Posted on 10/05/2006 10:36:30 AM PDT by Tolik
Pseudo-footnotes
Most genres dont require footnotesthe memoir, the essay, the journalistic dispatch. Ive written histories that had too many footnotesThe Other Greeks had citations to ancient sources in the text, explanations with asterisks at the bottom of the page, and formal endnotes at the back of the bookand memoirs like Fields Without Dreams and Mexifornia with no citations.
But when you write history, and especially history of a contentious nature about Iraq, in which so much is at stake, it is incumbent to identify primary sources. The last three books about the supposed mess in IraqCobra II, Fiasco, and now State of Denialviolate every canon of intellectual courtesy. Check who said what in Cobra II and you find the following: Interview, former senior military officer, Interview, former senior officer, Interview, former Centcom planner, Interview, Pentagon Officials, Interview, U.S. State Department Official, or notes of a participant.
When the readers encounter the most controversial and damning of verbatim quotes in Fiasco, they are presented with said a Bush administration official or recalled one officer. Woodward is ever more derelict, in imagining not just the conversations, but even the thoughts of characters. And lest one think I am unduly critical in questioning the veracity of these unnamed sourceswhose authenticity can never be checked by anyone other than the journalists who now write out popular historiesexamine the recent record of journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post, and more recent stories such as the Koran flushing at Guantanamo or the photshopped pictures from Lebanon. But even more specifically, Ricks himself in the course of promoting Fiasco, repeated rumors from unidentified (some) sources that the Israelis deliberately exposed their civilians to rocket attacks from Lebanon to gain sympathy from the world community: According to some U.S. military analysts Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as theyre being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon. He was immediately called to substantiate those unproven charges. After considerable damage done to the reputation of the Israeli Dense Force had been done, Ricks backed down and apologized for his unsupported allegations with a weak mea culpa about his revelations Ugh. I wish I hadnt.
Every source in Cobra II, Fiasco, or State of Denial, may be accurate, but we will never know that, because for a variety of reasons the authors who claim they worked from notes and recordings, chose not to identify the most inflammatory sources by name. It would be as if I wrote a history of the Peloponnesian War and, to support my most controversial points, added footnotes that stated A manuscript in the Vatican, or Private letter to author from anonymous Greek shepherd attesting a stone altar in his field
Finally, note the silence from the numerous critics of the Path to 9/11 who objected to the films adaptation of the 9/11 report. But that docu-drama clearly identified itself as a fictionalized rendition of a document, and made no claims as history. In contrast, this new genre of journalistic exposé purports to give us the real story of Iraq, but denies us the very tools of determining whether what we are reading is true, half-true, or simply made up.
Post-Iraq
Everything that needs to be said about Iraq has. Long gone is any surprise that most current critics of the war were its one-time boosters, much less that it matters much.
Still, a book will be written about the public fickleness of prominent columnists, pundits, politicians, and TV talking heads and hosts, who now damn our efforts, but once were gung-ho in their support of removing Saddamand crowed as much when the statue fell.
My rule of thumb is that almost every current, know-it-all critic, whether a Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Chris Matthews (we are all neo-cons now), Francis Fukuyama, etc., at one time or another voiced support for removing Saddam and bringing war to Iraq.
One constant in their various escape hatches is that a particular lapse, a certain mistake alone explains their abandonment of earlier zealtoo few troops, disbanding the Iraqi army, not trisecting the country, the tenure of Donald Rumsfeld, etc.
In contrast, the simple truth is too bitter to confess: their support follows the pulse of the battlefield. When the statue fell and approval for the war hovered near 80%, few wanted to be on the wrong side of history. But fast forward three years plus: after well over 2,000 battle deaths, and chaos in Iraq, most not only dont wish to be associated with the stasis, but contort to assure that they never supported the war in the beginning (hard to do with footprints on the internet), or were supposedly betrayed by the incompetence of others.
I admit to being somewhat jaded: 80% of most people have no ideology or widely-held views, but simply reflect perceptions of failure or success. Those who praised Lincoln to the skies when Sherman reached Savannah in December 1864, just months earlier had hated him during the awful prior summer. Those who later sang Churchills praises after El Alamein and Normandy Beach surely did not earlier after the string of disasters at Dunkirk, Singapore, and Tobruk. Those who wrote in praise of massive B-17 raids deep into Germany in early 1945, escorted by hundreds of lethal P-51 Mustangs, had written off daylight unescorted bombing in 1942 as an aerial holocaust. The point, again, is that in the middle of a war, savvy is apparently defined as changing positions and views to keep pace with the upside-downside battlefield, rather than looking at the long-term conduct of the war.
My own views remain the same. While I didnt support removing Saddam prior to September 11, I am glad we did afterwards. While there were plenty of errors committedno American should ever have appeared on Iraqi television; Tommy Franks should not have abruptly abandoned the theater; instant ad-hoc solutions were preferable to long-term utopian efforts at perfectionnone of these lapses were as serious as those in the past in the hedgerows, in the skies above Germany in 1942, on Iwo Jima, or during the days before the Bulge, and none cannot be corrected and learned from.
Iraq is 7,000 miles away, in the heart of the ancient caliphate, surrounded by a hostile Sunni Saudi Arabia, Shiite Iran, and treacherous Jordan and Syria. The war was conducted through three national elections, and became the focus of a hostile global media much of it predisposed to be critical of the US government and military.
Nevertheless, that we now have a consensual government fighting for its life against terrorists is nothing short of remarkable. Everything and everyone now hinge on the outcome.
The safety of millions of brave Iraqi reformers, the prestige of the United States and its military, the policy of fostering democratic reform in the Middle East, the end to the nexus between failed autocracies and scapegoating the West through terrorists; success of the Bush Administration; the effectiveness of the Democratic opposition; the divide between Europe and America; the attitude toward the United States of the Middle East autocracies; the reputation of the Islamic terrorists all that will be adjudicated by the verdict in Iraq. Rarely have so many ideologies, so much politics, so many reputations been predicated on just a few thousand American combat soldiers and their Iraq allies.
I also confess, at this point I have a very reductionist, very Jacksonian view now of Americans in Iraq: America went in for the right purposes, conducted itself with honor and humanity, was still good when it was not perfect; and can leave something far better than what it foundif it will make the necessary adjustments, as in all of its past wars, and persevere. 130,000 took us at our word and are in harms way as a result. So I dont care much to refight the argument over who was smart and who stupidonly how best to support out troops and ensure they win at the least possible cost.
A final note. At some point all these retired generals need to simply quiet down and think. In World War II, Nimitz or Eisenhower never blamed the Secretary of War or FDR for the mistakes on Iwo Jima or the Kasserine Pass. Instead, they called in their top brass, drew up a plan, followed it, and then presented a successful fait accompli to their civilian overseers. In other words, our four-stars need to summon their colonels and majors in the field, draw up a military strategy that ensures our political aims of seeing a stable consensual Iraq, and then win. Blaming Bush, or faulting Rumsfeld is a waste of time; figuring out as military officers how to achieve victory over a canny enemy is all that matters.
Congressional Pederasty
Pedophilia (love of children) is different from pederasty (desire for boys); each term uses the Greek prefix pais/paidion differently, since the Greek word can refer both to the generic children and the gender-specific boy. In addition, philia is the more abstract love and covers any and all type of contacts, while the -erast- root came to mean sexual union largely in a male context.
Why the distinction? It seems that Congressman Foley in not a pedophile as accused, but rather a classical pederastthat is, he is an active male homosexual interested mostly in adolescent boys rather than men his own age. Given his proclivities, I doubt there is much controversy over what he was intending in his emails, or his aims with Congressional pages. What is strange, however, is why some of the Republicans have hesitated to damn his behavior, which reminds me of something right out of Aristophanes.
Were Foley a military officer, and wrote such things to an enlisted man, he would immediately have been court-martialed. And those now sort of, kind of, almost defending him on grounds that there is no acutal, concrete, proof that he consummated his desires, had he written such graphic and sickening things to their own teen-boys, would have had him jailedor worse.
How odd, this controversy: traditional moralists like some of the Republicans are defending a predatory pederast who seems to be infatuated with teen-age Congressional pages who are entrusted as near children to his care, while Democrats, who have made it a point not to criticize ones life-style choices (remember the Barney Frank case) are suddenly outraged over the overly-liberal parameters in which Foley was allowed to operate.
Still Republicans need to wise up: this is a losing issue since the public doesnt really care whether the Democrats are hypocritical, using scandal for partisan advantage, or hysterical in seeking headlines: the facts determine the case: a US Congressman wrote sexually suggestive messages designed to entice an underage subordinate employee. End of story. All this is left to doubt now, is how much the Republicans will hurt themselves if they persist in whining about partianship rather than condemning pederastic flirting.
Thanks Tol for the ping...a very good article.
Hanson may have stretched the "defending" Foley a bit...but in a following paragraph..."Still Republicans need to wise up: this is a losing issue since the public doesnt really care whether the Democrats are hypocritical, using scandal for partisan advantage,..."
If you haven't heard Conservatives, (not to be confused with Republicans) hollering about the obvious hypocrisy of the demented Demos, then you are not listening. A great deal of Rush, Hannity, Beck, my heroine Ann, etc is spent in pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of the shameless demos; this can understandably be viewed as "defending" the screwball Foley.
What I understand Hanson is saying is that Republicans should condemn Foley loudly and let the idiot Demos hang themselves.
Interesting side note: there seems to be a backlash deveoloping among the gay community as the screwball Demos have made it obvious that they only consider the gay community as a reliable voting bloc...the Dems are making the suicidal argument that because the Republican leadership essentially knew that Foley was a poofter, he should have been monitored and his emails should have been intecepted. This is turning out to be wonderful theater.
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