Who's Sorry Now?

It was a pleasant weekend for those of us who have been against the Iraq War from the beginning. The Washington Post had an article on the bitterness and regrets of those in the Bush administration who concocted and ran the war and have now left. Some of them have nightmares. Nothing like the nightmares of the prisoners of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or the Black Sites, but hey, a few nightmares are progress. Maybe they will have more, and then they will have mental breakdowns and they can experience electroshock therapy -- that would be a nice payback for them. In the New York Times magazine, there was an article about Kanan Makiya, an exiled Iraqi scholar who was a big cheerleader for the war, and who seems to have given Bush and Cheney a rationale that they could use as a cover for their real motives. At the end of the article, there's an interesting interview with Ali Allawi, who was the Minister of Finance in the Iraqi transitional government in 2005 and into 2006. Allawi was opposed to the war, but went to Iraq to try and put Humpty back together again. He failed. And, of course, there's Blackwater. Whoops. Americans have recently gotten a good look at our very own right wing death squad (paid for by us to the tune of 445,000 per soldier, per year), and we know there are more RWDSs where that one came from. And I loved the headline of David "the Pig" Brooks' op-ed in last week's Times, "The Republican Collapse" -- is there a lovelier phrase? I used to send letters to David Brooks asking when the New York Times was going to fire him. He never responded.

All the same, though, the emerging consensus (another vast rightwing conspiracy to my mind) is that everyone's intentions were good, if not great. Makiya, for example, knew all the horrors that Saddam Hussein had committed against the Iraqis and the Iranians, and just wanted to get him out of there, even if the odds, as he calculated them, against actually establishing a stable government were 20-1. He thought Ahmed Chalabi was going to be the Nelson Mandela of Iraq. And the same for Meghan O' Sullivan, who was about THIRTY when the fates of the Iraqis were put into her hands -- she just wanted to help. As for Karl Rove and that Permanent Republican Majority -- well, he didn't mean to hurt anyone -- really, the one who's been hurt here is Karl himself (also the refrain of Clarence Thomas).

What I see here, especially when you add in the Israelis and the Neocons and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, is a perfect storm of opportunism, opportunism compounded of ignorance, greed, self-regard, power-lust, and sheer shallowness. "Opportunism" is when you use someone else for your own ends, thinking that you will pretend to give the other guy what he wants and in doing so, you will get what you want. I think the World Champion Opportunist Award these days goes to those Israelis who ally themselves with the American Rapture people, knowing full well that in Rapture theology, the wholesale conversion of the Jews is the prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. These Israelis will work with people who anticipate another Holocaust -- who hope for it -- in order to get American money and arms for Israel. That is opportunism taken to a new level -- but not that new.

The Iraqi exiles thought they would use the American government and military to get their country back. The Neocons and Israel thought they would use the Americans to get rid of Saddam and remake the Middle East so that Israel would be more secure. Rove thought he would use "war" to entrench his power base. Cheney thought he would use the exiled Iraqis to get access to Iraqi oil fields and to establish an authoritarian presidency in the US. Bush thought he would use everyone to get a sense that he had both avenged his father and outdone him. Tony Blair thought he would use his alliance with Bush to press some of his own programs, like helping Africa and distinguishing Britain from Europe. Rumsfeld thought he would use the war to remake and outsource the army, thereby enriching his friends. Erik Prince thought he would use the American taxpayers to get rich and also to move toward an American theocracy. The religious right thought they would use the war and consequent "patriotism" issues to consolidate, fleece, and militarize their base. The Free Market theorists thought they would use taxpayer money to experiment with privatizing the Iraqi economy. The result is failure and recrimination, not to mention a refusal by almost every one of these people to take responsibility for what they've done. As they see it these days, bad things in Iraq just happened somehow.

Opportunism often looks good on the surface, but it is based on manipulation rather than relationship, and masks an absolute misunderstanding of human nature. What happened with the Iraq war was no mistake and no accident. It grew out of the failure of conservatives, from the time of Ronald Reagan, at least, to understand and accept the necessity of government in a complex and populous society, and therefore to think about what government could and should do. The more they refused to think about it, the less they knew. Reagan, with his smiling soothing phrases and his tone of benign condescension, served as an appealing front man for what the nasty and unlamented Lee Atwater himself called "ruthless ambitions and moral decay". Reagan Republicans thought of government as a mechanism for increasing their own power and wealth. They never accepted that the US has many different regions, ethnicities, and enclaves, all of which have equal claim to citizenship. From at least the 1960s, the Republican Party has worked actively to pit region against region, class against class, and ethnicity against ethnicity, and to reap profits therefrom. Men like Karl Rove came to think habitually in terms of propaganda, manipulation, and deceit.

These were the people Makiya and Chalabi turned to for help against Saddam. These were people who were so cavalier that they didn't bother to read the reports of their own experts about how difficult the aftermath of the invasion would be. Allawi was smarter, though. He says in the Times, "Ahmad Chalabi, Kanan Makiya, all of these people became media stars, but their influence on decision making was next to nothing. I can't believe that a person like Wolfowitz or Cheney or whoever it was in the neocon cabal would allow themselves to be manipulated... They are far too cynical. They have their own agendas. And these agendas were boosted by Iraqis who seemed to be singing from the same song sheet. The Iraqis gave them credibility, gave them substance. But I don't think they were influenced by them."

Various rightwingers maintain that if the Iraq adventure had worked out, we would all be praising the Bush administration. What they don't understand is that it could not have worked out because of how it was conceived and the shallowness of the motives behind it. This was evident in 2003. In fact, it was evident in 2000. When the vote in Florida turned out to be rigged, or at least suspect, Bush and Cheney did, not what honorable men to, but what opportunists do -- they used intimidation (against the vote counters) and influence (on the Supreme Court, notably with Clarence Thomas) to seize what might or might not have been theirs by right (everyone who has read The Best Election Money Can Buy knows that Jeb and Katherine Harris also set up the Florida vote ahead of time, but I think it was in the counting that the real theft took place). Bush could have exerted himself both publicly and privately to make the vote count as scrupulous as possible. He did not. The apple was offered to him and he bit it. He never understood what elections represent in the US -- not seizure of power but acceptance of responsibility -- and so he has never understood his position or his job. His idea and Cheney's idea was that they were going to use their jobs to get what they could for themselves and their powerbase, just as they used the election controversy to get the job. They have surrounded themselves with people of like mind and those who don't think this way have left or been forced out.

The clusterf**k of opportunism that is the last seven years was bound to end in a cluster of fingerpointing and grievance. People hate feeling used and betrayed, even as they are using and betraying others. Remember when Bush expressed his annoyance at the ingratitude of the Iraqis? And have you noted the resentment of the religious right at being the last to know that nobody in the Bush administration actually cares about their agenda? Were the Republicans grateful to Katherine Harris? Nope -- they let her humiliate herself in front of the whole nation. Those Iraqis -- they sure don't show much loyalty to Blackwater. Even Alan Greenspan has done what he can to divorce himself from the very people he sucked up to five years ago.

Is it possible to have no sense of civic responsibility at all? Yes -- that's what Free Market theory, and the last generation of Republican culture is about. It elevates commerce and deal-making above every other human activity, and therefore glorifies opportunism. A generation of coaching by Free Market gurus has robbed Americans of the means of a decent existence.The reason we can't get out of Iraq is that none of the opportunists dares to admit why he or she wanted to make a war there in the first place, and so we, the American people, don't actually know what the goal was and can't ever judge whether it has been achieved. Though Cheney's goal was to secure the oil, he can't admit that to the Iraqis, who don't want to give up the oil. If the Iraqis' goal was to use our military to fight the battle and then take over themselves, they ceded that goal every time they flattered the Americans. If the Israelis consider their existence to be worth every American sacrifice of money, corruption, and human life, they dare not say so. If the military industrial complex really is happy to profit from death and destruction, do they actually pretend to their children that they are human? A lot of PTSD says they do. I could go on.

In order to gain power, the Republicans long ago (and knowingly, thanks, Mr. Atwater and others) handed the citizenry, and themselves, a bill of goods, a set of philosophical and economic ideas that were bankrupt. The citizenry, suckers that we were, bought it because it appealed to their worst selves. The price we have paid and will continue to pay in Iraq for this bad bargain is a steep one, and could break the bank. But if we don't understand how we got here, we could buy it again, because the politicians and the pundits still have it for sale.

Comments

[ipitombi]

Ms. Jane;

You are my goddess. I shall forever worship at your altar.

Great work

[zjr909]

I can't help thinking that, even in characterizing the mess the Bush administration has created as opportunism, you're letting them off too easy. I think it's much worse than that; I think it's pure evil and nothing less. The horrors we've inflicted on the Iraqi people didn't happen as a consequence of our leaders and businessmen following the famous advice of Tammeny Hall's Mr. Plunkett: "I seen my chance and I took it." Instead, I believe the destruction of Iraqi society was the intended goal all along - and the opportunistic free-for-all was the consequence. In a word, I believe we simply "made an example" of them. Kind of like "This is what happens when you don't do our bidding." And now, of course, we're poised to destroy Iranian society. And, yes, the opportunists will descend like vultures to pick Persia clean. But it'll be the pure evil of the neocons that actually pushes the button. All of which kind of puts talk of impeachment in perspective. It's not about "not having the numbers" to succeed; it's about telling the American people - and the whole world - that such evil right in our own front yard can not and will not be ignored. It doesn't matter in the least what the outcome of impeachment hearings might be; it only matters that someone, somewhere in our government recognizes that there's a powerful stench of evil in our midst.

[splashy]

Agreed, they are evil in the truest sense of the word.

Check out Naomi Klein's new book, The Shock Doctrine.

[Seraph]

I am currently reading Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine," and find that it explains what is happening to us on many levels. She clearly reveals that "free trade" was usually introduced to a society once all labor unions and leftists were "disappeared," with much assistance from corporate America and the CIA. Take Chile, Uruguay and Argentina for instance. Now that we see that QWest was approached before 9/11 to spy on Americans, it may become clearer to more of you that on 9/11 Cheney and the Neocons simply used the Muslim extremists as patsies. Yes, that was the perfect opportunity to really shock Americans into making major changes in our form of government. Do your homework people.

[dadw5boys]

Opportunism is what your seeing with the Free Trade. They are rushing in to steal all the Natural Rseources of every country they can and soo the citizens of that country will rise up and kick them out. When they realize how little their Government is getting in Royalities for the Resources that are being destroyed.
Like Bolivia took thier Government back from the corruption.
Great article by the way.
Reagan found a GREAT WEALTH built into the U.S. System and then transferred all of it he could to the Private Sector.
All those years the people and the businesses had worked to build this great country only to have some "JOHNNY COME LATELY" and greedy control freaks destroyed it all.

[cave17]

Ms. Smiley,

This is a very succinct and insightful summation of that state of moral bankruptcy in US politics which has so enraged and frustrated decent Americans. Your deconstruction of "opportunism" goes a long way in explaining that when the feces hits the fan, why there is no expectation of loyalty amongst the ranks of these power-drunk war criminals. True to their sociopathic ideology, it's every man (or woman) for himself.

As for any of the Bush cabal loosing any sleep, you can be assured it has nothing to do with the harm they've done to other humans on this planet. As you've pointed out, they're hollow - and nothing comes from nothing. The Nazi defendants awaiting their fate at Nuremburg had all kinds of "regrets" but to a man reserved some form of conditional justification for their crimes.

One big step we Americans can redeem ourselves in the eyes of the world is to go to the Hague and take the lead to form a special tribunal and put Bush and his neocon cronies on trial.

[Ironfox]

Leo Strauss + Milton Freidman x grad students Wolfewitz,Pearle et al = Rove,Cheny,Bush.
Why is anyone surprised at the outcome?

[Marlyn]

not surprised, HORRIFIED!

[politicky]

Ironfox,

"Leo Strauss + Milton Freidman x grad students Wolfewitz,Pearle et al = Rove,Cheny­,Bush."
:)

No surprise here, but not everyone has the time, the energy, or the opportunity to find out who the people were/are in your equation. I never heard the names Milton Friedman, or Leo Strauss, or Dick Cheney, or Richard Perle in high school, did you?

[RobertPaul]

'...But if we don't understand how we got here, we could buy it again, because the politicians and the pundits still have it for sale."

Excellent article Jane, and depressingly right on the money.

Two Points:
- You're right. The same BS is for sale at a marked down price under the ideal that "We can WIN in IRAN with just the Navy and Air Force!"

Some of the same players are crawling out from under their rocks to whisper in King Georges ear again (Podhortz, et al) that he can redeem his Reign by taking out Iran before he leaves office. He probably will view it as a favor to the next (Gutless Democratic) President.

- The MSM (except Faux Noise) is finally turning on BushCo because he's on his way out and they know a Dem will inhabit Congress and the White House after the next election.

The MSM is even playing the "I knew it was wrong" game just like everyone that has left the Administration is doing. Witness the recent HuffPo book review about Katie and Brian and how they felt so bad during their reporting what the WH put out as a Press Release.

Everybody is trying to regain their credibility now.

I suggest we all have long memories. We will need them lest we fall into the trap the rock group "the WHO" warned us about in the 70s.

"Meet the New Boss. Same as the old boss!"

Please "Let's not get fooled again!"

[Dangoodbar]

There is only one thing missing from this article. It is obvious and has been said often but to make the article complete I will say it again.

What is missing from this article is the response of the opposition and the media to the opportunism, cynicism and greed of the Republican Party since Reagan.

That response was either cowardice or opportunism depending on how you look at it. The fact is much of the reason for the success of the Republicans has been the failure of any established base of power to offer any real opposition.

I mean when Atwater and Bush Sr. started talking about Dukakis vetoing a flag burning law all Dukakis had to say was "In regard to the flag I am on the side of the Freedom for which it stands."

At every turn from the Republicans equating equality under the law with social justice and universal health care the media response is to repeat without comment the Republican line. The Democratic response has been to refuse to make any counter argument but instead argue Republican talking points as if those talking points are the only relevant facts on an issue.

[ErieCanaller]

Point on analysis, but with one glaring ommission. None of these horrors would have been possible without the willing complicity of a corwardly and corrupt congress.

[Paladin2]

The most important point made here. For all intents and purposes, let's stop talking about Neos and Democrats, for there is no longer any Democratic party. Clinton, Lieberman Gore and company disolved any two party fantasy with the DLC. Bush and Cheney are easy targets but none of their crimes would be possible if we had a responsible government doing their jobs. Have you heard any 'candidate' talk about repealing the "Patriot Act" that officially ends any pretension that our Constitution means anything? And you won't when the Democrats probably take power in 08. We might as well just stop arguing about any of this because it has all become meaningless. The next President will continue to wage war in an attempt to keep the counterfeit 'petro dollar' afloat, but the rest of the world is going to put an end to that. That's really what all this is about and the corrupt politicians that have been borrowing a billion dollars a day for decades to finance a lie are like cornered rats and it will keep getting uglier as the house of cards they have built together falls apart. Forget that new plasma big screen TV and start stocking up on canned goods because the party's over.

[dora rice]

glad I have enough patch to grow my own corn and tomatoes and keep a pig for sausage.

[Gailv]

Wow! How perceptive! It's very interesting that a novelist has been able to see through and perceive motives where pundits have been obsessed with power relations and who's winning and who's losing. These pundits have largely abandoned any moral concerns and have been unable to see the whole picture with such clarity of vision as Jane Smiley. Her intelligence along with that of other serious novelists is what makes reading literature a significant intellectual pursuit.

[LoriAnn]

Gailv...di­tto...we should make a copy of this blog and put it with our war torn, dilapidated constitution and carry it next to our hearts! Rub it on our brains when we go to vote!! Like most I feel this is out of control train that will not stop until our "elected leaders" find their spines and say enough...n­o more deceitful, fearmongering, lying, hateful, money/oil snatching, disguised as "nationbuilding BS"...Enou­gh already!! This is our country, not the cowardous opportunists that have high jacked the offices they hold!!!!

[dora rice]

when we start electing a person with brains and character and not with wealth, maybe we go somewhere,and maybe it's to late. So far the last 40 years at least every president and congress bought the election one way or the other. Now we are knee deep in alligators .

[Gailhen]

Dear Jane Smiley - Right on the money, saying what needs to be said, as usual! And, yes, always connecting the dots. The only thing I might add is that Lee Atwater died of a brain tumor and before his death acknowledged his total wrongness; not that this excuses what went on because the republicans, especially Newt Gingrich, just ran and ran with it and they knew - and still know - exactly what they were - are - doing.

[BoulderSue]

Brilliant, Jane! You've summarized everything we all ought to know about the last seven years in Bushland. Back then I could not have believed it-you can't make this stuff up (except maybe Orwell) and still the New York Times lead story is that Bush et.al. are about to get even MORE of what they want (surveillance) because so many Dems seem to be more paranoid about being blamed for another terrorist attack than the attacks on us coming from within.

[yowza1]

Good summary Jane. The only caveat I can add, if I may be so bold as to inform, is to mention that I saw this coming when the build up to the invasion ("war") was happening, and yeah even when GWB first poked his head up and said he was running for Prez. He was actually very plain about what he intended to do, snarling at Iraq as he did, even though they had barely a pot to piss in already with the sanctions, no fly zone, etc to deal with. It is/was the American public's mean mindedness that this stuff appealed to, the same rah flag stuff, the sadistic stuff of small minded people who look up to the rich and down on the suffering, who elected GWB without a pinch of bad conscience, re-elected him and support his lies to this day, only admitting wrong where it has been ineluctably demonstrated to have been bad for business.
America got what it wanted, or thought it wanted before it learned that the $200 tax rebate they got wasn't going to make up for the 6 years of a flat stock market and a crashed housing market brought on by too many get-rich-quick scheme seminars on how to build a house and sell it for a big profit. Yes GWB is and has been very transparent to anyone who has an ounce of independent moral judgment and discernment about the fruits of pandering to an amoral psychopath.

[outnow]

Jane,

Well said. Every bit the truth. Thanks for connecting the dots.

[Jane22]

Excellent analysis, Ms. Smiley! I am proud to share a first name with you! One small correction is here. Greg Palast's book is called, " The Best Democracy Money Can Buy". It is/was the most definitive, accurate analysis of the 2000 election fraud perpetrated on the USA. It is a riveting book as is his last book, "Armed Madhouse".

Rather than continuing to destroy and rape the treasury, these men/women need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the laws of this land. Jail, Prosecute and Convict. they are all clearly GUILTY! That they are not being held accountable is one reason that so many are disillusioned with America and why so many do not bother to participate. While counter-productive, nothing is ever done to hold the guilty acountable, but if you are black and poor, you can definitely count on going to prison! It is an outrage that never gets addressed due to access and MONEY! Thanks for the post, Jane. We who KNOW need to keep hammering at it1 One day we can affect meaningful change to reclaim our nation. I say now is the TIME! Peace, JaneC

[Pdubya]

call a spade a spade. this administration represents no conservative views. I am a conservative. these are money-hungry and power-hungry elite that have hi-jacked any true meaning of conservative. you're on-point and spot-on with exception to you defining this administration as "conservative".

[mtburke59]

Absolutely correct. I am most definitely not a conservative but have many friends and relatives who are from the truly conservative mind-set. They, too, agree with you and they generally hate this lot. And are confused as to who to turn to now.

Assuming there is an election next year, it will be interesting to see where they vote since most of them, as do I, don't see a good candidate amongst the media-annointed "front-runners" of the current lot from either party. Perhaps we should have a national lottery to select a President/VP. My postman would do a better job than than this bunch.

[ChezMJ]

"loved the headline of David "the Pig" Brooks' op-ed in last week's Times"

**********­**********­**********­**********­*******

No name calling, please. It only undercuts our arguements. While I may dislike what many with differing views may say, I hope we can all remain civil.

[voice1]

Yeah, Jane, it's really unneccesary to call Brooks a "pig"...al­l anyone has to do is read thru his archives over the past few years, his record speaks for itself. What I found interesting about his article in the NYT was that it was like his own "tipping point". He has advocated & defended the very policies that he assailed so well is his editorial. So many conservatives are bolting for the exits that it's turning into a blur of motion.
Anyway Jane, this was an outstanding post, you really hit the nail on the head.