Pack Up the Moon and Dismantle the Sun
I rather liked the MoveOn ad from the Times. It was crass, but these are crass times. It was simplistic, but these are simplistic problems, basic ones -- after all -- the American people have been treated as foolish consumers of a product -- in this case a war -- by an administration that hovers in a bipolar helix between hapless fervor and rank cynicism. Depending on the day. I wrote MoveOn a check, like a lot of people did -- back when we were going to war in Iraq -- for the first ads. There should have been ads and protests and actions every single day from then on.
And I liked the ad a lot more than the posturing of the senators who decried it -- amongst them at least one psychosexual hysteric with a jones for hookers. But hey, this is the circus, this is a Golgotha, and if the Barbarians are at the gates -- at least they're putting on a show. Some time ago a mogul told me he thought the six month test Bush proposed was 'fair and dead on'. This is a man who controls and has made billions of dollars and is hipper than anyone in the room, and smarter too. So what can you say? Now let's face it. We're in Iraq for the next decade. We are in Iraq for the next decade. At least. No way out. This is how America crumbles; at the hands of the most misguided ideologues since the Crusades. Men who led America to catastrophe, who betrayed all the promise we had left -- and for what? The naive and arrogant expectation that a grateful culture would be democratized magically, instantly, and with no ambivalence. I often think that Mr. Rove would not have lasted two rounds with the boys at CAA or any decent studio head -- they'd have swallowed him and his woozy hucksterism with a glass of water -- if only he'd been a schlepper out of Burbank, instead of our very own minor-league Talleyrand. Mr. Draper in an interview regarding his book on Bush says that the fatal flaw in this most likable of men, is a kind of frightened, defensive lack of curiosity. That seems right. In the Atlantic Monthly, one of the ex-speech writers for the administration turns on one of his own with the ferocity of a cartoon pirate turning on another pirate after the treasure is all gone. This is how it goes down, folks. They're not conservatives. They're not even Republicans. They are de-regulating cynics who pray that capitalism works like the glorious God-Powered Rube Goldberg machine it is. Just add self-reliance and a few days in Aspen. This crowd? They make one long for the intellectual rigor of a Nixon, and they don't deserve to even speak the name Goldwater. I liked the MoveOn ad, because it was probably true, in the Freudian sense, even if it is a little shrill. We have been betrayed. "Weapons of mass destruction" was always a guess -- and a wrong guess that calcified into a frightened and incurious dogma (the reasons for the war have changed), is going to do us in.
And not one of the viable candidates for the presidency is going to be able to save us.
The general didn't betray us. His bosses did. How will America survive the cold brutality of the neo-con pillage? And what if America has not had enough cheap patriotism and actually decides that a Romney or Thompson or a (wow!) Rudy administration is a righteous notion? I liked the ad, because the people who loudly decried it as an outrage are as blind as moles to the true outrage of what it means to be an American now; of civilians and young soldiers dying in the dusty and terrifying streets and fields of a bitterly divided and shattered state thousands and thousands of miles away.
I liked the ad because it was cheap and street, and true in spirit. I think tonight that America is shuddering, is in spasm, and she is losing blood. Christians -- real ones -- steeped in compassion and gentleness -- are impotent abdicators to sharpies and megalomaniacs who see God as a vicious cop on their beat.
Why do i feel this way tonight? Because six years ago I saw and heard in ways I'll not share here -- the end of one world -- and the start of another. Six years ago today, amidst the gore and dying and murder -- there were the stirrings of a world united with this country. "We are all Americans today!" -- you heard it from France and England and almost everywhere else --
but for three days after -- a shell-shocked and incompetent president flew hither and yon -- in a hapless prelude to the years of dark buffoonery to come. And the mythology that the president "found his voice" at Ground Zero days later -- is pablum from a Capra out-take.
I walked through Tribeca, where I then lived, days later. Past the National Guard. Past the fliers and into the smoke of lower Manhattan.
That smoke has spread across the nation, and instead of uniting us, has become a dark cloak, one used by liars and zealots, one used to gull a frightened polity, and to seize power. Our individual rights are almost as precarious as our bridges.
Now, six years after the worst day in modern memory for this writer -- the day of the dead --
the only thing I have left is personal -- holding the people I love -- and acting with a desperate and flailing and imperfect personal decency in the hopes that others around me are doing the same. Not enough, not enough, not nearly enough.
.
It is about to be September 12th. I want to paraphrase Auden and silence the clocks and the noise and pray in the silence to a a god I don't trust or even know how to believe in -- for a way to help my country -- and everyone in it -- find a way through the dark toxic cloud that was conjured up six years ago at the tip of Manhattan.
It is almost September 12th, and still people are dying.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Tony Snow put it right when he said MoveOn embraces defeat. MoveOn probably did more damage to the Dem cause than you can imagine- as usual, the left forms it’s firing squad in a circle.
we need another 100.000 troops in Iraq. That means we have to draft. We need to clean the place up, throw the Iranians out, and protect our troops to come home without any casualties. If we can't do that, if we don't want to do that, then come on home and mark this war up as another dumb, stupid failure of leadership and politics. And bring them home now!!!! I just love leaders like Bush and this General, who think war is a childs game.
I couldn't agree more...I am "up to here" with false sanctimony while legitimate outrage is ignored and disparaged (oh, for example Cindy Sheehan comes to mind). "General Betray Us" was a perfectly legitimate play on words (if a little childish).
I am way beyond outrage at what Bush and co has done to our country. I am in shock...th
The tone of the ad is disrespectful? THAT is the right-wing counter?
Who cares? It's amazing that the wingnuts point their fingers at the dissenters and attempt to call us on manners.
This isn't about etiquette. This is about dissent, and the exercise of protected free speech. This is about how the dissenters are the only ones fighting for democratic process. This is about the very future of our nation, and about whether it belongs to its citizens at all anymore.
This is about poking the government with a stick to remind it that it works for us, belongs to us, must answer to us -- even when our own locally elected officials are too meek (afraid of sounding rude?) to speak for us.
This isn't about manners. I think the ad could have been 1000 times angrier and still not done our collective feeling of betrayal full justice.
Disrespect? I've got your disrespect right here.
"Disrespect? I've got your disrespect right here."
LOL
Is this the kind of civilized, reasonable discourse we can expect from the left?
Your article was absolutely moving.I am in a state of disbelief. I want to wake up and this horror not be right by my side. However, that is impossible. What is it that we are waiting for? America what are we waiting for? Are we all to scared to yell in the streets? Eveyone must feel it. This fire, the American spirit, begging to be freed from this madness.I will not fight a war in someone else's country when it is obvious that we are fighting a war in our own country.
Interesting take on the Crusades as a right wing pre-emptive strike. I think there would be more validity in looking at the history of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, the loss of Muslim Spain, and the Hundred Years War as examples of an occupation by foreigners forced out by the indigenous peoples, after bankrupting the nation supplying the occupying forces.
Your post made me cry, Jon.
These outraged people are probably the same ones that kept quiet during those Swiftboat Ads!
I guess I can say I've finally seen the "true color" of the anti-war crowd. Despite its "We love the troops" chants, they still hate the Military and what it stands for. Before you make some stupid "what does the military stand for ?" remark; you know very well what the Military stands for. Just read at the oath every Soldier and Sailor takes when they enter the service. To me the Moveon.org ad in the NYT was a slap in the face of every Military person who is trying to do their job.
Personal background: 28 years in the US Army (Active and Reserves), retired officer. I went into the Army in 1972 when that other war was going on. I had to live through the personal attacks from my left leaning aquaintances. Culminated by "Hanoi Jane" Fonda's efforts. I thought the current anti war crowd was a bit different and had more brains in attacking the policy makers and not making personal attacks on Military people.
Moveon.org showed me the true nature of the groups out there.
I am in no way condoning a blindly follow the Administration course. I may add that I value the right of everyone to have their own opinions on this grave matter. I am continually amazed at how people on the opposite side constantly hammer away at the "get them out now" sloganeering. Anyone who does not agree is a tool of right wing demagogues and undeserving of the Democratic mantle.
While the "true believer" Democrats seem to be overlooking the past, the candidates HAVE learned a lesson from elections that saw Republicans elected by unbelievable margins - go for the middle ground. They know you will not win anything screaming anti American rhetoric.
I do think we need to get out, but we just can't do it tomorrow. Even Sen Obama said so in his NPR interview today. Read that again: Senator Obama said we just can't pull out.
I'm sure I will tick off a few of the liberal commentators here but that's part of life.
Despite its "We love the troops" chants, they still hate the Military and what it stands for.
And were you saying this about the right wing that was mocking John Kerry's service; about the right wingers mocking the purple heart? Were you saying this when Chabliss and Coulter were publicly trashing Max Cleland, a triple amputee from Vietnam?
I find it ridiculous when people insist the anti-war people are anti military. The worst public trashing of the military came from the right. And it is our right wing leaders, who brag about the military, yet when they were young, refused to serve. From Rove, to Cheney, to Bush...ALL CHICKENHAWKS who thought nothing of trashing men who did serve.
Sorry, your comments turn me off. Petraeus is doing the spin for a liar and thief who is sending young men and women to hell so he and his cronies can fill their personal coffers. If that is what you admire, fine. That is your right. For Petraeus or anyone to insult us with the kind of spin this administration uses, it is an insult. I am proud to say I support MoveOn.org because speaking truth to power is a lot more patriotic than what this administration has ever done.
I have read the comments to Baitz's little article on moveon.org, and that organization's hit piece on a truly distinguished man, Gen. David Patreus. I have seen every possible allusion from Golgotha to "Plant of the Apes" (by the way, SanFranGranNan is not a gorilla; more of a sloth, it would seen, or a mynha bird). You people on this site, and moveon, and dailykos, are so lacking in basic understandings of economics, politics, international relations, history, and literary allusions, you prove the total failure of education in this country. Capitalism, unlike socialism, or if you prefer, "progressiveism", does not punish the underclass, but offers the members a chance to improve themselves, if they are willing to try to achieve anything, instead of sitting around waiting for their government handout, while anticipating the birth of their nth bastard child.
It looks to me like the good four star general there was in effect used by his Commander in Chief. The general was given a task, which he performed, then hand delivered his report. Military guys are all positive thinkers. And they've spent a lifetime collecting their stars by not arguing with their superiors. So the general did what was expected of him.
He's not even part of the equation, really - he's a f_____ing lifer. The war isn't coming to end. And we can expect to be embedded in Iraq for decades to come unless we wise up and just get out...beca
I don't know if anyone is aware of this, but history repeated itself when dummy handed over the responsibility of the war to Petraeus. It was just like old times. Deserting the National Guard. Harken. Letting Cheney and Rumsfeld run the White House.
We have an idiot in the White House and that in itself ought to be an impeachable offense. His worse crime is the escape and evasion of all responsibility for his actions. In Bush world, which is light and cheery, if you ain't responsible then you ain't at fault. Well, you know, that sort of attitude can be cured pretty darn fast by impeachmen
I am a proud Moveon.org member. I am glad my money is used to expose these Neo-Cons, Bloodsuckers and cheerleaders for war and mayhem.
Don't vote for Hillary, she is a warmonger and yes! she is a Neo-con.
No more killing, No more wars, No BS.
The ad was truthful. A general who doesn't try to do his job is a traitor. And Petraeus himsdelf said that he had never considered whether the policies he was selling, annd had been executing, were beneficial to our defense. Now, exactly what does he think his job is? Protecting us, or expanding Halliburton's domain?
The Bush Speech
"the dog and pony show is over, SEND IN THE CLOWNS"
http://z.a
If you actually read the ad, it wasn't that bad. The headline made it appear worse than it was. And given the lies and distortions fed the American people over the last four years, it only realistic that there was be major pushback with ads like this,especially given the fact that Patreaus ran an op-ed piece right before the 2004 election touting how great the war was going. It was interesting to see the neo-cons get uptight about this ad, after the way they slimed Kerry in 2004.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
