Luck and Pluck
Americans may not be at ease reflecting together on the uncanny power of the United States to emerge more or less unscathed from its stupid mistakes. The Iraq war itself might count as one of these, but who can tell, when, from 2004-2006, American policy comprised a series of blunders, follies, half-assery, and errors? There is no doubt that all of this could have been avoided by keeping We Invaders off the ground. But there is also no doubt that the post-invasion environment, as it was permitted to corrode away, developed into the disaster it was much as a causal step out of a hi-flying biplane develops into a terminal freefall. For all my paleo sympathies, I retain a bottomless resentment for the French government that preemptively vowed, in full knowledge of what such a vow would trigger, to torpedo any ‘coercive enforcement’ of that Fateful Resolution, 1441. What was triggered, of course, was a massive crisis of legitimacy in international law. The Hand of America, for what it’s worth, was forced. Now — if anywhere — isn’t the place to bring down the hammer yet again on the anvil of relitigating the March to War. But this is all a run-up of its own to this snippet from the Times:
The most optimistic course of events would still leave 120,000 to 130,000 American troops in Iraq, down from the peak of 170,000 late last year after Mr. Bush ordered what became known as the “surge” of additional forces. Any troop reductions announced in the heat of the presidential election could blur the sharp differences between the candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, over how long to stay in Iraq. But the political benefit might go more to Mr. McCain than Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain is an avid supporter of the current strategy in Iraq. Any reduction would indicate that that strategy has worked and could defuse antiwar sentiment among voters.
And so it is. By luck and pluck, those great, classic, and providential talents of Ours Truly, we have managed to dive into the squalid, squanderous pursuit of faux-empire on the cheap-yet-costly and come out, more or less, on top — but for the colossal debt burden that has far outstripped the sort of bluffman’s game that beat the Soviets. Anything more in the trillions register could be backbreaking; but still, despite the IndyMac situation and the general Fear knocking around, we can bear the bloated burdens we’ve ginned up to date. As long as the Iraq weights are steadily, studiously lifted, we can recover. It’s cold comfort that ‘recovery’ now sounds a lot like coming back down to pre-surge levels; we need more, and faster. But there’s no doubt that Obama is now being backed into a certain kind of corner. The hilarity, if you like morbid jokes, revolves around the possibility that even given this awkwardness Obama may make the better C-in-C when it comes to swift yet prudent de-escalation in Iraq. Obama still has a weird trump card: being a better McCain when it comes to managing the staged and nuanced withdrawal from the field.
It’s not ‘anti-war sentiment’ that drives Americans. It’s anti-expensive occupation that keeps the home fires burning. McCain has a strong case to make that, as Mr. Surge, his prophetic powers of insight will power him through the next sequence of seeing the war through to its proper windup. But Obama has what might be an equally strong case that anything McCain can do, he can do better. Obama’s candidacy is in no way tied to things going wrong in Iraq.
So perhaps it boils down to Domestic Issues after all. And here McCain has the advantage — but for his incoherent, sloppy, boring, wearying, strained, contradictory, grating, trite take on domestic issues. In an added crusher, Obama must move in McCain’s direction in order to translate his crisp, sweeping themes into Actual Policy. And probably for this reason it’s been a Summer Bummer all the way ’round. To the best champion of Luck and Pluck may go the spoils — and here’s an example of what doesn’t fly:
The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.
Repulsive. Really? After all this? Bush has lost 9 out of 10 grounds of respect among normal human beings. A person simply does not behave like this. It’s gross, a grossly broad parody of Americans and Americanism at its luckiest and pluckiest. These are mindbendingly onanistic antics on a level Nixon would never have hallucinated. These are the kinds of things you expect from the fraternity pledge everyone winds up deciding to blackball out of the nausea and embarrassment associated with having once thought he might make a top-notch Brother.
So which will make a better rhetorician of American luck and pluck? McCain, with his endless paeans to sacrifice? Or Obama, with his drumbeat of solidarity and living up? The jury is out, my friendsch.