The Post-Speech World

[jducoeur]

Well, that was almost comically easy to deconstruct -- the usual even mixture of actual truth, unsupported assertions, and a bit of outright legal nonsense, blended together to justify the war. I'm a bit disappointed: I was hoping that he would at least come up with something new. And I have a nasty feeling that the clumsy propaganda, aimed at the Iraqis, in the middle of the speech may well backfire.

I have to say, the thing I found most striking was how small Bush looked. Especially at the beginning, he looked like nothing quite so much as a terrified boy, sure that he was going to be called on the carpet. He gained some confidence as he went along, but this was generally just a shadow of the impressive post-9/11 speech.

The hell of it is, I agree with the basic principle: that Saddam Hussein is an evil bastard who deserves to be deposed. But on both principle and practice, this is the wrong way to do it -- openly flouting international law and opinion to go barging in. If the US is going to deserve its leading position in the world, it should be leading the rest, not ignoring them...

Comments

[its-just-me.livejournal.com]

Might I suggest Newsweek for a delightful romp of the world's opinion of Bush and his administration.

[tpau]

apparently countrary to popular belief, nto all fo america is against the war. in fact as far asi can tell every rusian and every russian jew in west hartford and vicinity went to hav ea demonstration to support the war rescently...

[jducoeur]

Well, no one with any sense believes that Massachusetts is any more normative than, say, Texas. Opinion on this subject is far from united. On the other hand, that says a lot in and of itself. Most of the world is unambiguously against the war by now, and the US as a whole is at best half-heartedly behind it. And the real crime of it all is that, if the administration had handled the whole mess with even a modest degree of diplomacy, they could have been leading an actual coalition instead of looking like they're acting out a personal vendetta...

[tpau]

i am nto sure anyone in the government cares too much about it looking like it is a personal vendetta. it pretty much is. i jsut htink the sideefects are worth it...

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

That's the problem. They *should* care. They are our duly elected officials and should follow what their constituents say. I agree that not everyone is against the war, but not everyone is for it either. I don't remember much about the previous Gulf War but this one scares me silly.

[jducoeur]

The war itself doesn't scare me terribly: despite the scare tactics being used by the government, I think an attack on US soil is only mildly likely, and a mass attack (with WMD) very unlikely.

The fallout of the war scares the bejeezus out of me, though. This whole thing is literally changing the course of world history, and probably not in good ways. I see no way in which this is going to lead to improved peace and security ten years from now, and an enormous likelihood that it will be viewed by history as one of the great mistakes of the modern era...

[jducoeur]

I can see that view, but disagree about the side-effects. More specifically, while I think that the direct side-effect of the obsession (removing Saddam Hussein) isn't a terrible idea, the indirect side-effects (in particular, wrecking the US's standing in world opinion) more than outweighs it.

Even more specifically, I think that the damage to our image is going to cause more conflict with the US, not less. We're basically begging for guerilla attacks by people who will now believe that they've seen proof of America's iniquity. So I think the war is going to worsen American homeland security in the long run, not help it...

Re:

[its-just-me.livejournal.com]

I'm not anti war. I'm anti Bush. His methods are frightening and this administration is scaring not only the people of this country, but of most nations.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

He's got those eyes and kind of a pouty mouth, like he might burst into tears and have a tantrum at any moment.

[jducoeur]

Yes -- that's it exactly! There was this point, about two minutes in, when I was absolutely sure that he was about to break into tears. He recovered after that, but it was very odd-looking, and did nothing to help my confidence...