Friday,
October 14
THE MYTH OF INCOMPETENCE: Last weekend I was
on a radio show debating a Democratic strategist and when the
subject turned to Iraq he immediately charged the Bush administration
with utter incompetence in managing the war. I've never quite
understood why some on the left (and the right) are so eager to
make this argument, because it strikes me as neither true nor
terribly convincing.
Here's the
problem: It's easy to sit back and see in hindsight where things
could have been done differently which may - and I stress the
word "may" - have led to a different result. But even
those things which war critics cite most often as examples of
mismanagement do not, in and of themselves, represent evidence
of "incompetence". For example, it is by no means certain
we would be in any better position in Iraq today if we had devoted
an additional three weeks to pre-war planning, or if we had decided
to try and de-Bathify the Iraqi military instead of disbanding
it.
Even the
charge of not having enough troops in Iraq (to my mind the most
legitimate criticism of the war, coming mostly from the right)
is debatable. Such a policy might possibly have fueled a greater
sense of occupation, strengthened the insurgency and also resulted
in more U.S. casualties. There is no way of knowing what could
have been based on decisions that weren't made.
Set aside,
for the moment, the favorable historical context of the achievements
in Iraq thus far: Toppled Saddam's government in less than two
weeks. Avoided doomsday scenarios of environmental and humanitarian
disasters. Established provisional government. Held the most open,
free and fair elections in decades. Established interim government.
Reached deal on Constitution. Tomorrow a referendum on the charter
and two months later, full elections. All of this accomplished
in just over two and a half years with less than 2,000 U.S. combat
deaths. The war in Iraq is not without problems, but despite the
relentlessly negative press coverage pumped out to the public
every day, from a historical perspective we've made astonishing
progress.
Again, setting
all that aside, ask Democrats who charge the Bush administration
with incompetence what they'd do differently in Iraq under the
same circumstances and you get silence and a blank stare. Can
they identify a single thing we should be doing in Iraq that we
aren't? Is there something we should try that we haven't?
John Kerry
is a perfect example. Last year, after spending months formulating
an Iraq policy for his general election campaign, Kerry and his
advisors finally emerged with a five-point plan that didn't contain
a single substantive difference from the Bush administration's
policy. The best Kerry could do was to offer that he'd "do
a better job persuading the international community to share the
burden in Iraq." That's more platitude than policy, and it
was obviously far from convincing.
The other
problem with the myth of incompetence is that it falls flat when
put to the people responsible for running the war. Don Rumsfeld
is no Michael Brown. Few people in America are as intelligent,
qualified, and have as much of a track record of managerial efficiency
and competence as Rumsfeld. The same can be said of Dick Cheney.
Yet after decades of bi-partisan praise for their service and
skill - particularly at DoD - Democrats want the country to believe
these two men have suddenly morphed into complete boobs.
If Democrats
want to say the war in Iraq was a mistake because it simply wasn't
winnable in the first place, that's one thing. History may eventually
bear out the merit of such an argument. The problem, however,
is that Democrats who voted to authorize the invasion forfeited
the right to make that argument, because no one in their right
mind would vote in favor of doing something they believed was
impossible.
Unable to
articulate a policy difference and trapped between the pull of
a fervent antiwar base and a mainstream public that remains solidly
against cutting and running, Democrats abandoned debating the
merits of Iraq long ago. Instead they've been focused on building
the myth of Bush administration's incompetence in Iraq by touting
whatever chaos and carnage is reported in the press and downplaying
consequential events like tomorrow's vote. This strategy got an
inadvertent boost by the domestic tragedy inflicted by Katrina
last month (score another assist for the mainstream media), and
the myth of incompetence will almost certainly be a major part
of their effort to make electoral gains in 2006. - T.
Bevan 12:15 pm Link | Email
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