Insanity

It's nice to see the pundits are finally beginning to understand what madness the current administration operates under. In an op-ed piece in today's Boston Globe, James Carroll takes a pretty harsh view of Bush foreign policy.

INSANITY is defined as repeating one mistaken action again and again, each time expecting a better result that never comes. Prime example: the United States in Iraq. Washington perceived a weapons of mass destruction threat from Saddam Hussein, but instead of responding with diplomacy - internationally coordinated weapons inspections - it went to war. When Saddam Hussein was toppled, the initiative should have passed from the Pentagon to a State Department-led program of stabilization and reconstruction, but instead a crudely violent military occupation was begun. Diplomacy was once again rejected.

Today, the United States, fearing a geo-political setback that will undercut the broader "war on terror," is putting the diehard goal of military "victory" ahead of the diplomatic initiatives that alone can enable the reconstruction of Iraqi society. The needed spirit of cooperation among Iraqi factions, and from other nations, will never materialize as long as the United States pursues the fantasy that its armed might will at last prevail. Once again, diplomacy is being rejected in favor of war. This is insane. ...

Let's call this repeated insanity the mistake of "supermilitarism," choosing war over diplomacy, and expecting order to follow, instead of chaos. The mistake was made at the beginning, in the middle, and is being repeated now, in what should be the end. The mistake is so deeply rooted in American structures of imagination, economy, and government that it isn't even perceived as a mistake by those in power. And it threatens the future as much as it burdens the past.

The "surge" is touted as proof that American armed might can improve things, even though daily news reports say otherwise. That is because American "success" is not the same thing as success for the people of Iraq. By itself, the US military will never prove capable of providing them with stability and security. Worse, the US occupation will continue to prevent the development by Iraqis themselves of authentic, trans-sectarian security forces.

The occupation is the mistake that keeps on taking.

The healing of Iraq would be far more readily achieved by an American acknowledgment of failure, and by the engagement of other nations that such an acknowledgment would immediately invite. But insanely holding on in Iraq until Washington can claim something like "victory" means that this globally oriented geo-political ambition - America's standing in the world - is being bought at the price of Iraqi blood. [Emphasis added]

Iraqi blood, American blood, Iraqi treasure, American treasure: all the forms of payment for an illegal and misbegotten war with no end in sight. While the madness may be fox-like in nature, with the government contractors and multinational oil corporations reaping the benefits, it is still madness: utter and complete insanity.

Welcome to the club, Mr. Carroll. And you're right: the Emperor is in fact buck naked and crazy as a loon.

261 days.