Funny that a Daily Kos post about the administration not being incompetent popped up on the very same day I planned to post about "incompetence" being a convenient excuse. Bob Johnson lays out a good case that incompetence is a byproduct of simply not caring. However, like the incompetence argument, this one does not go far enough. Dem candidates, bloggers, pundits, and citizens are selling the administration, and thus our party, short by allowing the tragedies of 911, Katrina, Iraq, et al to be written off as products of incompetence or indifference.
This revelation popped in my mind again yesterday as I debated the reasoning for the Iraq war and what went wrong with a strongly Democratic friend. I was challenging his belief that initially the war was the right thing to do because, "Iraq was an imminent threat." That claim has been proven over and over to be utter bs, but his reasoning for why things went wrong struck me more. He took the popular, "They didn't plan or execute postwar Iraq properly and that's why we have such a mess now."
This seems pretty solid, and a good indictment of the Bush administration at first glance, but it has two problems: 1. It's not true. 2. Bush or Cheney isn't running in '06 or '08. Let's take these in turn.
In her excellent article, Baghdad Year Zero, Naomi Klein lays out the argument that post-war Iraq has gone exactly according to plan.
Looking at the honey billboard, I was also reminded of the most common explanation for what has gone wrong in Iraq, a complaint echoed by everyone from John Kerry to Pat Buchanan: Iraq is mired in blood and deprivation because George W. Bush didn’t have “a postwar plan.” The only problem with this theory is that it isn’t true. The Bush Administration did have a plan for what it would do after the war; put simply, it was to lay out as much honey as possible, then sit back and wait for the flies.
The honey theory of Iraqi reconstruction stems from the most cherished belief of the war’s ideological architects: that greed is good. Not good just for them and their friends but good for humanity, and certainly good for Iraqis. Greed creates profit, which creates growth, which creates jobs and products and services and everything else anyone could possibly need or want. The role of good government, then, is to create the optimal conditions for corporations to pursue their bottomless greed, so that they in turn can meet the needs of the society.
In Klein's view, the Bush Admin, had a plan. It was a plan that had been in development for decades and just waiting for the right conditions to implement it. "Baghdad Year Zero" was to be Neo-con's dream, their very own sandbox to practice their theories of non-governance and watch the profits roll in. With Iraq as their blank slate, they could finally prove that greed is good, and it could drive a destroyed economy into windfall profits for all ...including their war-profiteer contributors.
Some will claim that this doesn't let them off the hook for underestimating the insurgency. Year Zero is more about economics than security, right? Perhaps. They may have failed to grasp the depth and breadth of the insurgency, but my guess it they thought even this could be solved by greed. It's is their driving strategy in the Afghanistan and Pakistan Al Qaeda hunt: offer money and the people will bring the terrorists to you. They simply offer money to countries and individuals and attempt to buy loyalty to the US cause. Hey, it worked for catching Hussein and his sons. Of course, we haven't caught Bin Laden or Zarqawi in Iraq because we've encountered an enemy that rejects greed -- one that can't be bought.
Planning over incompetence is not just a phenomenon with the war; it extends to all they do inside our borders. The Bush election, and especially 911 and the retaking of the Senate in '02 brought us to, "America Year Zero." With a fearful populace, and ineffective opposition party, and a struggling economy, conditions were perfect to implement Neo-con theories across the board.
A center-piece of this was less government services to be replaced by churches and christian charities. Of course, we saw this in the new funding priorities with "Faith-Based funding" and money earmarked for abstinence only programs while organizations globally that supported family planning were cut off. But the Coup de grace was turning FEMA into an ineffective agency that would be such a failure both the GOP and Dems would call for its dissolution. The agency was literally drowned per Grover Norquist's suggestion.
The administration also used the "incompetence" argument to dismantle the CIA, an organization that was having trouble getting their new place as political servant to the Bush Admin., by blaming them for all security wrongs. They wouldn't be replaced by charities, but by one hulking organization, Homeland Security with the NSA as the main player. Finally, Bush would have full political control over intelligence, and his own secret police to spy on the grumbling citizens.
I may be getting tangential here, but the important thing to understand is that the many failures we've seen are not simply products of incompetence. They are the outgrowth of an ideology based on US military dominance and greed as the driving economic force. As we see consequences of 5+ years of this policy crashing around us, we must communicate that this is no accident. After all, incompetence can be pinned on a handful of people, and those people aren't running in the upcoming elections.
We say "George W Bush is the problem" when we cry, "Incompetence" and "Cronyism," but when people realize that where we are as a nation is part of a concerted effort, they will cry "Republicans are the problem." They will be right.
The Neo-con led Republicans have had their Year Zero. They have had half a decade to try their policies, and the policies have been utter failures. We have not witnessed incompetence and indifference, but a policy that puts greed and wealth above all else. The only remedy is a policy and party that calls the priorities of "Average Americans" their own, not those of the "Super Rich."