| "the addition of Joe Biden to the Obama ticket might aggravate these tendencies, because in the past Biden has been a leading American voice in promoting an interpretation of Iraq as a country of three mutually hostile and internally stable population blocks. His various “plans for Iraq”, while frequently misunderstood, in different ways reinforce the view that the main problem in Iraq has to do with a centralised state structure and coexistence issues. Like many others in American politics, Biden has failed to acknowledge the emerging non-sectarian trends in Iraq, seeking instead to push ideas about “Sunni federalism” during his visit to the Anbar governorate. |
But we had better have the Wonderbread in which the baloney is embedded as well, an account of the tendencies that might be aggravated. Dr. Righteous Virtue begins strikingly, disagreeing with about 98.3047% of the known universe:
| " ... the real context of the upcoming Democratic convention is that ‘the surge’ in Iraq is not working at all. Despite measurable successes in bringing the levels of violence down, the American-sponsored political system in Iraq is actually more dysfunctional than ever...." |
Emphasis added, naturally, and also added in such a way as to run across the break between two of the sophist’s sentences. That seems fair enough to me, though, or anyway no more twistificatory than what Dr. Virtue does to his own foes -- ’no-’count know-nothin’s that they are! Taking the emphasized part in isolation, then, we learn that violence levels in the former Iraq have no connexion with the Ever-Victorious SurGe of ’07™. [1] We also learn that R. Virtue doesn’t mind dictating to AEI-GOP-DoD-USIP-EIB-etc. what they are up to. Possibly they are unaware that the real reason why they surGed was to functionalise the Khalílzád Konstitution, but all the same, that is what happened. North Danish Virtue is militantly objective, much like Rio Limbaugh virtue, though the latter is only your lower-case ethical type. Petrolaeus and Crockerius are doin’ what they are doin’ after all. Everything is what M. Reidar Visser says it is; why should we wish to be deceived?
The psychology of docta amentia is fascinating, but let us discuss that topic some other day. At the moment we need to know exactly what the word ‘dysfunctional’ means in the most recent oracular deliverance:
| "... actually more dysfunctional than ever, incapable of delivering the results that both Iraqis and Americans are looking for. Perhaps the best evidence is the fact that it is now Washington’s own darlings in Iraq and their pet projects that stand in the way of progress, as seen in the vice-presidential vetoes this year against the provincial powers law and the provincial elections law. There is in fact a cross-sectarian majority in the Iraqi parliament that wants to have early elections and power-sharing in Kirkuk, but Washington’s allies among the Kurds and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) keep blocking progress towards national reconciliation and a more sustainable political system. The salient cleavages in Iraqi politics are increasingly of a non-sectarian nature – the alliance that challenged the Maliki government through its demand for early elections and power-sharing in Kirkuk had an eminently cross-sectarian composition, and no matter how the media likes to spin it, the recent sacking of the police commander in Diyala did pit some powerful Shiite players against each other – but American policy fails to respond to this reality." |
Thus R. Virtue completes setting his miniature replica Stage of Ex-Iraq for the appearance of the (not so very) new character, Bidenius. We have seen before that Dr. Virtue can be in a red-hot rippin’ hurry to shoehorn whatever just happened into accordance with the established platform and by-laws of his own Party of Zero. That seems to have happened here, where he distinctly talks as if he used to be conjoined with militant extremist Republicans in an alliance for "progress." As I recall RV has never touched more pitch and filth than to notice that GOP-AEI-DoD-USIP-EIB-etc. happen to possess the power necessary to stuff the Visserian Peruna down the natives’ throats willy-nilly. R. Virtue never came even close to agreeing with Team Aggression about the recipe for the salvific gunk required.
Should the OBB ticket (improbably) prevail, it will inherit Sole Remainin’ Hyperpower as a matter of course, and then R. Virtue will have to stand in line with the rest of the exotic exile pols of the world -- Saakashvilis, Makiyas, Chalabis, Kys, Thieus, Imperial Pahlavis, Pinochets, Batistae -- who think it would be really neat if Uncle Sam were to install themselves, and their cousins, and their family's traditional clients, and their ideobuddies, and their roommates at Yale in power back home. [2] Power draws Chalabis and Vissers the same way an open jar of honey draws files. "Why should we wish to be deceived?" In particular, why deceive ourselves that the flies care much about the taste of the honey?
The toy theater stage is set. Enter Bidenius from the left:
| Remarkably, however, it seems that Biden may have cleaned up his Iraq rhetoric as part of his VP bid. At least, it is quite conspicuous how every trace of his “plan for Iraq” now appears to have been erased from his website at joebiden.com, where he now instead supports Barrack Obama’s more general argument about shifting the focus to Afghanistan. Also, at some point between April 2008 and today, Biden’s website specifically devoted to his soft partition schemes, www.planforiraq.com, was quietly shut down – at this site, Biden’s rhetoric had consistently focused on a tripartite Iraq to the very end. Only on his Senate website traces of his Iraq policy remain, but even there a more toned-down version appears, with the emphasis on a general push for federalisation. This is still in contravention of the Iraqi constitution (which specifically rejects any kind of elite-driven federalisation process) but it could perhaps mean that Biden increasingly realises that his plans were unsustainable and that trends in Iraq militate against them. |
So perhaps the poor pol has definitively recovered from his bout of schizomania mutilans? Or perhaps, on the other hand, he has not, since it would be indecorous for an aspiring Second Banana to hawk a foreign and invasion policy different from that of Numero Uno. And on the third tentacle, perhaps R. Visser has already made calculations not unlike our own that tend to demonstrate the advantages of never setting oneself up bumptiously against the wielders of Sole Remainin’ Hyperpower. Even if poor Joe continues to be wrong about nearly everything ex-Iraqi from the Party of Zero standpoint, conciliation might win some concessions eventually, whereas strict principled intransigeance must come off empty-handed. "Softly, softly catchee monkey!"
Directly badmouthing Top Banana donkeys may be inadvisable, yet one can always kick the rank and file around a little:
| Democrats appear to be equally ignorant about the survival of Iraqi nationalist sentiment, but they express this in a different policy: acceptance of Iranian influence in Iraq as something natural. This was even written into Obama’s “New Strategy for a New World”, released in mid-July. Commenting on Iraq, Obama writes, “Iraq is not going to be a perfect place…we are not going to … eliminate every trace of Iranian influence”. He seems unaware that this particular statement may be seen as deeply offensive by many Iraqi Shiites who are proud of their Iraqi identity but fearful of Iran and the pro-Iranian elites that have been empowered by the Bush administration. Their fear is that a new Democratic administration will accord Iran exaggerated influence in Iraq as part of a grand, Dayton-style regional settlement designed as an antidote to the Bush administration’s unilateralist policies. |
Party-of-Zeroist technique stands out there, does it not? Dr. Righteous Virtue does not speak for North Denmark or for Old Europe or for himself, he speaks for "many Iraqi Shiites." Who can be so low-minded as to doubt that he would show us a valid power of attorney from "many Iraqi Shiites" if we demanded such a thing? Certainly I shall not doubt it, being anyway more interested in the holy Homeland angles.
RV does not seem to understand the Heimatland Gottes very well. Or possibly I don’t. Either way, nobody has been hollering for "a grand, Dayton-style regional settlement" loud enough to capture my ear. In addition to there being no detectable groundswell for such a scheme, the ideology in the Tanks of Thought has not sloshed like that either. Nobody worth mentioning in the holy Homeland wants to accord the evil Qommies "exaggerated influence." North Danish ideas of exaggeration may differ slightly from those of Crawford and Kennebunkport and South Succotash and central Chicagoland, but not enough to salvage that particular exuberance. [3]
Meanwhile, back in Cloudcuckooland,
| Democrats cannot simply close their eyes and imagine that the Iraq of 2008 in any way represents a natural state of affairs, and that a quick withdrawal automatically will prompt some kind of Hobbesian reset whereby the country will find back to its true self. Real change in Iraq would mean that Obama realised that for five years straight the United States has promoted and consolidated an artificial sectarian system in the country, and that disengagement from Iraq should also aim at reversing this trend. |
Which is to say, Extra Visseritatem nulla salus. Which figures, of course, considering the source of this morning’s baloney sandwich.
It befits the Silly Season well enough to try to fill in that scenario in one’s imagination. The transition back from Corrupt Artificiality to pure and unsullied Nature would be presided over by an integalactic force drawing mainly on North Denmark and West Neptune! If they ever get the public water supply working reliably, Murti-Bing Pills® will put down corruption and artifice and icky sectarianism, imported from darkest Crawfordestán half a decade ago, the same way fluoride conquers tooth decay!! Everybody remotely connected with the Supreeme Hakeemes will be imprisoned for life as a matter of public sanitation!!! [4]
Perhaps I get carried away.
How about a fifty-dinar fine for even thinking the word ‘partition’ in a public place?
___
[1] Sure, R. Virtue mentioned only "violence REDUCTION." But there are limits to even my polemical charity, vast though it be. He will certainly get the whistle called on him if he ever tries in future to object to SurGe and SurGists on grounds of increased violence. He can have his "not working" both ways or neither, but not only one way as between Up and Down, let alone a wobble back-and-forth. So we shall assume SurGin’ is violence-level neutral - period.
[2] R. Virtue and the Party of Zero do not crave power for themselves personally? No doubt, but ‘idealists’ of the Reidarian ilk can be a damnable nuisance under foot all the same. M. Pascal and the Muses and I are not impressed with the notion that disinterestedness is the ace of trumps in ethics and politics. Working that principle backwards, Dr. Virtue’s excessive swooning over the ‘nonsectarianism’ of his own pets amongst the former Iraqis probably arises from Idealismus too. It seems never to have occured to some shallow reflectors that there can be an unjust judge whose injustice takes a form quite different from lining his own pocket with bribes or grabbing the local cathedral for his own religionism all but fifteen minutes weekly, alternate Thursday mornings from 0230 to 0300.
[3] The sophistical exuberance is perhaps too nebulous to merit even ridicule. Would a "regional settlement" necessarily include a solution of the Palestine Puzzle? If so, we can securely count on it never happening. If not, what on Gore’s green earth is Dr. Righteous Virtue going on about when he emits such a phrase?
Regardless of whether it is the Commnaderissimo of GOP and AEI and EIB who wins in November or the feckless OBB twosome, it looks as if Dr. Righteous Virtue will be bringing coals to Newcastle in the form of lobbying Uncle Sam not to be too nice to the sinister Safavids. Oh, well, it is not as if anybody empowered is going to err for purely Visserian reasons!
[4] It is, to be sure, DOCTA amentia that we encounter in Dr. Righteous Virtue. He's a regular whizkiddie on Basra trivia questions, it is only a few minor points about Right v. Wrong and that sort of thing that cast him into a witless kerfuffle.
No comments:
Post a Comment