Hi Rog,
> SAM:
> The decision to attack Iraq has in effect now been taken...
>
> ROG:
> I disagree. Conflict may be likely, but he still has the option of
forcing
> other submissions on Saddam. In fact, the threat, though indeed
restricting
> some options, actually increases the potential success of other options.
>
But the point is that if the increased pressure doesn't work (and I agree
that this in itself could have a positive outcome) then Bush is committed to
an armed attack - he now has a clock ticking away in the background; Jan/Feb
is the deadline isn't it?
> SAM:
> Although I don't rate Bush's intellect very highly....
>
> ROG:
> Isn't it cool the way the entire world hasn't had a smart conservative
leader
> in at least 3 generations?
In the UK people accuse Thatcher of many things, but lacking intelligence
isn't one of them.
> This is either the most incredible coincidence
> ever, or perhaps a manifestation of 50 years of 3rd grader argumentation
as
> espoused by those with an anticonservative perspective and the knowledge
that
> if you repeat something often enough people will start to believe it
(often
> combined with the position that "liberals are just too smart.") I was
hoping
> the MOQ forum would free us from such shallow argumentation.
You're assuming I'm not a conservative. I read a good article in the Times
Literary Supplement just before Bush was (elected?), which made the case
that Bush was an intelligent man who played dumb in order to fit in to
Southern culture and not appear a soft WASP North-Easterner (and for
electoral purposes). I thought that plausible until the Wall Street speech.
>Oh, and does
> Bush only do this in his Wall Street speeches? Never his Main Street
> speeches? How can I tell the two apart?
>
Perhaps you missed the particular speech I was referring to, where he
attempted to reassure the brokers - with a speech at the NYSE, which I
believe is on Wall St - by saying that 'the fundamentals are sound' and so
on. Perhaps intelligence is the wrong word - clearly to get a degree and an
MBA puts him in the top ?10 percent or so of the population? So perhaps it
is a combination of wisdom and historical awareness that he lacks, not
intelligence. I don't believe that someone who was familiar with what
happened in the early thirties would ever try and use their position of
authority to boost the markets. Perhaps he was badly advised, but he still
chose to accept that advice.
> Of course YOU do give an explanation of why you think he is stupid (and
the
> huge segment -- the stupid segment supposedly -- of America that agrees
with
> him).
I don't believe I did. Where?
> Seriously though, I am indeed just railing against a sloppy bias in
> political "commentary". It is totally unfair to build a caricature of
your
> opinion just due to its similarities to this pattern. (I lived in Texas
for
> much of the time Bush was there, and was myself EXTREMELY unimpressed with
> the man's leadership)
As it happens I don't think Bush is completely wrong-headed to go against
Iraq. I don't believe (for reasons above) that he fully understands what he
is doing though.
>
> I agree with Lawry that the rest of your post is spot on....
>
Ha! Just when I had been gearing up to defend it all. Just have to explore
your philosophy then.
>
> What is BEST for Iraq, the US and the world? I believe the answer is
better
> government and more freedom in Iraq, and the elimination of a cruel
> exploitative dictator that threatens others....
> I do NOT think that the US should attack Sadam without proof of
> recent hostilities though, UNLESS the rest of the world shows reasonable
> support. The negatives, to me, outweigh the positives.
>
> But this is MY PHILOSOPHY, not Pirsig's. Please help me critique and
correct
> it as you see fit.
Seems we're largely in agreement. If you're broadly Republican in
sympathies, does that put you on the Colin Powell side of the argument?
That's probably where I'd be -with Blair, I think.
Sam
"If what we do now makes no difference in the end then all the seriousness
of life is done away with" - Wittgenstein
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