I don’t write much about Iraq and all that these days, but this reort from James Risen brings back the horror of the whole thing. And I don’t just mean the fact that we were lied into war; that most of our media and policy elite rushed to join the bandwagon; that the venture led to awesome waste of lives and money.No, Iraq was also a moral cesspit. Not only were we taken to war on false pretenses, it was clear that this was done in part for domestic political gain. The occupation was treated not as a solemn task on which the nation’s honor depended, but as an opportunity to reward cronies. And don’t forget the torture.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Krugman Speaks Truth in NYT on Iraq
He is real good on the topic, much better than his economic commentaries.He writes:
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Agreed. But curious that Krugman would think war and government (read: stimulus) spending are a "waste".
ReplyDelete" it was clear that this was done in part for domestic political gain"
ReplyDeleteThis really doesn't seem very likely. I'm not pro-war by any means, but if you look at Bush's poll numbers, they were quite high before the war. They really had nowhere to go but down - and they did. If you assume this was all a bunch of lies (a reasonable assumption) that also implies that Bush and their cronies KNEW it would be a disaster, and therefore that they would all suffer politically in the long run.
If you want to argue this was an evil way to reward their friends with lucrative contracts, I'm all willing to listen to that. But the idea they did this to increase their popularity is absurd. Because it did the exact opposite, and we have every reason to think they KNEW it would do the exact opposite.
"If you want to argue this was an evil way to reward their friends with lucrative contracts, I'm all willing to listen to that."
DeleteMaybe that's what the Krugster meant by political gain. Instead of popularity, Bush and his republican counterparts in congress were letting their special interest backers belly up to the pork bar while Bush (how did he phrase it at the time?) used up his political capital.
War is the ultimate broken window. How can this Tyler-Cowen-in-dove's-clothing not favor it?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that he's doing some anti-war reference padding for the upcoming election. Gotta' keep the democrats sounding peacefully sensible now, don't we?
Anti-war and Keynesianism go together like bread and butter. All of his political saints- FDR, LBJ etc were all war mongers. This is typical, stale intellectual dishonesty from one of its better known practitioners.
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