May 25, 2004

Free stickers

Posted by Eszter

Since I’ve been blogging about political stickers and T-shirts, I thought I would post a pointer to the free stickers MoveOn is giving away. (One could actually argue that saying “Mission Nothing Accomplished” actually understates the myriad of problems that have been “accomplished”.)

Posted on May 25, 2004 05:18 PM UTC
Comments

how about ‘mess accomplished’?

Posted by enzo · May 25, 2004 06:38 PM

In point of fact, Bush has done a perfectly splendid job of bringing Anarchy to Iraq. Anarchists for Bush ‘04.

Posted by decon · May 25, 2004 07:52 PM

Yes. Anarchy is bad. Better dictatorship, if there’s any lack of order in the transition. I mean, unless there’s Total Order, we might as well never do anything. Mission Never Even Started!

Bad ol’ Bush.

(Kinda like Eisenhower did a splendid job of bringing Anarchy to Germany and Japan, eh? Bad ol’ Ike.)

Posted by Sigivald · May 25, 2004 10:09 PM

Oh, my mistake. I thought we were discussing what Bush has accomplished.

I now see we are discussing what Bush might accomplish if we close our eyes, forget what we know about the difficulty of building sustainable democratic processes in an oil rich tribal desert, and really, really, really wish for the best.

Posted by decon · May 25, 2004 10:40 PM

Sigivald wrote:

Kinda like Eisenhower did a splendid job of bringing Anarchy to Germany and Japan, eh? Bad ol’ Ike.

Apparently, tens of thousands of German POWs died in American custody. If, as we’ve heard so often recently, the fish rots from the head down, I guess Eisenhower (or Truman?) was responsible. For shame!

Decon wrote:

I thought we were discussing what Bush has accomplished.

I suppose all the stuff here is bunk.

. . . an oil rich tribal desert . . .

I didn’t realize that oil and desert were so inconducive to democracy. No wonder things are so rough in West Texas.

Posted by Nat Whilk · May 25, 2004 11:46 PM

Hey, I guess ole’ Saddam knew how to keep order eh? Nothing like gassing ten thousand people to keep those troublesome villagers in line eh?

Posted by Morgoth · May 25, 2004 11:56 PM

Why goodness no, I wouldn’t refer to the accomplishments listed on the USAID website as bunk!

It is, however, a bit like bragging about the artful arrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic.

Actually, it’s more like smashing the deck chairs to bits, partially rebuilding a few of them, and then bragging about what a fine Captain you are.
An accomplishment for sure, icebergs be damned.

Posted by decon · May 26, 2004 06:01 AM

I’m saving this post as one to viciously flaunt when Iraq becomes a stable and magnificent democracy. Thanks — keep them coming!

Posted by Rajeev Advani · May 26, 2004 06:16 AM

Decon wrote:

it’s more like smashing the deck chairs to bits, partially rebuilding a few of them, and then bragging about what a fine Captain you are

A Titanic that had hit an iceberg, had its deck chairs smashed to bits, and had a few of them partially rebuilt would be in every way worse off than before all that happened, right? Should I read into your analogy that you think Iraq is in every way worse off than it was back when Saddam was in control?

Posted by Nat Whilk · May 26, 2004 03:11 PM

Of course a few Iraqis MAY be better off. It all depends on how nasty the next bit becomes.

At best we will have simply reshuffled who will be persecuted. And in the best case, we might, after many more deaths, have a slightly more gentle central dictatorship. At worst we have anarchy, followed by civil war, followed by God only knows what kind of nastiness.

And what of American interests? We have already suffered several thousand casualties. Our international alliances and friendships necessary to combatting international terrorism have been frayed to the breaking point. And we, by our belligerence, barbarity at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, and incompetence, are daily swelling the ranks of the terrorists arrayed against us.

And this of course does not bode well for our moderate friends in the muslim world.

We are all losers from this unforunate debacle.
But the deck chairs! Yes, they are very pretty.

Posted by decon · May 26, 2004 11:02 PM

“I’m saving this post as one to viciously flaunt when Iraq becomes a stable and magnificent democracy. Thanks — keep them coming!”

I’m saving this comment to viciously flaunt when Iraq slumps into a 3rd world client state ruled by a corrupt oligarchy propped up by US ‘advisors” and big oil.

Can anyone say “Nigeria”?

Posted by Nabakov · May 27, 2004 05:50 AM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.