Descent into anger and despair

Boston Globe ^ | April 17, 2006 | James Carroll

[fuyb]

LAST WEEK, the rattling of sabers filled the air. Various published reports, most notably one from Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker, indicated that Washington is removing swords from scabbards and heightening the threat aimed at Iran, which refuses to suspend its nuclear project. It may be that such reports, based on alarming insider accounts of planning and military exercises, are themselves part of Washington's strategy of coercive diplomacy. But who can trust the Bush administration to play games of feint and intimidation without unleashing forces it cannot control, stumbling again into disastrous confrontation? An Iranian official dismissed the talk of imminent US military action as mere psychological warfare, but then he made a telling observation. Instead of attributing the escalations of threat to strategic impulses, the official labeled them a manifestation of ''Americans' anger and despair." The phrase leapt out of the news report, demanding to be taken seriously. I hadn't considered it before, but anger and despair so precisely define the broad American mood that those emotions may be the only things that President Bush and his circle have in common with the surrounding legions of his antagonists. We are in anger and despair because every nightmare of which we were warned has come to pass. Bush's team is in anger and despair because their grand and -- to them -- selfless ambitions have been thwarted at every turn. Indeed, anger and despair can seem universally inevitable responses to what America has done and what it faces now. While the anger and despair of those on the margins of power only increase the experience of marginal powerlessness, the anger and despair of those who continue to shape national policy can be truly dangerous if such policy owes more to these emotions than to reasoned realism.

[fuyb]

The ever egregious James Carroll outdoes himself again with this outstanding display of historical distortion, obfuscation and the everlasting regurgitation of another left wing kook’s propaganda (Hersh). He dehumanizes his political opponents to incite hate which leads to radicalism. He targets young people and some actually fall for his anti-american tripe. Despicable!

As far as Carroll goes he would make a great subject for a serious psychological study. If you've ever wondered what delusional philosophical masturbation reads like, read his writings. Carroll is a learned man whose ethics are truly bizarre. He lives in that imaginary planet where if only we were all liberal, the world would be perfect. His view of human nature makes me suspect he's never held a blue collar job, never spent much time with people from varied opinions and socio-economic backgrounds, and only talks with people he knows share his worldview.

[Sundog]

all you are missing is the 'barf bag' warning by the title.

[robowombat]

Carroll studied for the priesthood, became a 60's drop out and went the radlib route. His father was everything he came to hate. Strict RC, graduate of Mundelein College and Loyola Law (I think), FBI agent, high in J Edgar's regard, head of a counterespionage unit during the war. (Here it gets rally Hollywood) After WW2 the USAF wanted to set up its own investigations bureau what became the OSI. They thought so highly of Carroll's father they asked if he could join the USAF. Now he had never served in uniform a day in his life this is 1948. Hoover says yes 'If you give him commensurate rank' The USAF says yes and Carroll's old man becomes an on the spot full colonel. He clearly pleased his new bosses as he rose eventually to be no less than a LTG and became chief of all AF intelligence. No wonder James Carroll hates his father and everything he stood for.

[wizardoz]

, the anger and despair of those who continue to shape national policy can be truly dangerous if such policy owes more to these emotions than to reasoned realism.

Is that anything like the reasoned realism that thinks we can negotiate with people whose deepest, most burning desire is to have us either dead or enslaved? That reasoned realism?

[lucky american]

I couldn't have said it better! Thank You !

[Cicero]

Let me see if I have this straight. This jerk blames Bush for the anonymously sourced left-wing stories in the left-wing press by reporters who hate Bush?

Seymour Hersch's story is Bush's fault?

And I suppose James Carroll's rant is Bush's fault, too?

[45Auto]

Like all liberals (and former liberals) he has probably had his share of drug induced fantasies; his thinking is sloppy to say the least and his analysis deeply flawed. He reads like so much psychobabble. You don't "reason" with a rabid dog - you shoot him before he bites you. Its not hard to understand. The only questions are how hard should we hit Iran, and how soon should we do it? For my money, we should use conventional weapons to the max as soon as possible. To those who are weak-kneed (like the author of this article) my other question is do we want to do it now when it will be relatively easy, or do we want to wait until the bastards have become stronger and maybe touched off a big one? The Bush Doctrine was (and still is) very clear. If only Bush himself actually believed it.

[familyop]

"...manifestation of ''Americans' anger and despair." The phrase leapt out of the news report, demanding to be taken seriously."

...as James Carroll's brain cells continue to beg to leap out of his skull, through his uncontrollable fingers, and onto his keyboard.

[browardchad]

While the anger and despair of those on the margins of power only increase the experience of marginal powerlessness, the anger and despair of those who continue to shape national policy can be truly dangerous if such policy owes more to these emotions than to reasoned realism.

Huh? Really, really, really bad writing. Really.

[tet68]

It was a dark, angry and disparingly stormy night....
those on the margins of power only increased the experience of marginal powerlessness, in doing so they projected their hatred on to those who were not shackled by liberalism......

[maine-iac7]

Huh? Really, really, really bad writing. Really.

you got that right - I tried, really hard, to follow the convolutions, but I got lost! (and I'm a writer)

[Nuc1]

More liberal kooks. I wonder what they will be writing when we loose Boston, or New York, or DC, or LA or all of them. This one fell pretty far from the tree.

[ClaireSolt]

those on the margins of power only increased the experience of marginal powerlessness = MSM approval rating 14%

[mdmathis6]

" became chief of all AF intelligence"


So he would have been in on any of the Roswell shenanigans!

[Viking2002]

I couldn't have said it better! Thank You !'

I can: James Carroll=fairy.

[Candor7]

, the anger and despair of those who continue to shape national policy can be truly dangerous if such policy owes more to these emotions than to reasoned realism.>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Dweller in the liberal socialist Utopian alternate reality.

The Iranians are about to shatter their Utopia.Its a waiting gane to witness an Iranian attack on the USA.

[romanesq]

Well said and may I be the first to say can someone give a hanky to this crybaby?