From Bawl'mer's City Paper:
Political Animal
Think Different
By Brian Morton
In their 1967 book, Foundations of Social Psychology, Edward E. Jones and Harold B. Gerard wrote about a religious group whose prophecy of the end of the world fails to come true. Rather than going back to the drawing board, the group's members decide that their own actions saved the world, and then start telling others that theirs is the one true way because they stopped the Apocalypse.
See any similarities to the actions of the present administration?
Back when there was a projected surplus and a balanced budget, we were told a tax cut was needed because the government should give us that money back (although "us" mostly turned out to be rich people). When the surplus evaporated and it began to look like a return to deficits, we were told the tax cut would halt the decline and stop a recession. Then, when the economy kept sliding, jobs kept disappearing, and deficits were forecast as far as the eye can see, the president told us that if it weren't for the tax cuts, the recession would have been worse.
We are now two years past the horror of Sept. 11, 2001. We have since invaded two sovereign nations, bombing them "into the Stone Age," as the nation's more aggressive warmongers like to say. We were told to support an invasion into Iraq, because Iraq was harboring chemical weapons, biological weapons, and possibly even nuclear weapons. In his State of the Union, President Bush told us that "evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaida." He said that we could not afford for the so-called smoking gun of evidence against Iraq to turn out to come "in the form of a mushroom cloud."
We alienated our historical allies in Europe, upsetting an alliance that has lasted since the end of World War II. Our defense secretary sneeringly derided the skepticism of France and Germany as that of "Old Europe," and the neo-conservative hawks at the engine of our war machine scoffed and marginalized the United Nations' sanctions and inspections. We were told that after Saddam was overthrown the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms, with showers of flower petals, with a new commitment to freedom and democracy that would act like a domino effect throughout the Middle East.
Our commander in chief landed on an aircraft carrier five months ago to stage an elaborate photo opportunity and pronounce "mission accomplished" in Iraq. He said that combat operations were over. Five months later, the administration quietly edited that phrase to read "major" combat operations are over.
Now we face a bill for 87 billion more dollars, on top of the estimated billion a day we had to spend up to this point to upend Saddam's regime and maintain a meek illusion of order in Iraq. More soldiers have died trying to keep the peace than lost their lives winning the war. Ten U.S. soldiers a day, on average, are wounded enough to have to be sent home.
Osama bin Laden is still believed to be alive, plotting and in hiding. Saddam is still believed to be alive, plotting and in hiding. Afghanistan is once again a forgotten haven of religious unrest, the Taliban on an upsurge.
Whose fault is it, we are asked? It is ours.
Those who question the administration are accused of sapping the national will. Those in the military who complain of overuse of the force structure are seen as out of line. Those skeptical of the lack of an exit strategy are labeled as in league with Saddam. Those who mention the word "quagmire," a phrase from the Vietnam War era, are considered defeatists.
The saddest part is, we're stuck. We cannot shoulder the burden of Iraq alone, we cannot continue to operate in Iraq and Afghanistan with the same numbers of forces we have in the past, especially with North Korea each day escalating a game of nuclear chicken. And we cannot do it after the massive double giveaway to the wealthy of the Bush tax cuts.
There's no exit strategy--because there is no exit. We are nailed in place for a long time, with not enough money in our pockets and targets on our backs. We have goaded our adversaries, alienated our friends, and lied to our citizens. The so-called war on terror has been revealed as a march into the briar patch, and the administration continues to change the terms of the debate the way Napoleon the pig used to change the rules painted on the barn wall in George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Jones and Gerard had an interesting definition for "cognitive dissonance." It is, they wrote, "inconsistency among related beliefs [that] produces motivation to do whatever is easiest in order to regain cognitive consistency or consonance among beliefs."
This administration won't think any differently unless we do.
