose Rambo. Not for him the difficult,
frustrating task of tracking down elusive terrorists, or the
unglamorous work of protecting ports and chemical plants from possible
attack: He wanted a dramatic shootout with the bad guy. And if you
asked why we were going after this particular bad guy, who hadn't
attacked America and wasn't building nuclear weapons -- or if you
warned that real wars involve costs you never see in the movies -- you
were being unpatriotic.
...
Kerry also spoke of the moral cost of an ill-conceived war -- of the
atrocities soldiers find themselves committing when they can't tell
friend from foe. Two words: Abu Ghraib.
Let's hope that this latest campaign of garbage and lies leads to a
backlash against Bush. If it doesn't, here's the message we'll be
sending to Americans who serve their country: If you tell the truth,
your courage and sacrifice count for nothing.
I wonder. Did Krugman write articles like this when clinton bombed the
Serbs into submission?
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