Just Let Me Wipe Up This Mess

Almost every word William Kristol writes these days is drenched in flopsweat. After reading one of his articles, I have to spend 10 or 15 minutes cleaning my keyboard with a hair dryer. More pleasant work hath no man.

Given that Kristol's primary aim is to salvage Bush's disastrous and criminally immoral foreign policy, his choice of rhetorical strategy is, well, puzzling. If he wants to persuade key Republicans in Congress to alter their thinking and their votes, it wouldn't appear that titling a piece, "A Terrible Ignominy: How many Republicans will desert the troops?," is the best way to proceed. Most people tend not to be terribly receptive to argument when they are immediately and very nastily insulted, and when the basic framework for debate is defined to condemn the opposing viewpoint in advance. Of course, I have no similar concerns here; Kristol established long ago that no mountain of facts, and no mound of corpses no matter how large, will ever alter his opinions. In that regard, he is certainly his father's son. The Death Star could plummet into the midst of a Kristol family gathering, and they would all continue to shout: "We can still win! We just have to want it enough!" I have no doubt that as the last of his life ebbs away at some future date, Bill's last gurgled whisper will be: "If only I had wanted immortality enough..." You're fully entitled to your blind faith, Billy boy. But it would be infinitely preferable if it didn't lead to so many innocent people getting slaughtered, you know? But he doesn't know, the delusional and dangerous SOB.

After mauling Yeats (no, he will not forgive you), Kristol oozes:

John Warner of Virginia, Gordon Smith of Oregon, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine are the four Republican senators (in addition to Nebraska's Chuck Hagel) currently signed on to the Democrats' anti-surge, anti-Petraeus, anti-troops, and anti-victory resolution. (I give Hagel a pass--perhaps undeserved--in my roster of ignominy, since he has been a harsh critic of the war for quite some time.)

Quite a piece of work, our Billy K. What a wonderfully fair way to introduce the issues.

I highlight here only one other sentence. It reveals just how far from reality Kristol has traveled, and why it is completely futile to engage such people in debate:

Indeed, they're entitled to ignore the fact that voting for this resolution somewhat increases the chances of a shambolic outcome to Bush's foreign policy, and therefore may not be in their own interest.

According to Kristol, this "shambolic outcome" has not yet occurred. One can only marvel that a person can continue to be a prominent commentator on foreign policy, when it is entirely obvious that not a single fact has penetrated the disease-infested collection of malfunctioning cells that passes for his brain in at least four years. Impressive. Gotta get me some of that work.

Although it is beyond hopeless as far as Billy K. is concerned, I state these points for others who may be following along: We had no right to invade and occupy Iraq. Iraq never attacked us, and did not threaten us. We have committed an unforgivable war crime, on an immense scale. Insofar as fundamental moral principles are concerned, we deserve to lose.

"Victory" was impossible before this criminal enterprise began, because we never knew what we were doing at the most basic level. The longer we remain in Iraq, the worse the devastation will be. We must leave as quickly as possible, and then make whatever reparations we can.

Kristol joins the list of commentators to whom no responsible and decent human being should ever pay the slightest degree of attention, ever again. Kristol was probably that group's founding member, now that I consider the matter. I'll adopt Kristol's style: that ignominious group's founding member.

I wonder if the Kristol family manses have any mirrors in them. I would think not.