Shelby Steele crapped out a big one yesterday in the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal. You can read it and decide for yourself but essentially his argument goes like this.
Because liberals made America give up White Supremacy (which we learn, had its good points and its bad points), whites feel undue guilt whenever they do mean things to brown people. As a result, these liberal hangups prevent the US from fighting war the way it should be fought, ie, with dumb bombs instead of smart bombs. This is why we're losing in Iraq and our military's resulting need to be politically correct has emboldened the enemy. Therefore, the only solution, the only way to liberate Iraq, to win the war, and to spread American democracy, is to stop being so picky about who we kill, to get serious and indiscriminatly bomb every living cell, creature, and organic particle back to the soupy mush from whence they came and when they are dead, to kill them again.
It makes perfect sense to slaughter as many Iraqis as possible because afterall the reason we are in Iraq is to eradicate weapons of mass destruction, no, it's to plant the seeds of democracy, no, it's to get revenge against the perpetrators of 9/11, no it's to carry out the international communities wishes, no, it's to ... I guess one day Bush will tell us. For a good set of links to bloggers who analyze Steele's argument in greater detail check here.
Posts
9 comments:
Greenwald's response to Steele's nonsense says it best:
Escalating the use of military force in Iraq by indiscriminately killing civilians and eradicating whole cities would contradict every single statement we have made about why we are there, what we want to achieve, and what our plan is in that region. We're not refraining from those acts because of white guilt or a fear of what European diplomats will say about us. We're refraining from them because the wholesale indiscriminate slaughter of thousands or tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis -- all because we have grown impatient and annoyed with our pet little democracy-building project and just want to bomb the whole place into submission -- would be both morally reprehensible and, from the perspective of our own interests, an indescribably stupid thing to do.
I just don't understand how someone who has received formal education can come up with this nonsense. was he just stoned out of his mind? or is he just mentally insane? How can anyone bother to listen to Steele ever again?
Steele is just another black Conservative who has really lost his mind.
After leafing through the Economist's recent survey on new media, which touched on the threat bloggers pose to professional journalists, I would have to say that as long as nonsense like Steele's piece shames the pages, web or print, of traditional newspapers/mags its writers have every reason to fear for their futures.
The survey, if you're interested, can be found here:
http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794156
http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794156
hey, unless you use the "convert to link" button it will just come out as text.
I agree nonsense likes this should not be in print...but i am just glad to know how much of a moron Steele is and knowing is half the battle!
Wow - this ass-clown, Shelby Steele, a PHd grad of Utah and a "Hoover" fellow - (the only thing I've known Hoover's to be good for is to suck the dirt from your rug) thinks "White Guilt" is the reason we can't "win" the war in Iraq. I'm absolutely amazed that The Wall Street Journal would print this delusional fool's ramblings. This has to be the most retarded, idiotic argument I've heard.
Did Dave Chappelle base his skit of the black "white supremacist" off of Shelby Steele? He just might have.
Besides, Shelby's premise is completely out of whack. Didn't he hear Bush correctly - "mission accomplished!" We achieved our goal of regime change (isn't that why we went into Iraq) - we won!!!!!
The US, apparently, is not "white" enough because we weren't aggressive in our bombing in Vietnam and Iraq. Didn't we friggin' carpet bomb the shit out of Vietnam? For El Jesus Blanco's sake, since 2001, we've invaded two sovereign nations (why does everyone forget about Afghanistan?) driven out their governing leaders by force and tried to set up puppet "democratic" pro-US regimes. That's not "white" enough for you Shelby.
His whole premise is so off-kilter, as a white man, I'm truly offended. How dare he question the whiteness of George W. Bush? GWB golfs, he wears cowboy hats, he's rich, he's privileged, he's conservative, he called Iraq, Iran, Libya and other countries "the evil doers," he listens to country music - how much whiter can GWB get?
Shelby, I don't care who you hang with and where you got your education (Utah, yeeesh), but a black man simply cannot be questioning a white man's whiteness. You don't hear Eminem calling Will Smith an Uncle Tom do you? Yeah, I thought not.
Kurt--that was funny man. haha. yeah I can't understand why WSJ would publish this article other than to just let Steele hang himself. Yeah Steele could be the basis for the blind black man who is a white supremacist (which by the way was a crazy hilarious skit).
yeah I guess Steele was not satisfied with Bush's climbing out of a jet a la tom cruise to announce we won the war. but who cares for such little technical matters when the plan is to carpet bomb people...yeah baby nuke them all. steele is just a twisted moron...nothing that a ski mask, dark alley and lead pipe can't fix...hehehe
Nicely said, Kurtis. Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard floated a version of this meme several weeks ago. The only reason things weren't going well in Iraq is b/c we were showing too much restraint, not fighting hard enough. He did not provide the White Guilt element b/c, well, he probably knew he could get Steele, Armstrong, Keyes, LaShawn Barber, Michael Steele, etc., to do it for him.
What I really don't get is why conservatives think you can actually "win" in Iraq. Do they really think that we will ever beat down the insurgents? I would assume that as long as we have a significant military presence there - you'll always have insurgents. Look at Palestine, look at Afghanistan in the '80's (or now for that matter). If we don't beat down every last insurgent - does that mean we don't "win".
What constitutes a "win" at this point?
a) The patchwork, highly combustible new Iraqi government taking over security from us?
- Does it matter that the new government could potentially be worse to the people of Iraq than even Saddam was?
b) Is avoiding a civil war a "win"?
- Good luck with that, if our troups are good for anything it's in unifying the disperate interests and religions in Iraq against a common enemy. Once we leave, all hell breaks loose.
c) Crushing every last insurgent?
- Good luck with that too. See above - Palestine, etc.
We just need to get the F out and quit thinking about "winning" this friggin' mess we created for seemingly no logical reason - other than to get GWB reelected. Or maybe that's just my "white guilt" talking.
While I agree with you all in general, if i may take a moment to present some argument from an alternate universe.......white guilt being why he dont kill everyone in iraq is not the answer to me.....but brining the war home (in the form of television) to wealthy western democracies is having a basic effect on how we fight the war. while the technologies that can pin point a bomb samll enogh to kill a single man from deep space exist, we have trumpeted those tech skills, combined them with peaceful peoples aversion for war and created the myth that war can be clean, only truly bad guys need to suffer. We did let fallujah rot to the terrorists because of political and social concerns, not for any military justification. and fallujah was an unmitigated triumph throughout the terror world while it existed. inj the end, war is always messy, and most people dying are the weakest and most innocent....that is why western democracies dont like to do it (US included) tv plays a huge role....terroists know they cant beat us......but if they can make us give up????well then, lets not cut off heads, lets get a camera and then cut heads off......
this is a media war and we are losing far worse than our troops...it really is for the hearts and minds of the people of the arab/islamic world....and killing indisciminately and without concern is not really the way to go.....but being a softie in the middle of a nasty war is no way either....
as for iraq......it will surviuve as a triumph or defeat based on what the iraqui's themselves decide what to do with their country, and the us cant really do a damn thing about it but support whatever forces of moderation seculairsm and national unit exist.
Shotblock,
I think you're right about how TV coverage and people's ability to access information has lead more to our distaste for war than any notion of "white guilt". If "white guilt" had anything to do with the decision making process - I doubt that we'd ever have invaded Iraq. Something tells me "white guilt" is an affliction that GWB, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and dare I say Colin Powell or Condolezza Rice do not suffer from.
I suppose in the old days, you didn't have to deal with all of the realities of war in living color in your home. People die, lots of them, and those that don't die suffer - it's horrific. I'd like to think that the more people are educated, the more civilized they become (wishful thinking - I know). War is hell - you should be very reluctant to enter into one. The cost of war, in terms of human lives, political capital and money, is huge.
As far as the hearts and minds of the Arab world - I do believe we're losing that battle and have been for some time. From unconditionally supporting Israel, to backing the Shah in Iran (and Saddam against Iran), to invading Iraq, etc, etc. - we've burned a lot of bridges in the Middle East. No one liked Saddam, but the idea of a foreign army from the west coming in and forcibly removing him and then sticking around for three plus years wasn't the alternative the Arab world was looking for.
Re: Iraq - no matter how many troups or bombs we brought to Iraq, it wouldn't have been enough to eradicate an insurgency. Like I said in the post above, the one unifying theme that all of the disparate factions in Iraq have is their desire to see us go. Iraq is going to be a huge mess no matter who takes control of the government. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the new leadership goes on a killing spree even worse than Saddam.
Steele is a buffoon who only sees the world through a prism of race. Trying to explain our problems in Iraq and Vietnam by linking them to some white oppressor guilt complex is pure idiocy.
Post a Comment