SALON

Monday, Jul 28, 2003 8:55 PM UTC

Joe Conason’s Journal

Apparently, conservatives think the White House was justified in lying about the motives for war.

By

Topics:

Dumber dumbing down
The dumbing down of American conservatism — a phenomenon observed everywhere from cable television to the College Republicans — accelerated slightly this morning thanks to the Wall Street Journal’s online edition, which features an article by engineer and blogger Steven Den Beste. Den Beste’s contribution to the debate over Iraq is a rah-rah rant overflowing with banality (“Mistakes will get made, and there will be problems”), clichés (“The Democrats are running around like chickens with their heads cut off”) and chest-thumping idiocy (“If an American city gets nuked by a terrorist, things are going to get extremely ugly”).

But perhaps editors Paul Gigot and James Taranto deserve credit for inadvertently allowing Den Beste to blurt out what he and other conservatives apparently think about the misleading messages that fomented war: The president and his aides lied from the very beginning, because they couldn’t win by telling the truth.

As Den Beste puts it: “We are bringing reform to Iraq out of narrow self-interest. We have to foster reform in the Arab/Muslim world because it’s the only real way in the long run to make them stop trying to kill us. So why did George W. Bush and Tony Blair, in making the case for war, put so much emphasis on U.N. resolutions and weapons of mass destruction? Honesty and plain speaking are not virtues for politicians and diplomats. If either Mr. Bush or Mr. Blair had said what I did, it would have hit the fan big-time. Making clear a year ago that this was our true agenda would have virtually guaranteed that it would fail.”

More sophisticated versions of this excuse are becoming familiar on the right, where everyone is seeking a plausible rationalization for appallingly poor policymaking. In the meantime, the White House still has much to conceal, as honest Republicans like Richard Lugar have noticed. The Indiana senator, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, complained to NPR that the administration isn’t being wholly truthful about the price of the Iraq occupation. They know it will cost tens of billions, he told National Public Radio. “But they do not wish to discuss that,” Lugar added. What would happen if the brilliant Bush foreign policy team told us how much their adventure will cost? Why, someone might demand that Bush permit the return of the U.N. inspectors so that our former allies would be more willing to help police and rebuild that ruined nation.
[4:00 p.m. PDT, July 28, 2003]

For your regular Joe, bookmark this link. To send an e-mail, click here.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse