What a huge disappointment. The Patriots couldn’t cover the spread in the Super Bowl. I am now ten dollars poorer thanks to a bet I made with my friend Sean.
I was disappointed that the Patriots couldn’t cover the spread, much like the Bush administration in Iraq.
Now that’s a transition.
We may have won the war (remember, major offensive military operations are over), but it doesn’t seem we can cover the spread. This weekend, the Baathists, hard-core Saddam loyalists, former Army officers, foreign fighters and religious zealots (man, this list is a little too long for comfort) decided not to sit at home and eat chicken wings and watch a little football. They decided to blow things up. A lot of things. And they killed a lot of people. But don’t worry. In less than six months, this will all be worked out and the Iraqis will be able to lead themselves!
Actually, I believe in the Iraqi capacity for self-rule, unlike notable right-wing thinkers Richard Perle and David Frum. These two neo-conservatives have written a book, “An End to Evil” (as if that is done *snap!* by U.S. foreign policy), that advocates (take a deep breath here): the invasion of Syria, the overthrow of Iran by funding dissident students, the complete and massive invasion of North Korea, the overthrow of Libya, the abandonment of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the installation of Ahmed Chalabi as the head of Iraq. That’s a whole lot of war, and their basic reason for justifying it is because we can.
Now, before you dismiss this “conquer the world” strategy as a fantasy of the far right, remember that Richard Perle has the ear of Paul Wolfowitz, the assistant secretary of defense, and sits on numerous boards in Washington, D.C. where his policy recommendations are taken with the highest regard.
David Frum is a well-respected conservative thinker, one whom I had to read as an undergrad, when he was an “angry conservative” before that sort of thing was hot.
These people have the hearts and mind of the Bush administration locked up, and their claims that our security can only be enhanced through global war are rather terrifying.
Don’t worry, though. We’ll be safe at home because they also recommend a full shutdown of the American border and mandatory national ID cards with DNA and fingerprints on every one.
I have to give these two nutcases credit, though. They are going for it with no apologies. They go for the jugular, which is better than MTV, CBS or the Bush administration can say.
What do these entertainment mega-corporations and the president have in common?
When Justin Timberlake exposes Janet Jackson’s breast on national television (not that shocking, if anyone can remember Lil’ Kim at the MTV VMAs a few years back) and CBS and MTV back off from the act, saying it was a mistake, a costume “failure” and CBS had no idea this was going to happen, you know everyone involved is lying. Janet was wearing a pastie on her breast, an interesting back-up to a costume if this really was unexpected.
If you’re MTV (who produced the half-time show) and you’re CBS, go for the titillation; don’t back off and say it was mistake. That’s pre-emptive caving to the protests they knew would immediately follow. This way CBS and MTV get their cake (Janet’s boob) and they get to eat it, too (oops, that wasn’t supposed to happen!).
Similarly, the Bush administration covers their raw politics and hard-knuckled brinksmanship with so many different buzzwords that we forget the game they’re actually playing.
The Bush administration went to war in the Middle East for the exact reasons Frum and Perle advocated. It’s just that they said “WMDs!” and “OsamaSaddam!” until people thought there were terrorist hordes with weapons caches lining up to get on boats and head over here.
We weren’t told, “This is a power move to get other governments in the Middle East to fall in line with our mantra of open markets and semi-democratic governments friendly to our interests, and we don’t care if they don’t want to play.”
Likewise, we are told “economic stimulus” when it comes to tax cuts, but it’s really “a giant favor extended to our wealthy political contributors.”
Accusing a politician of saying or doing one thing and meaning another is like accusing snow of being cold, but the cynicism and bold-faced hypocrisy of this administration is truly astonishing.
It’s the same story as the Super Bowl half-time show. This presidency is a giant song and dance that wastes your time and money while bad actors lip-sync poorly to a terrible script in order to sell you a bill of goods you don’t really want.
Rob Deters is a second-year law student. He can be reached at [email protected].
