Slacktivist on the troop escalation idea

Slacktivist has the best take I've read on the psychology behind the recent "McCain doctrine" push for troop escalation in Iraq:

The call for a "troop surge" in Iraq is also the first step in the creation of our next myth -- the one that explains why we lost this war. No matter how many additional troops are included in this "surge" it will be judged, by the mythmakers, as not more enough. And Congress, or the press, or the public, can later be blamed for not doing "more" -- for not allowing us to do what needed to be done to win.
The "more" of course being more atrocities and oppression, but this usually isn't spelled out by the advocates of "more".

Comments

Anonymous said…
To say that the left lost in the 1960s is ridiculous. There were huge changes in our society in the 1960s. It is just hard today to imagine how bad it was because we take so much of it for granted.

Remember a large part of the United States was segregated. Even in the North Jews were not allowed to live where they wanted (because of written restrictions in real estate deeds) or to join private business clubs. In 1961, Jews could get in to prestigious universities like Yale (there was a quota though) only to find out that in 1960s there was not a single tenured Jewish professor at Yale.

With Blacks, it was much, much worse. Intermarriage was illlegal in many states. Hate crime was common.

Women were terribly discriminated against in the work place. Sandra Day O'Connor could not get a job at any law firm.

There was no Medicare or Medicaid (these were enacted in the 1960s).

There was no environmental protection or clean air act.

Huge changes took place in the 1960s in American society. We take these changes so much for granted that people in the early 21st century can say, "The left lost in the '60s?"

Yes, all these changes seem obvious now. However, it took many courageous people to make these changes happen. They certainly did 'win.' All you can say now is that there is still work to be done and that there has been a backlash against continuing the changes started in the 60s.
Anonymous said…
Sorry, this comment relates to the previous posting on 'The 1960s Left...'

Zac, can you move it to there.

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