The Doors of Perception
I used to play this joke with my parents. I would fill a glass a quarter of the way full (or 3/4 empty, if you will), and ask the question “Is this glass half full or half empty?”
The answer? “Quarter full.”
“Wow. That’s even worse. You must be a pessimist.”
“No. I think that’d be called ‘Realist’.”
The debate over “Optimist” versus “Pessimist” dissolves with a quarter-full glass as the basis for the question “Half Full or Half Empty”, and it becomes “Realist” versus “Fantasist”.
“It’s a make-believe world, a world of good guys and bad guys, where some politicians shoot first and ask questions later. No hard choices, no sacrifice, no tough decisions–it sounds too good to be true, and it is.
The path of fantasy leads to irresponsibility. The path of reality leads to hope and peace. The two paths could not be more different, nor could the futures to which they lead. Let’s take a hard look at the consequences of our choice.”
Jimmy Carter said that in his 1980 Convention Acceptance speech. He knew he had to attack Reagan, but couldn’t quite figure out how while squaring it with the “nice guy” persona, one of the few strengths the population saw in him, that helped him get to the White House in 1976 in the shadows of Nixon.
Did Reagan live in a fantasy world? The “Revenue Feedback loop” of the Laffler Curve, serving to dissolve the deficit. Fun. (Our nation’s largest tax cut, followed in the next term by the nation’s largest tax increase. When Mondale promised at the convention to raise taxes, he did so as a ploy of “saying the truth”: the difference between Reagan and I is that Reagan will raise your taxes, but won’t say he will; and I just did. That was the end of his presidential run.)
But… why is Carter’s crystal ball so cloudy? (actually, that was said in 1984 to Walter Mondale, but never mind.) As Dick Cheney discovered sometime between his 80s deficit-hawk phase (which included a plea to cut in the Pentagon budget) and his vice presidential stint in Bush II Administration, deficits don’t matter.
“You deserve a president who will not play politics with national security, who will not ignore his own intelligence while living in a fantasy world of spin, and who will give the American people the truth about the challenge our brave men and women face on the front lines.”
John Kerry said that. Bush’s response is two-fold: (1) John Kerry voted for the war resolution, against the $83 billion, and said “I actually voted for it before I voted against it.” Which will be the response to any comment Kerry makes about the war in Iraq. (2) “Freedom is on the march.”
I don’t know where, exactly, “freedom is marching”. The US is losing control of more areas of Iraq.
But, you know… this is the candidate who, during the 2002 Midterm elections, explained why voters needed to elect various Republicans by saying “I need clear eyed realists in Congress to work with me.”
Because clear-eyed realists wouldn’t announce “Major Combat Operations are over” in front of a giant banner saying “Mission Accomplished”?
“President Bush gets his briefings from commanders on the ground. He has reason for his optimism because of the enormous amount of progress we have made.”
Bush spokesperson Dan Bartlet said that. In response to the release of this assessment. It would appear that the best case scenario, at the current rate, is “Tenuous Stability.” That’s the Best Case Scenario. I don’t know what the “progress” is that he is referring to… we know it’s not in vanquishing the Insurgency (Sun Tzu is rolling in his grave.) And we know it’s not in the old stand-by of “painting schools”, because…
“It’s beyond pitiful, it’s beyond embarrassing, it’s now in the zone of dangerous,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., referring to figures showing only about 6% of the reconstruction money approved by Congress last year has been spent.
That money is being diverted to pay for… ahem… security.
Maybe the sham elections are proceeding apace… without the Sunni Triangle or any region of Iraq inflicted with Insurgents voting, because, as one general put it “Anyone who thinks the Sunni Triangle will be ready to vote in January is smoking something.” (I can’t find the exact quote there… but, that is a paraphrase of an actual quote from an actual general. News is weird.)
“The worst thing we can do is hold ourselves hostage to some grand illusion that we’re winning. Right now we’re not winning. Things are getting worse.”
Chuck Hagel said that. He’s running for the Republican nomination of 2008. And, barring some shifts, has as much chance of winning it as Lieberman had of winning the Democratic nomination. I’d vote for him, though, and if a President Kerry fails to impress me on foreign policy, I’d vote for him over Kerry.
“Our committee heard blindly optimistic people from the administration prior to the war and people outside the administration — what I call the ‘dancing in the street crowd’ — that we just simply will be greeted with open arms. The nonsense of all of that is apparent. The lack of planning is apparent.”
Richard Lugar said that. His stabs at the presidency have been miserable failures.
Speaking of Fantasy worlds… anyone who says, and this is said quite a bit on talk radio, “Everybody knows that the weapons of mass destruction were moved to Syria” should be permently banned from the table of serious discussion.
Anyone who opposes “War X” or “Military expedition Y” is accused of “Being stuck in Vietnam.” But they live in the afterglow of World War II. All wars are like World War II. There’s nothing that makes them madder than someone telling them, nay — better to say — informing them — that American troops are occupiers.
The reality on the ground is thus:
“We have a growing, maturing insurgency group,” he told me. “We see larger and more coordinated military attacks. They are getting better and they can self-regenerate. The idea there are x number of insurgents, and that when they’re all dead we can get out is wrong. The insurgency has shown an ability to regenerate itself because there are people willing to fill the ranks of those who are killed. The political culture is more hostile to the US presence. The longer we stay, the more they are confirmed in that view.”
Never mind, though. Because…
They also seem to believe that Ahmad Chalabi was torn down by the yahoos in the CIA to hide the Oil for Food Scandal.
Fox News is getting ready to report a possible “Al Qaeda” connection with that old standby, wich should perpetuate some myths in the mind of the average Fox News viewer.
I eye aiie.
I’m getting nostalgic for Lyndon B Johnson’s Credibility Gap.