Cross Posted at
Political Moneyball
Reality is hard to accept. When you spend so much time and energy, when you waste precious breath arguing for your issue, you've invested more than just time, energy and breath. The reality is, you've got a personal stake. Your reputation or career may be next up on the chopping block; so long as you ignore reality, however, you can save your skin. Michael Corleone ducked reality by claiming it was "business, not personal." And it wasn't until he held his dying daughter in his arms that realized everything is personal and very little is business.
How many dead soldiers does Donald Rumsfeld need to hold in his arms before he accepts reality? Apparently, more than
2,626.
Yesterday, Donald Rumsfeld
spoke at the American Legion's National Convention in Salt Lake City. He argued that American faced a new type of Facism, and that appeasing these Fascists will bring an end to the American way of life.
I'm not even going to touch the fear-mongering. I'm going to let you all think about the timing of this speech, its echoes of WWII and the unfolding crisis in Iran. I'm not even going to bash Rumsfeld for suggesting critics of the administration are helping the bad guys win.
No, I'd like to focus on reality.
In his
column(sub. req.) for The American Prospect this month, Paul Starr outlines the Rumsfeld/Cheney Foreign Policy:
the premise...was that as the only remaining superpower, the United States no longer needed cumbersome alliances and international institutions and could act unilaterally to reshape world politics. Instead of waiting for enemies to attack us at home, we would preemptively strike them overseas. Instead of negotiating with hostile regimes, we could just replace them.
On the surface, that sounds incredibly near-sighted, foolishly cretinous, and surprisingly backward.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it's flat wrong. The reality of the Iraq debacle proves we cannot go at it alone. Iraq has shown us the importance of transparency in government, and the dangers of preemption.
So why is Rumsfeld giving this speech to at American Legion? Is he that divorced from reality? I mean, he can't actually believe that droll. Right?
It's about credibility. It's about image. Rumsfeld came up during the Watergate fiasco. He knows there is only one way out for him. He knows we're on the path for a Vietnam-like exit from Iraq. And he saw what disgraceful exits do to our country. In this neo-con mode of thinking, so long as you don't acknowledge reality, your fantasy will still be true.
Just maybe not to everyone else.