OPINION & EDITORIAL
U.S. should emulate Hungarian rhetoric
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Also by Frank Hennick:
- Anti-Nazi demonstrations passionate but lacking dignity (September 6, 2006)
- Campus growth must preserve green space (September 11, 2006)
- U.S. should emulate Hungarian rhetoric (September 25, 2006)
- Campus spots make UW home (December 4, 2006)
- Online feedback lacks accountablity (October 24, 2006)
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by Frank Hennick
Monday, September 25, 2006
How would you react if your elected leaders candidly admitted that they had lied over and over again? Or that they had deliberately suppressed inconvenient facts until after elections? Or — shock of all shocks — that the last few months of governance had been rife with failure and incompetence? These questions confronted Hungarians this past week, when Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany confessed as much in a private speech to his Socialist Party.
In a diatribe peppered with obscenities, Gyurcsany lamented, "I almost perished because I had to pretend for 18 months that we were governing. Instead, we lied morning, noon and night. I do not want to carry on with this." Of course, what Gyurcsany intended for private partisan consumption became fuel for public outrage. The streets of Budapest filled with demonstrations that, as of Sunday, had climaxed at about 50,000.
The chaos in Budapest has arisen from more than a mere admission of lies; Hungarians are fed up with high taxes and continued deficits, among other troubles. Nevertheless, Hungary's dilemma should not seem too foreign to Americans or citizens of any other democracy. Gyurcsany's gaffe raises plenty of questions about the nature of our own democracy and the many problems facing it. Thanks to Gyurcsany's accidental honesty, Hungarians can now confirm what they have probably suspected all along: that their country faces troubles, and that their leadership has neglected to tackle them.
Our leadership has failed us similarly, choosing to dither, obfuscate and spoon-feed us rhetoric that is never thoughtful or honest, always partisan or disingenuous. This is how the Bush administration has communicated with the electorate, and it is also how the Democrats have responded. Worse still, we citizens have been absolutely complicit in this sad state of affairs. Whereas Hungarians overreacted, took to the streets and torched vehicles, we in America have committed the opposite offense and sloughed off. We have been intellectually complacent, refusing to confront the nasty truths in front of us and allowing the hacks on both sides to speak on our behalf. When we find ourselves in political discussions, we almost invariably speak as partisans and never as autonomous individuals.
In America, intellectually honest dialogue is routinely smothered by this mass-passivity. Our opinions are reduced to pithy slogans, purged of any complexity or nuance. Our leaders are only obliging our simple-mindedness when they spoon-feed us their denial and dogmatism. In the context of our current administration, this means that the complexities of waging war on terrorism give way to grandiose claims of "spreading freedom."
Just this weekend, the New York Times revealed that a US intelligence report concluded that the Iraq war had fueled, rather than curbed, terrorism. Here, as in Hungary, an inconvenient (and blatantly obvious) truth has escaped, yet the administration has so far opted to downplay the report, resorting to the usual rhetoric. This is a golden opportunity for the White House to level with Americans. As a lame duck president with negligible approval ratings, what could Bush really stand to lose? The electorate deserves a candid assessment of these findings — it is a very real possibility that the Iraq War could be a false start in the war on terrorism.
Frank Hennick (fhennick@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in History and International Studies.
Anonymous (September 25, 2006 @ 7:53am):
Speak for yourself, fool. Leftists are the ones obliging their simple-mindedness when they spoon-feed us their denial and dogmatism.
It's particularly hilarious to listen to them cherry pick "conclusions" from intelligence report leaks from the New York Slimes. Isn't it Leftists who preach the orthodoxy that the CIA is the fount of all disinformation and evil?
This little chestnut has gotten very old and over gnawed.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051115-1.html
Anonymous (September 25, 2006 @ 12:29pm):
If our intelligence agencies are really laboring under the thrall of Leftist illusions that Muslim hatred of the infidel West didn't really start bubbling until the year 2003, then we are really deeply deluded.
Has anyone paid attention over just this past year? All it takes is a few cartoons-- or a dropped Koran... or a defiant apostate... or a Muslim woman in a bikini... or a papal speech quotation-- to set off The Religion of Perpetual Outrage.
And if Badger's honestly believe Islam's outrage is a recent phenomenon traceable to American actions, please have the Badger library order up a copy of Professor Bostom's "Legacy of Jihad".
Anonymous (September 25, 2006 @ 12:57pm):
Every one of those who contributed to this report should not have graduated from college. They flunk history, plain and simple. They are fourteen hundred years late in their assessment of the causation of Islamic terrorism. The dead Jews of the Qurayza oasis, the dead Christians and Jews of various Byzantine provinces, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Southern France, Southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, the Balkaks, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Persians, the Hindus and Buddhists, and the various other peoples who have fallen under the Sword of the Prophet - all can testify to where it comes from and what amplifies it.
Send these idiots back to a college or university that has not improperly revised history.
Anonymous (September 25, 2006 @ 1:05pm):
What is really troubling is we still have a revolt in our intelligence community which is trying to use the news media to influence our elections. The second greatest threat to our democracy is the intelligence community using intel against their political opponents. The whole FISA-NSA debate is about someone using intelligence assets to undermine a political foe. The thrust of this debate has been the President using these powers to undermine our country. But a battle takes two sides and what we have seen is the abuse of power and responsibility in these leaks to the NY Times, which regularly spins the information fed to them.
What I want to know is where are the checks and balances so these people in sensitive positions with access to classified information cannot abue their powers? We know the President has checks to make sure he doesn't misuse his powers, but what about these other partisans using their positions to undermine our elections?
Anonymous (September 25, 2006 @ 1:07pm):
Well, well, well. The New York Slimes has been gloating for years over all the errors, misapprehensions and blunders of US intelligence agencies, after cheering the gutting of them by the Church Commission and their Leftist allies.
So now we're to breathlessly glue ourselves to descriptions of yet more intelligence conclusions, and accept them at face value? Was the New York Slimes lying before, or are they lying now?
Or is this yet another treasonous leakage of 'information' from agencies hostile to the Bush Administration, with intent to discredit leading into the Fall elections?
Anonymous (September 25, 2006 @ 7:44pm):
Did the same guy just write the same things 5 times? So, the conclusion of the nation's intelligence agencies says we're putting ourselves more at risk through our actions in Iraq and you cannot get your thick partisan skull around it. Nice.
Most people with common sense could have reported the National Inteligence Estimate weeks, months, even years ago.
Your president and all his sycophant pundits truly do not have the best intentions for the country. It is more important for them to stay in power than to govern and lead well.
Besides finishing the book "My Pet Goat," what has Bush done well in five years? Name one thing; keeping you safe while keeping you scared is a net loss.
Anonymous (September 26, 2006 @ 8:11am):
What has Bush done well in 5 years? Name 1 thing? I'll give you 5 things that kept America safe from attack for over 5 years now. [But 1st, take 1 minute to wrap the duct-tape and aluminum-foil extra thick and tight around your frothing Leftist hate-Bush nugget.]
1) Waging 2 of the swiftest and most humane wars in history while liberating 50 million people from two of the world's most brutal and aggressive regimes and destroying foreign terrorist operating bases.
2) Killing or detaining over 75% of al Qaeda's known leaders and associates including; Mohammed Atef, al Qaeda's senior field commander killed in a bombing raid in Afghanistan; Abu Zubaida, Osama bin Laden's field commander after the killing of Atef, captured in Pakistan; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the September 11th attacks, captured in Pakistan; Ramzi Binalshibh, a coordinator of the September 11th attacks, captured in Pakistan; Hambali, top strategist for al Qaeda's associate group Jemaah Islamiah in Southeast Asia, captured in Thailand; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, al Qaeda's chief of operations in the Persian Gulf, captured in the United Arab Emirates; Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a suspect in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, captured in Pakistan; and Abu Issa al--Hindi, a central planner of detailed reconnaissance of American financial institutions, captured in Britain.
3) Blocking ~$140 million in terrorist assets in over 1,400 accounts worldwide.
4) Helped Afghanis and Iraqis elect new leaders and craft new constitutions that give unprecedented rights and freedoms to all citizens.
5) Compelled Libya to voluntarily end its WMD programs.
I could go on but I'll give you a chance to defend the record of the "progressive" Left. What have you Leftists accomplished in 5 years-- other than embarrassing themselves in elections and conducting impotent Krystalnaght-style hate-America street riots (euphemistically called "anti-war protests") while seditiously aiding and abetting America's enemies in this war?
Name 1 thing-- and pretending you're helping America by flinging rhetorical feces through the bars of your cage is a net loss.
http://www.zombietime.com/hall_of_shame
