Dixon & Mason Forget ("an intellectual hatred is the worst..."

[No Fun]

>From the Salon article cited below:  "Its regular Bushed! column seems
dedicated to the notion that the president hasn't done anything right since
the military victory in Afghanistan, and overall, wasn't up to the job of
president in the first place (I've asked in another column how Salon can
praise Bush's handling of the war and still think he's stupid, and still
haven't received an answer.) "

The answer to this is pretty clear.  Bush's best quality over this war is
his, well, he is very humble about the nature of his intellectual prowess.
In other words, he knew he was in over his head and thus defered to his
staff, who have been around the block in that part of the world with Bush
the Elder.  This is actually quite a feat, for a President not to fly off
the handle in the face of what happened.  Look at the disgraceful reaction
by the previous President when 12 (I think) American citizens were killed in
those embassy attacks in Africa.  He went apeshit and attacked almost
literally as if throwing darts at a map. This only served to galvanize
hatred, and had no strategic effect. Left to his own devices without capable
advisors, one can only speculate what sort of stupidity Bush the Younger
would have perpetrated.  His C.V. speaks for itself (and shows success
despite itself, so go figure).  So, the war progressed measuredly and
sucessfully on Bush's deference to people who knew what to do.  This kind of
makes him smart insofar as he knows he is stupid and is willing to accept
that (sometimes).

Also, I've read stuff saying that Clintons palsied sort of response to the
Africa attacks provided the seed for the WTC massacre.  If the effect of the
American response in 98 was the killing of muslim civillians and served to
galvanize hatred of the West and therefore garner support for OBL et al,
imagine what a massive attack on American soil killing thousands would do.
OBL possibly banked on Bush nuking everybody on the most wanted list, which
would surely make the regimes of the Arab mid-east vulnerable to popular
fundamentalist revolts since the existing regimes were America friendly.
Taliban type regimes for Saudi Arabia in particular and the Arab world in
general is what OBL was really after and an American crusade against Islam
would set the stage for that.  Except that didn't happen.  Poor OBL.  Makes
Bush look wise though, which is no easy task.


----- Original Message -----
From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: Dixon & Mason Forget ("an intellectual hatred is the worst..."


> Doris Lessing's scathing indictment of the '60s left, a
> Pynchonesque tale of two rival weapons physicists
> and more in the month's best fiction.
>
> http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/02/21/fiction_intro/index.html
>
> The America-hating left turns up the volume
>
> http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/2002/03/11/six_months/index_np.html
>
> "An intellectual hatred is the worst..."
>
> --W.B. Yeats
>