The Long View 2003-04-17: Bad Ideas

One of the fascinating things about American foreign policy is our simultaneous capacity for utter dominance and utter incompetence. Baathists were forbidden from participating in the Iraqi government after the Second Iraq War, by analogy to the Second World War policy of de-Nazification. Unfortunately, this excluded pretty much everyone who knew what they were doing, or who had a stake in what the US actually intended for Iraq, including many Chaldean Catholics.

Christians in Iraq supported the Baathists for the same reason Christians in Syria supported the other Baathists; they were the least worst option. The Baathists in both countries did protect religious minorities from persecution by the Muslim majorities (cf. Yazidis and Chaldeans now).

In 2003, John said that while the Syrian government was odious, there shouldn't be any need to destroy that regime too. I suppose this has come half-true. At least we didn't invade Syria.

On a stronger note, John also wished that President George W. Bush would have spent his post 9-11 popularity on a Nixon-goes-to-China move that would simplify the US tax code with the intent of increasing actual tax receipts, as opposed to rates per se. This still seems like a good idea.

Bad Ideas
source
"The people moved toward the government building, the children threw stones, the Americans started firing,"
Most sources do not mention "the children," but perhaps that detail is more a matter of aspiration than description. In Palestinian propaganda, child-martyrs are far preferred, since any violence they commit is presumed to be simultaneously futile, spontaneous, and sincere. I am not aware that any of the civilian dead in the past few days are children, but these things take a little time to organize.
Intifada tactics are wholly irrelevant to Iraq. Strictly speaking, they were irrelevant in Palestine, at least in terms of serious opposition to the Israeli military. Their object was to relieve the Palestinian leadership of the duty to govern. They make no sense at all in the unblocked political situation in Iraq. Within broad limits, power there is available to anyone who can organize to take it. Presently, even the dimmest ex-Baathists will realize that there is no need to snipe at City Hall when the front door is open.
* * *
Speaking of stupidity, consider the government of Syria. That country is run by another Baathist Party. As is the way of totalitarian states, Syria was the enemy of the fraternal tyranny in Iraq. Nonetheless, Syria worked to undermine the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq. Now it seems to be facilitating the infiltration of Hizbollah into Iraq, the very people who have done so much to make Palestine what it is today.
deeply stupid
before
Happily, it probably will not be necessary to go "On to Damascus," though there is no harm at all if Donald Rumsfeld continues to hint that he is planning for just that. Now that the US has access to a border with Syria, Special Forces raids against terrorist camps become far easier. So do smart-bomb attacks on selected leaders. Invisible robot drones in the sky can change the way you think about life. Syria will complain about precision strikes, but they are hardly in a position to complain too loudly: the targets will be too embarrassing to admit they were there in the first place.
* * *
President George W. Bush has it in his power, within the next few weeks, to make certain his reelection in 2004. All he has to do is make a statement like this:
"My fellow citizens: As you know, the Pole Star of my economic philosophy is the principle that the economy functions best when the private sector, and not the government, directs the largest possible fraction of the nation's resources. As I have often put it: 'It's your money.' However, as chief executive of the federal government, I cannot forget that the deficits in the federal budget become: 'Your Debt.' I continue to believe that, on the whole, the best way to ensure that the economy will remain strong is to keep taxes as low as possible. I promise to do that. However, 'as low as possible' means that taxes must not be so low that the national debt balloons out of control. For this reason, I will not seek any net tax reductions for the coming fiscal year, or for several years thereafter. Rather, my Administration will devote its energies to restructuring the existing tax code in order to make it fairer, simpler, and more easy to enforce.
"To put it another way: cough up those bucks, you stingy bastards."
Associated Press
stimulative effectandfailing
Might I suggest that this would be a good time to look for other backers? The current president, like the one before him, was elected by promising to focus on domestic issues. The coalition he put together was designed to promote that agenda. However, history has dealt GWB another hand. Contrary to his expectations, he is running a foreign-policy presidency. He needs fiscal policies to match. Particularly, he now has to assemble a "Coalition of the Willing" on the domestic front. He needs the support of groups, many of them traditionally Independent or Democratic, who are motivated by the new patriotism. A majority of the people are eager, even willing, to make sacrifices.
Frankly, at this point in history, a "War Sur-Tax" would be a winning issue.
* * *
Concorde
I never looked forward to the prospect of flying cars, but I had always assumed that supersonic passenger-service would be standard by the beginning of the 21st century. There were many intimations of doom thirty years ago, when Congress refused to supply subsidies to develop an American supersonic transport. The plane's proponents said that the refusal to supply the money meant that the US was ceding a critical growth industry to Europe.
In the year 2000, people said that the unexpected advent of the Internet was more than enough compensation for the absence of Lunar bases and videophones. They said that before the dotcoms collapsed. Now what have we to console us?
Copyright © 2003 by John J. Reilly

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