As nervous as I was about this whole process, the one thing I didn’t lose sleep over was the possibility of taking bin Laden out. Justice was done. And I think that anyone who would question that the perpetrator of mass murder on American soil didn’t deserve what he got needs to have their head examined.
Obama on ’60 Minutes’ (May 8, 2011)
Maybe Bismarck really was right after all. Although, to be fair, once again the Goldilocks process is revealed. The options before him were: (a) stand-off kinetic force; (b) boots on the ground; or (c) wait for more data to increase confidence percentage. He chose (b). (Thank goodness – ed.)
Obama showed guts going for the best outcome. He also had to weigh the inevitable leaks and future blame for ‘letting Bin Laden escape’ should he select (a) or (c), supra. Inevitable leaks which would obliterate him. The man’s a politician, after all.
We’ve been amused watching the ‘Left’ [sic] torment itself. Our friend Comment earlier mentioned NPR’s droning on re the ‘Geronimo’ meme. If you recall, we replied to him that NPR needed to kick it up a notch. To really get Rightists into aneurysm territory. And here to answer that call? Take Noam Chomsky. Please. {rimshot}.
It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.”
“Great stuff. One could make a career out of this one [column] . . . Most paranoid delusions are intricate, but this is brilliant.” It’s almost like Newt waddled down the hall and said “I need a sample secularist, multicultural, [insert clumsy allusion to hating heterosexual marriage] Leftist direct mail caricature piece in 45 minutes.” Chomsky hits each note of a Rightist pastiche with the unerring precision of a Holiday Inn cover band. It’s such a parody of a parody that the universe itself seems to blink out of existence for a nano-second.
We’re kind of in awe. Years ago we routinely cranked out straw man arguments for clients (those are usually called ‘Motions for Summary Judgment’ in house) or the VRWC. But Chomsky adds that Kinkadian kitsch that’s so inauthentic it can’t be faked.
Can Chomsky plagiarize himself? Courts have actually wrestled with this stuff. John Fogherty was sued for exactly that.
Like an Italian overture (or Gaul) Chomsky’s Meisterwerk comes in three parts. Following tradition, his middle movement is a bit slow, but his outer movements truly race. For example, he opens with a furious declaration that we only ‘suspect’ Bin Laden was behind the Cole, the 1998 Embassy Bombings, 9/11, etc. Chomsky then pulls back, lets the strings have space as he opens up the tragedy of ‘violating’ Pakistani sovereignty. He takes time to develop a theme, ‘What if the Iraqis should send commandos to Dallas and takeout the Warlord?’ And then he gallops to a rousing finish, not only re-stating earlier ‘Left’ [sic] motifs about the whole ‘Geronimo’, ‘Apache’ helicopters, and ‘Tomahawk’ cruise missiles thing, but he surprises the audience with an unexpected flourish of Nazi parallels, closing finally on a fortissimo swell of Luftwaffe.
It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”
Et fini. As a great American once said, “It’s like working with mercury. It’s high science, man. It’s art form [sic]. Hats off for going there, especially knowing how the Academy is about that s**t.” In our best VRWC AgitProp prime (decades past, now) we never would have even thought to tip toe *around* that finale.
It’s simply stunning. Transcendent even.
Of course, it’s also why Obama can be so non-chalant presiding as Rightist Lite (de-caff). Thank you, Noam Chomsky. Not for the Obama thing. Reading you in 2011 brought back such silver memories of Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Sydney Schanberg blaming the Khmer Rouge on B-52s, Warnke and then the Freeze.
To all you young, aspiring VRWC drones out there, carpe diem. It may look and feel like cubicle hell, but stop and smell the toner cartridges. Cherish the gifts life brings you.
Marlon says
I think Noam enjoys playing in his framework. Simply because you don’t buy into his framework, doesn’t mean he is lying or pulling some schtick however. Applying a new framework to the mainstream, whether we agree with it or not, I think we have to admit is entirely rational behavior.. any sane person should be so disillusioned with the opaqueness of media and government by now, that sanity should become defined by a large percentage of “predictable delusions” believed by the general audience.
Remember, when all is said and done, it’s not whose framework was “reality”, or “delusion”, but how many people you can infuriate well enough to act. On a small scale this looks like the Tea Party phenomenon, a particular group of complaints, which are genuine, but they happened to come upon expressing them within a delusional framework, or shall we say, applying out of the box thinking the best way that laypeople can – namely, that there’s too much regulation, government, spending and taxes. That episode of activism came awfully close to changing things, although the solutions were trivially not based in reality, but were it not for being quickly co-opted by the deftness of politicians, with the backing of marketeers
Dr Leo Strauss says
@Comment
And then, of course, MSNBC will mainstream his column chuckling ‘oh that Pat’. Then he can return to his true passion, completing his Lego model of Linz covering his basement pool table.
Comment says
Expect Pat Buchanan to write a column about Calvary any minute now. #Demanjuk
DrLeoStrauss says
@Comment
A technical detail but surely there are worse? re the gathering, McGinniss blew it with no hashtag. Pshaw.
Comment says
Ross has company – Camp of Fools – Journalistic zombies camping on 42nd st.
https://twitter.com/joemcginniss/status/68160099822223360
DrLeoStrauss says
@sglover
It can only get better re finding a pair one supposes.
sglover says
I dunno, I like Chomsky…..
I **hope** ObL’s death prods Hope’n’Change into growing a pair, and finally winding down our various misbegotten adventures. Because if it doesn’t, the whole thing’s really quite meaningless, to my mind. I was slightly surprised that ObL was still alive, but alive or no, it was never all that clear to me that he was much of a mastermind, a planner, behind much of anything. More than that, whatever appeal his ideology had has been waning for years. It don’t think it helped that, except for September 11, his various endeavors tended to kill more Muslims than anyone else.
Dr Leo Strauss says
@Karl
Karl, didn’t realize that pas d’ennemis à gauche (no enemies on the Left) still thrived today as wherever could they come from? From purely a political science external perspective, American political community likely would benefit from a genuine Left, but alas. (Speaking here disinterestedly and not projecting actual ideological affinity).
We both probably agree that our ‘Left’ [sic] remains a wholly notional boogeyman concocted by the Movement Right to relieve cognitive dissonance and compulsive sub-rational nihilism. Besides loyalty to a personality, what ever would prompt flak from your left?
It’s rather pathetic when Marine Le Pen, the daughter of Jean-Marie and an effective French right-wing and nationalist politician herself, accurately notes that on several major policy issues, Obama is to her *right*. That is the alpha and omega of the so-called Left [sic] in America.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Agreed, Jamie – poor drafting on my part.
jamie says
I’m not sure there’s any Diem to be Carped. Amongst other things, bin Laden was the spectre coalescing the mob politics of the past ten years. I get the feeling that Moral Clarity went to feed the fishes with him. But then I’m feeling slightly more optimistic about everything since he was killed, so maybe I’m projecting. Anyway, let Noam be Noam.
Karl says
As usual, The Noam pretends there’s no discussion of whether Uncle Sam is lying to us about this. Instead, The Noam instantly spins it to His Patented Schtick:
This is really about Bad Apples in a Good System.
Fuck The Noam. He’s a lying charlatan.
And yes I am prepared to catch flak for talking ill of a “Progressive” deity like The Noam. Have at it, Worshipers.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Ross Douthat is an idiot. Just saying.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/opinion/09douthat.html?hp