The Man In The Mirror

The Baker-Hamilton Commission, more popularly known, perhaps, as the Iraq Study Group, released Wednesday its report on what outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once famously called “our adventure in Iraq.” At present, others might call it a civil war, a quagmire, a complex situation, or any number of other, less charitable things, but the commission’s statement for the record (available in 160 softbound pages for $6.57 at Amazon) called it “grave and deteriorating,” near-chaos, something on the precipice of “humanitarian catastrophe.”

The report was hailed by a palpable bi-partisan contingent of Congress for its frank and forthright assessment of where stands our effort to root Democracy in the sands of Arabia. As regards our noble mission to bless the Middle East with the grace and advantages of freedom and justice for all, the commission allowed “there is no path that can guarantee success,” yet outlined some seventy-plus recommendations for seeing that our “prospects can be improved.”

Things are being slowly acknowledged on a wider scale today about Iraq, things at complete odds with even the Bush administration’s most recent reflections on the matter, not to mention their being well within the state of affairs predicted by opponents of the war from its outset.

No one knows whether a unified Iraq will emerge standing amid the wreckage of all we have wrought, whether sectarian interests may one day effectively partition the former country into three republics, or what could befall our ill-considered and poorly managed expenditure of political, strategic, financial — and let us not forget — human capital there.

Today’s report by yet another blue-ribbon panel of experts and concerned civil servants is no more than a gloss on the monumental hubris and failure of George W. Bush’s presidency.

And yet, the man ultimately at the center of all the reporting and conjecturing and, frankly, attention, feels no undue weight in the face of his signature debacle. In an interview this week with Fox Network’s Britt Hume, Mr. Bush professed the “burden of the office is not heavy, it’s light.” He also praised the uplifting support he gets from knowing “millions of Americans are praying,” which makes his experience of office “a joyful experience. Not a painful experience.”

He went on to say, ” And yeah it’s tough, but that’s OK. It’s tough times. And there’s a lot of big issues … ”

In other news, major stock indexes closed near their all-time highs, crude oil closed over $60 per barrel, gold over $625 per oz, with the interest rate on 10 year government notes at 4.5%. 11 US soldiers died in Iraq.

Comments

  1. Meredith Charpantier - December 8, 2006 @ 8:28 am

    The man embodies the “ignorance is bliss” adage. Though his willful denial of the crushing guilt he ought to be feeling in regard to his bloody track record seems to be thanks to the lobotomy performed mercifully for him by the oil barons for whom the soundtrack of the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the middle east is conveniently drummed out by the roaring cacophony of coins rolling into their over flowing piggy banks.

    Bumper sticker idea: Ignorance is NOT bliss.

  2. lonbud - December 8, 2006 @ 8:46 pm

    We will soon see the degree to which Mr. Bush is inclined toward bliss.

    In her final act as a member of Congress, Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney — remember the flap over her outrage at not being recognized by Capitol Hill security last spring? — introduced a bill to impeach the President today.

    w best hope Santa brings him some flame-retardant boots for Christmas this year.

  3. Meredith Charpantier - December 9, 2006 @ 4:41 pm

    bravo huzzah hurray. he’s almost too easy a pot shot to be worth the ammo. But that wiley ruse has protected his posterity too long. Let the proceedings begin. It will be a good time to buy stock in popcorn and cspan and to take dinner in.

    (blog commentators- don’t feel you need to school me, I am a dreamer from way back, AND yet I am aware, the guarantee on this democracy has long since expired, Mr Starr is off duty, and there is NO justice and NO peace. It just feels so good to believe.)

  4. Tam O’Tellico - December 9, 2006 @ 10:08 pm

    Meredith,
    You offered the portion of the Thomas Gray quote that is usually rendered – now for the rest of the story. “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.”

    Those of us who argued against the Iraq War for reasons now all-too-apparent even to the ignorant (save for the fool who would be king and his mendacious minions) know the folly of seeing what fools could not see. My intelliingence, my courage and my patriotism have all been called into question by those not fit to shine my boots.

    Does my perspicacity make me a genius? Hardly. It’s just that “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Desiderius Erasmus

  5. Meredith Charpantier - December 10, 2006 @ 12:44 pm

    Indeed the quote is truncated, but that abbreviated wisdom has become the motto of the masses. FOX and the likes of ’em might as well announce it in their promos. Ignorance is now packaged as Bliss. The blind nation that we have become is not ruled by a one eyed man but by a vegetable. Which classic philosopher predicted this catastrophe? And now, is there a one eyed man or woman up for the job of rendering vision to the blind only to reveal the wasteland the “folly” years have left behind.

  6. lonbud - December 11, 2006 @ 7:02 pm

    I’m not quite sure Ignorance is now packaged as Bliss, but if — for example — the public fascination with a person as obviously vapid as Paris Hilton is any indication, we shouldn’t be second guessing the deciders at the nation’s media conglomerates for their failure to be playing up w’s deficiencies of observation and intellect.

    In the prevailing environment it may well be folly to be wise.

  7. Tam O’Tellico - December 14, 2006 @ 10:15 pm

    Chicanery Row
    A Free-Market Fable

    A Japanese company and an American company decided to have a canoe race. Both teams practiced long and hard before the race. The big day came, and the Japanese team won by a mile.

    Executives of the American company decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. Senior management formed a committee that met several times at an expensive restaurant before finally deciding to hire a consulting firm to get to the bottom of the matter.

    After receiving a huge stipend for a few days work, the consultants reported their findings. Several flashy pie charts and a Powerpoint presentation left no doubt that the loss was primarily due to the fact that the Japanese team had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

    The consultants recommended that to prevent another such loss, the American team should be reorganized to include 4 Steering Engineers, 3 Assistant Steering Managers and a Vice-President of Steering. They also recommended a performance incentive program system for the lone rower.

    The recommendations were accepted unanimously by the board at a golf outing.

    After several more lengthy committee meetings, a “Quality First Program” was established, and a point system put in place that would award the rower with an engraved pen and pencil set and an employee of the month parking spot should he reach the performance objective – beating the Japanese by a mile.

    After lengthy time-study and motion analyses, the engineers recommended the purchase of high-tech carbon-fiber steering controls and micro-fiber jerseys. The rower was given a can of paste wax to apply to the canoe during his lunch hour. Since this was a non-union company, the rower could ill-afford to protest.

    The next year came, and management had high hopes for their investment in engineering and new technology. Unfortunately, this time the Japanese won by two miles when the rower was unable to maintain his stroke due to the severe blisters he had developed from waxing the canoe. Alas, he had no health insurance to cover his medical expenses.

    Humiliated, management laid off the rower and low-level managers, canceled all capital investments, and outsourced the racing team to India. Having saved the company a substantial sum of money through brilliant management decisions, senior executives voted themselves big bonuses.

  8. Tam O’Tellico - December 17, 2006 @ 9:07 am

    In the end, the “spreaders of democracry” will be found guilty of spreading something far more vile and pungent: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2076137.ece

    Let us hope they will not only be judged by history, but in a any country that claims to be democratic, that they will be judged by the courts.

  9. Michael Herdegen - January 1, 2007 @ 11:28 am

    Funny piece, Tam.

    It does suffer, though, from the inconvenient fact that Japan dropped out of the race with America over a decade ago, since our “lone rower” proved to be more powerful than their eight person team.

    But nice try – just make an effort to learn something, anything, about your subject next time.

  10. lonbud - January 1, 2007 @ 1:27 pm

    I’m not sure what you mean by “dropped out of the race,” Michael. Japan’s economy has performed on a par with, if not more favorably than the U.S. economy over the last decade, and Japanese companies remain among the world’s best, turning out products known for style, innovation, value, and dependability.

    If anything, I’d say the Japanese embody an attitude we are likely to see the rest of the world adopting in due course: America’s position as the “lone rower” in the race for global hegemony is irrelevant to the success or prosperity of one’s own economy or society.

  11. Michael Herdegen - January 4, 2007 @ 2:00 pm

    Japan’s economy has performed on a par with, if not more favorably than the U.S. economy over the last decade…

    That is not true, not even close. You may wish to read something about the subject.

    …and Japanese companies remain among the world’s best, turning out products known for style, innovation, value, and dependability.

    Sure, just like American companies. Deere, Cat & Freightliner come immediately to mind, plus Hollywood, of course.

    If anything, I’d say the Japanese embody an attitude we are likely to see the rest of the world adopting in due course: America’s position as the “lone rower” in the race for global hegemony is irrelevant to the success or prosperity of one’s own economy or society.

    Except that America is vital to the success and prosperity of nations such as China and Japan, not to mention all of the Persian Gulf nations. It seems that you haven’t noticed, but both Japan and China have done backflips over the past four decades to ensure that their exports and companies remain competitive in the American market.

    Ignoring America is simply currently impossible for any nation wishing to be a global player.

  12. lonbud - January 4, 2007 @ 11:30 pm

    Well, I did do a little reading on the relative performance of the Japanese and American economies over the last decade, Michael, and low and behold, they have performed on a par with one another!

    US GDP per capita stands today at $42000, while Japan’s is nearly $36000. Given the immense difference in the size of our two countries and the fact that nearly 20% of Japan’s labor force remains employed in the field of agriculture, I’m gonna call it a push.

    GDP growth in the US over the last decade is slightly over 3%, Japan’s slightly under, a difference I would hardly call “not even close.”

    Perhaps you are thinking of the stock markets? The S&P500 has gone from 750 to 1400 since 1997, while the Nikkei, at 17000ish remains below the 19000ish level it was at in 1997.

    However, since 2003, the Nikkei has gone from 8500 to 17000, while the S&P500 has underperformed, going from 850 to 1400, so even when viewed through the narrow lens of equities prices, I don’t believe it’s fair to say Japan’s economy hasn’t been and isn’t today on a par with that of the U.S.

    Deere, Cat, and Freightliner are interesting companies to choose as examples of American companies known for “style, innovation, value, and dependability.” I’m surprised you didn’t mention Ford.

    Been to the heartland lately? Lots of Kubota, Komatsu, and Mitsubishi out there. Japanese heavy equipment manufacturers have about a 50% market share of the U.S. heavy equipment industry today.

    Of course, America is vital to the success of China, Japan, and the Persian Gulf nations: we’re addicted to the clothes and trinkets produced by their medieval labor market (China), their cute, shiny, blinky toys and electronic products (Japan), and their oil (PG).

    You are also right that ignoring America is simply currently impossible for any nation wishing to be a global player. We are the proverbial elephant in the room.

  13. Michael Herdegen - January 6, 2007 @ 7:34 pm

    Well, I did do a little reading on the relative performance of the Japanese and American economies over the last decade, Michael, and low and behold, they have performed on a par with one another! […]

    GDP growth in the US over the last decade is slightly over 3%, Japan’s slightly under, a difference I would hardly call “not even close.”

    I’m very happy to see you do a bit of research to backstop your opinions, believe me. Unfortunately, I must report that your efforts have been, um, unfruitful – and by that I mean that you got some bum info from whatever wacky source you were using. Japanese economic growth over the past decade has been far closer to ZERO than 3% a year.

    For instance, Wikipedia reports that Real GDP in Japan grew at an average of roughly 1.5% yearly between 1991-1999…
    By contrast, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, between ’91 – ’99 the U.S. real GDP averaged annual year-over-year growth of 3%.(PDF)

    Data from the IMF World Economic Outlook tells the same story. For the twenty year period between 1987 – 2006, the U.S. economy grew 80% in real, inflation-adjusted terms, from 6.475 trillion dollars to 11.644 trillion dollars. For the fifteen years between 1992 – 2006, the U.S. economy grew from 7.337 trillion, or 59%. Between 1997 – 2006, the U.S. economy grew 34%, from 8.704 trillion.

    The data from Japan is as follows: For the twenty year period between 1987 – 2006, the Japanese economy grew 45% in real, inflation-adjusted terms, from 376.589 trillion yen to 547.071 trillion yen. For the fifteen years between 1992 – 2006, the Japanese economy grew from 465.093 trillion, or a meager 18%. Between 1997 – 2006, the Japanese economy grew a pathetic 8%, from 506.256 trillion.

    In other words, depending on the time frame, the U.S. economy has grown at a real rate double, triple, or quadruple that of Japan. I’d call that “not even close”.

  14. lonbud - January 7, 2007 @ 9:05 pm

    I’m not going to get into a statistical fight with you, Michael. Your original response to Tam’s little fable implied that Japan has somehow “dropped out” of the global economic regatta, when, in fact, after kicking the entire world’s ass throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the tiny island nation took a breather throughout most of the 90s and the first couple of years of the current decade.

    The fact of the matter, as reported in the CIA factbook, in the Economist, CNN, Money Magazine, and just about any source of economic reportage you’d care to reference, says Japan has again picked up steam in the past few years, has outperformed the U.S. since 2003, and remains a formidable player in the global economic arena.

  15. Michael Herdegen - January 8, 2007 @ 2:45 pm

    LOL

    Well, sure, if you want to change your story from “Japan’s economy has performed on a par with, if not more favorably than the U.S. economy over the last decade” to “Japan has been competitive for the past two years”, then we can agree to that extent.

    However, if you believe that Japan hasn’t dropped out of the global economic regatta, then you may wish to read about the Japanese demographic situation. It’s hard to be a world-beater when your population and economy are shrinking.

    For instance, the McKinsey Global Institute writes that: “Japan is the only developed nation facing an absolute decline, rather than a slowdown, in financial wealth because of demographic trends.”

    Here’s a good place to start: Link

  16. lonbud - January 9, 2007 @ 5:17 pm

    Yes, well, similar to the discussions we were having over the past year about the proclivities of the American electorate, and how we’d just have to wait and see who was right about what (though we’ve been given our initial peek at the answer to that and many of your statements from back then are not looking too prescient in the light of the most recent election), time will tell where Japan’s economy stands in relation to those of other developed nations.

    I notice you had nothing to say regarding their domination of the American heavy equipment market.

    It was ALWAYS hard for Japan to be a world-beater; based on demographics alone, one would never have predicted her to produce the 2nd or 3rd largest economy on the globe, and yet, she did. So, again, time will tell.

    I don’t think I hear a fat lady doing vocal exercises just yet.

  17. Michael Herdegen - January 14, 2007 @ 9:30 pm

    [M]any of your statements from back then are not looking too prescient in the light of the most recent election…

    To say the least. I’d put it as: I was flat-out wrong.

    Japan doesn’t dominate America’s heavy equipment market, any more than it dominates the American auto market. They’re competitive in both markets, but that’s it.

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