A few of you complained that I was going wobbly in the war on terror in my posts yesterday. Au contraire. It’s precisely because I believe in this war passionately that I believe we need more commitment, more money and more troops to aid the effort. The issue should never be: do you support the president? The issue should be: is what the president doing going to work? I’m not omniscient, but it’s simply crazy to deny the real problems we are facing right now and the need for clear and urgent thinking about them. Many Americans who support the war agree. That’s not going wobbly; it’s doing what any thinking person should do, which is try and figure out what’s going wrong and how to fix it. Mercifully, the administration seems to be trying to find a way to make the liberation work, with more international back-up. They’re not that pig-headed. The president has no bigger fan in his conduct of the war so far. But my fear is that he is going astray. Am I supposed to keep that under wraps? As for the aricraft carrier landing, my point is that Bush gave the impression that the war was over by that event. That very signal made it look as if the current violence – a war with growing intensity – is somehow a reversal of that achievement, rather than a continuation of the struggle. It has undermined him. And we need him. I’m still wildly unconvinced that any of the Democrats can be trusted with this war. Which is why it’s even more important to ensure that the only man who can wage it doesn’t fail. Want to hear reflexive defenses of everything the administration does? Go read someone else.
AIDS RACISM? A bizarre piece in today’s New York Times, reminiscent of the worst of the Raines reign. A front-page story trumpets that Africans are better at taking their anti-HIV drugs than Americans; and that worries about their not being able to do so amount to “racism.” But then when you read the story, you find that we’re not comparing likes at all. The data on Americans includes very complex regimens – especially in recent years. My own intake amounted to a couple dozen a day at different times and in different combinations. But in Africa,
Compliance has become easier because drugmakers from India and elsewhere are beginning to make triple-therapy cocktails that come in as few as two pills a day. (These are not available in the United States yet because of patent problems – no Western company makes all three drugs for an ideal cocktail.)
Hmmm. Do you think that might have something to do with it? The difference between two pills that combine all the drugs and twenty-five that don’t would make a difference in getting the compliance right, no? And worries about Africa were mainly about medical supervision in rural areas – not a function of racism. Other factors that make Africans more adherent are their greater exposure to actual sickness. Many who are on meds have experienced opportunistic infections and witnessed death. The drugs make them feel better. In contrast, many Americans have had no HIV-symptoms and the meds make them feel worse. Hence the temptation to miss a dose sometimes. I’m not saying that this research isn’t interesting and valuable. I am saying that the spin at the Times is preachy and over-reaching. And wrong.
BUSH-HATRED REVISITED: Yep, there’s barely a soul in Provincetown who doesn’t hate George W. Bush. The stores are fully of fatuous t-shirts, lamenting Bush’s alleged stupidity. I know of about five people who support the war on terror. People randomly express their hatred of the president on all sorts of occasions and expect you to chime in. There really is a phenomenon here. I’m not sure it’s worse than the loathing some parts of the right felt for Clinton but it’s disturbing – and way more stupid than Bush could ever be – nonetheless. But the trope that has really caught on among elites is the notion that Bush is a liar. The New Republic and Paul Krugman trumpeted this charge early on, and now the Washington Monthly has chimed in, with one of the most fatuous and rigged pieces of lazy insta-journalism I’ve read in a while. (Bob Somerby gets it right, for once.) It’s not just that I find the Monthly’s (and Krugman’s) charges silly. They conflate mis-statements, deliberate confusion, euphemism, ignorance and dishonesty in ways that make it hard for anyone to emerge a non-liar. It’s more that when you start using the term “liar” promiscuously in public discourse, you make such discourse increasingly impossible. The term should be reserevd only for a conscious and deliberate statement that you know is untrue as you sepak or write it. It’s rarer than you might think. That’s why calling someone a “liar” is forbidden in the House of Commons. It undermines the good faith necessary for democratic discussion. Which is a large part of what people like Al Franken are all about.
MOORE CONCEDES ERROR: This is a major news event. Hard-lefty admits he was wrong. Kinda.
ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE …: … comes out against the Federal Marriage Amendment. The arguments are rock-solid. George Will and Bob Barr have been there already, of course. Opposing a measure that would trivialize the constitution and destroy states’ rights should be a no-brainer for conservatives.
HOW THE LEFT COLLAPSED: A spritied and lively essay by Geoffrey Wheatcroft on what 9/11 continues to do to the Western Left.
THE CHURCH AND EVIL: More evidence of the Vatican’s complicity in sexual abuse. This particular child-abuser was promoted to the higher ranks of the Vatican’s diplomatic staff, despite his own admission of heterosexual minor abuse. He’s still a priest “in good standing.”
BEGALA AWARD NOMINEE: “Of course, the euro alone is not to be blamed for slow growth. The weak global economy, including moribund America, is part of the problem. But a good monetary system should protect an economy.” – Joseph Stiglitz, the Guardian. If America’s economy is “moribund,” what does that make Europe’s?
The Dish 