13 Old White Men

Someone recently observed that the people whose assumptions and dispositions got you into a mess are very unlikely to get you out. I can't remember who said it. Maybe lots of people. But it's true.

But they'll never stop trying, or insisting that they are the only ones who can get you out, because if what they tried at first didn't work, they need to try the same thing harder, or more often, or faster. Or admit that they didn't know what they were doing in the first place. When they come up with a "new" idea, it's usually actually one of those variations: more, faster, bigger. Then you blame the messengers. Then you blame your own staff or soldiers or followers. Then you blame the people who never believed in your ideas. Then you blame the victims.

They will try again because they cannot admit they failed. They cannot admit that they failed because, given their inflexible mind-set, they cannot imagine that the mechanics of reality are different from the stopwatch in their pockets.

And so it is that George Bush proposes more troops for Iraq. More. Bigger. Faster. That will solve this intractable problem of Arabs hating our guts. That will keep every Arab male youth between 18 and 24 around the world from dreaming about killing an American.

Here's a picture of the Iraq Study Group. Even the token black (Vernon Jordan) and token woman (Sandra O'Conner) are clearly actually old white men. Look at Time Magazine's summary of their "qualifications"-- they might just as well have announced, each is a veritable old fart of certifiable fossilization in corporate groupthink, and completely immune to new modes of thought, startling ideas, or innovative approaches. These are exactly the kind of people who got the U.S. into this mess. They're "new approach" can only get the U.S. deeper into the mess.

Okay. So we have a group of old white men, mostly lawyers or businessmen, and they are going to look at the Iraq situation because it is a disaster for the U.S. and they are supposed to come up with some new approach that the current administration, including those mind-blowing non-conformists Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsveld, Richard Perle, Stephen Hadley, etc. hasn't already thought of. And this is going to solve the problem.

I can look into my crystal ball right now and tell you what is going to happen. This Study Group will not be able to even imagine any solution that is not based rigorously on 19th century ideals about "American interests" and "global strategic importance" and democracy and free enterprise and stability and authority and rule of law and so on and so on, and they will recommend more of the same, faster, bigger, better.

If your son is serving in the U.S. army, be prepared to go into denial, for when he dies in the coming year you will be one of the ones who will know that it was for nothing, that it was for Bush's vanity and Cheney's megalomania or Powell's indecisiveness. Your son or daughter will die in vain.

So we will endure until we can blame the Iraqis and get out.

But it is clear now to any sensible person that the U.S. cannot win any more in Iraq and the only reason they don't leave immediately is because that would make a resounding statement to everyone about just how stupid this whole idea was in the first place.

Rant of the Week

13 Old White Men

All contents copyright 2005 Bill Van Dyk