Coalition of the Clueless

I don't know when I first started noticing it. It's definitely an artifact of the Bush Administration, so I suspect sometime after January 2001. At some point, in any case, public officials began saying stupid, illogical things without any sort of media challenge. And the inanity would be repeated until it gained the force of conventional policy, of doctrine. It's hard to describe the phenomenon with any more precision than that. I don't know exactly what to call this development. I do know that over time it can make you crazy with a simmering rage and frustration.

A classic example is the oft-cited bromide that the war in Iraq is justified, in part, because if we fight them there, we won't have to fight them here. No one has ever tried to explain why this should be the case. Deconstructing each part: who are "them?" Arabs? Muslim fundamentalist terrorists? Rotary Club members? Supposing Iraq has something to do with 9-11, how would a battle against Sunni insurgents and roving militias of various sectarian stripes in Iraq exempt us from fighting "them" here? The 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and Egypt; the "masterminds" were expatriate Saudis, Egyptians and Kuwaitis. Why would fighting Iraqis make it impossible for 19 other Saudis & Egyptians and the same, at-large masterminds to come up with another plot? Wouldn't it, in fact, be easier, given the war in Iraq? Aren't we in the midst of doing something of such colossal irrelevance, of such massive depletion, of such catastrophic self-destruction, that another 9-11 is actually more likely rather than less? If we have 133,000 troops fighting "them" over there, don't "they" actually have fewer of "us" to fight "over here?"

And then today. Bush & Blair at the podiums. What about Poland? Bush probably wanted to ask again, but in a different way this time. What about Spain and Italy? Nah, it's just the Anglo-American Feel-Good Team still hangin' in there. Bush had a new one for the Suspension of Sanity Hall of Fame. It went something like this: with the "unity government" now in place, the Iraqi people now know when an insurgent blows up a bomb, it's a strike against all of the Iraqis, because they're now part of a united Iraq. Bush said this with his usual masterful imbecility, pausing to make sure we got it, that the nuances sank in. His eyes sweeping the room like arrogant search lights, the smirk barely controlled. He's got us now. Now whenever we read about a bomb exploding in Baghdad, or Ramadi, or Kirkuk or Mosul, or in all those places, often on the same day, fountaining the green-black sewage which runs freely in the streets of the unelectrified, water-barren environs of Iraq's cities --whenever this happens, the Iraqi people will know it's now a strike against all of them, because a cabinet has been chosen for the unity government of Iraq.

Just once how I wish some reporter with a good set of nuts would raise his hand, stand, and confront this silly President of ours with one riveting inquiry. "Mr. President," he could ask, "just what in the fuck are you talking about?"