What Happened to the Political Posts?
Last year most of my blogging was about politics. This year, I’ve only made a few posts about politics. One reason for the change is that my specialty in grad school was voting behavior, so if I have any unique insight on something, it’s probably going to be during election time. The other reason is that there are several other good political blogs out there, and quite often, when I think of something to write, I discover that someone else has already written it. Links to my favorite political blogs are in the column on your right.
So until next year’s election cycle, most of my blog’s political content probably will consist of links to articles I found particularly interesting, along with some additional commentary of my own. Here are a few to get things started:
- Ed Kilgore’s False Prophets post – if you only read one of these linked articles, read this one. Having read Kilgore’s posts for several months now, it’s become clear to me that he has a particularly deep understanding of religion and its interplay with politics. He’s at his best in this post.
- Greg Sargent’s Brand Hillary article in The Nation. This is the first article I’ve seen so far on Hillary Clinton’s possible 2008 Presidential bid that is actually written in a calm tone, and is insightful and informative. Other commentary I’ve seen so far has been completely irrational, consisting of either apoplectic disgust or hysterical support. And here’s my first prediction for the 2008 Presidential campaign: look for a Hillary Clinton – Wesley Clark ticket. She’s been burnishing her national security credentials as a Senator, and she can seal the deal on that front by putting Clark on the ticket. Clark was quietly backed by the Clinton’s in 2004, so we already know they get along. Clark was too green in 2004, and he had an awful speech writer. But he was always good in one-on-one interviews, so I think he can turn in a better performance in 2008 if he gets a better speech writer.
- The Christian Science Monitor’s Why has ‘Downing Street memo’ story been a ‘dud’ in US? – you may or may not have seen the very limited coverage that’s been given to the British “Downing Street memo” which states that in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, “…the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” This article explores why such a seemingly explosive revelation has gotten such little coverage in the US.
- Niall Ferguson’s Cowboys and Indians Op-Ed in the New York Times – this is a schizophrenic yet insightful piece on the situation in Iraq. Ferguson’s a conservative who’s not shy about taking potshots at liberals in this article, yet he paints a damning picture of US policy and the grim prospects for Iraq’s future (echoing points myself and others made a year ago). His clear-headed analysis of the situation is upended by his confounding belief that the US cause is just and that we shouldn’t leave. In an attempt to reconcile the two, he ends up offering bizarre and unworkable advice:
“…it is time to acknowledge just how thinly stretched American forces in Iraq are and to address the problem: whether by finding new allies (send Condoleezza Rice to New Delhi?); radically expanding the accelerated citizenship program for immigrants who join the army; or lowering the (historically high) educational requirements demanded by military recruiters.”
He’s crazy if he thinks we can persuade India (or any other country at this point) to send substantial numbers of troops to Iraq. He opens himself to accusations of the worst kind of racism if he seriously thinks we should accelerate our immigration programs to provide cannon fodder for the army. And when he suggests lowering the “historically high” education standards for joining the Army, I guess he thinks the current requirement of a GED is too onerous. It seems to me you wouldn’t want anything less when it comes to 21st century warfare. If the best a prominent conservative intellectual can come up with is that we should win the war by getting foreign troops to fight in our place, to start a massive recruitment campaign among new immigrants, and to seduce the under-educated into joining the army, then we really are in an awful predicament.
- Middle East expert Juan Cole’s Sometimes You are Just Screwed post explains just how untenable our position in Iraq now is. It’s a more comprehensive analysis than Ferguson’s.
