Skip to main content

Another nail in

History is still in the process of deciding on "W" Bush's legacy, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates put another nail in the coffin of Bush's foreign policy legacy. Speaking at West Point recently, he said:

“In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to
again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa
should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put
it."

Of course, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush charged the U.S. into two such wars simultaneously. And when Rumsfeld left his post, VP Dick Cheney hailed Rumsfeld as the greatest Secretary of Defense in American history. Hmmm.

Gates is the one who belongs in a short-list of the greatest appointed public servants of our time. Appointed by Bush to save his administration's defense strategy, he stayed on with Obama to attempt to bring our nation's defense situation back from the brink. That is a tough job which he has navigated well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 2020 Vote: Bending toward justice

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.  --  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My hero, Dr. King, was wrong about justice. I love Dr. King. His writings and speeches are collected in a book called “A Testament of Hope”. That book was a revelation for me. Dr. King had a moral clarity that is rare in this world. Many of his observations were accurate, wise, and timeless. But the ‘arc of the moral universe’ statement is misleading. We are promised no such experience in this world. In Dr. King’s time, the quote may have been both accurate and wise. King saw the expanding reach of national newspapers and television networks. When the nation, through that new media, was exposed to the reality and brutality of overt Southern racism--then the nation, which believed it shared a common and decent morality, imposed that morality on the South. While Dr. King’s understanding may have been both accurate and wise, it was not timeless. This is where my moral hero comes u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Real Estate in America

We sold our house this summer and bought a new home. The experience has led me to reflect on homes and home-buying in America. As in any industry, there are good and bad incentives at work in real estate. A home seller would like to get the highest price for their house and sell it in a reasonable period of time. The industry operates on a commission system so that the agent seeks to sell the house at a higher price. This incentive works, but only to a point. Consider the impact of $5000 on the seller vs. the agent. Six percent of $5000 is $300. After the realty company and purchasing agent take their cut, the agent isn't left with much. A $5000 difference in the price of the house means little to the agent, but a lot to the home owner. Does an agent become successful by getting the highest price or by turning over lots of houses? The answer is obvious. An agent's ideal world is not one where people get exactly the right price for their homes, it is a world where everyone is wi...
2 comments
Read more

Bad memes: This meme makes me happy

This Harden/Jordan meme makes me so happy. It is a classic illustration of a meme, and it is a classic illustration of propaganda. Memes are teeny blips in the broader world of propaganda, but they are simple and direct examples of propaganda. Propaganda is designed to bypass rational thought. It triggers emotional responses before we have a chance to think things through. When our emotional systems have already been pushed in one direction or another, our thinking systems almost always follow in the same direction. Memes go straight for our emotions. Look at the Harden/Jordan meme. The Jordan picture shows an intricate, difficult task--Jordan with both hands on the ball, and the defenders swarm around him--arms up, eyes up. The Harden picture is the opposite--two clowns could not do a better job of mocking a basketball moment. The defender leans in awkwardly, hoping to draw a charge. Harden flails, appearing to look straight up in the air as he begins his shot. It is well-designed to ...
Post a Comment
Read more