Tuesday, August 03, 2004
How Stupid Does He Think The Voters Are?
I've read reports suggesting that the Bush administration will play up the terrorist threat between now and the election, believing that voters' fear will cause them to back him in the "War on Terror". The reports hinted that the current high alert about potential targets in Washington and New York was conveniently timed to follow immediately after the Democratic Convention.
I'm a bit puzzled by this. A few weeks back, when the shit hit the fan about the lack of WMDs in Iraq and the intelligence fiasco that led to the invasion, Bush went on a mini tour making a speech along the lines of "Well, we may have got it wrong about the WMDs and therefore started an illegal pre-emptive war on foreign territory for no reason (OK he didn't actually use those words), but one thing I can say for certain is that, thanks to the riddance of Saddam Hussein, our country is a safer place to live." (cheers)
Two things:- He claims success in making the US safer, whilst urging people to vote for him because the country's not safe.
- He puts most of his effort into going after someone who turns out not to be a domestic threat, allowing the real threat (Al Qaeda) the breathing space to regroup (and recruit from a whole new pool of US-haters) and plan new assaults on his homeland.
He seems to be relying on his compatriots being so dumb as to think that a towel-head's a towel-head, and so long as you're killing towel-heads "out there" there's less chance of being killed by one "back here".
Of course the alternative view is that Bush knows full well there's no connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda, but he invented one to justify finishing Daddy's job. Logically, he would also know that this would result directly in more terrorist attacks at home from a refreshed and replenished Al Qaeda, thus bolstering his position as the Great Protector In The Face Of Evil Invaders. I prefer to think that he's not that clever.
So, can somebody politely point out to the US voters that Bush thinks they're as dumb as he is?
posted by Plig |
11:40 |
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Forget the sentimental notion that foreign policy is a struggle between virtue and vice, with virtue bound to win.
Forget the utopian notion that a brave new world without power politics will follow the unconditional surrender of wicked nations.
Forget the crusading notion that any nation, however virtuous and powerful, can have the mission to make the world in its own image.
Remember that diplomacy without power is feeble, and power without diplomacy is destructive and blind.
Remember that no nation's power is without limits, and hence that its policies must respect the power and interests of others.
Hans Morgenthau
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts
Bertrand Russell
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one
Albert Einstein
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative
Martin Luther King Jr.
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man
Bertrand Russell
I think it would be a good idea
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun
Pablo Picasso
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others
Groucho Marx
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it
Mahatma Gandhi
Always make new mistakes
Esther Dyson
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