The History Boys
We have lately been getting so many history lessons from the White House that I have come to think of Bush, Cheney, Rice, and the late, unlamented Rumsfeld as the History Boys. They are people groping for rationales for their failed policy, and as the criticism becomes ever harsher, they cling to the idea that a true judgment will come only in the future, and history will save them.
By David Halberstam Vanity Fair
August 2007 Issue
In the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush and his inner circle have been feeding the press with historical parallels: he is Harry Truman - unpopular, besieged, yet ultimately to be vindicated - while Iraq under Saddam was Europe held by Hitler. To a serious student of the past, that's preposterous. Writing just before his untimely death, David Halberstam asserts that Bush's "history," like his war, is based on wishful thinking, arrogance, and a total disdain for the facts.
August 2007 Issue
In the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush and his inner circle have been feeding the press with historical parallels: he is Harry Truman - unpopular, besieged, yet ultimately to be vindicated - while Iraq under Saddam was Europe held by Hitler. To a serious student of the past, that's preposterous. Writing just before his untimely death, David Halberstam asserts that Bush's "history," like his war, is based on wishful thinking, arrogance, and a total disdain for the facts.
Ironically, it is the president himself, a man notoriously careless about, indeed almost indifferent to, the intellectual underpinnings of his actions, who has come to trumpet loudest his close scrutiny of the lessons of the past. Though, before, he tended to boast about making critical decisions based on instinct and religious faith, he now talks more and more about historical mandates. Usually he does this in the broadest - and vaguest - sense: History teaches us … We know from history … History shows us. In one of his speaking appearances in March 2006, in Cleveland, I counted four references to history, and what it meant for today, as if he had had dinner the night before with Arnold Toynbee, or at the very least Barbara Tuchman, and then gone home for a few hours to read his Gibbon.
I am deeply suspicious of these presidential seminars. We have, after all, come to know George Bush fairly well by now, and many of us have come to feel - not only because of what he says, but also because of the sheer cockiness in how he says it - that he has a tendency to decide what he wants to do first, and only then leaves it to his staff to look for intellectual justification. Many of us have always sensed a deep and visceral anti-intellectual streak in the president, that there was a great chip on his shoulder, and that the burden of the fancy schools he attended - Andover and Yale - and even simply being a member of the Bush family were too much for him. It was as if he needed not only to escape but also to put down those of his peers who had been more successful. From that mind-set, I think, came his rather unattractive habit of bestowing nicknames, most of them unflattering, on the people around him, to remind them that he was in charge, that despite their greater achievements they still worked for him.
He is infinitely more comfortable with the cowboy persona he has adopted, the Texas transplant who has learned to speak the down-home vernacular. "Country boy," as Johnny Cash once sang, "I wish I was you, and you were me." Bush's accent, not always there in public appearances when he was younger, tends to thicken these days, the final g's consistently dropped so that doing becomes doin', going becomes goin', and making, makin'. In this lexicon al-Qaeda becomes "the folks" who did 9/11. Unfortunately, it is not just the speech that got dumbed down - so also were the ideas at play. The president's world, unlike the one we live in, is dangerously simple, full of traps, not just for him but, sadly, for us as well.
When David Frum, a presidential speechwriter, presented Bush with the phrase "axis of evil," to characterize North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, it was meant to recall the Axis powers of World War II. Frum was much praised, for it is a fine phrase, perfect for Madison Avenue. Of course, the problem is that it doesn't really track. This new Axis turned out to contain, apparently much to our surprise, two countries, Iraq and Iran, that were sworn enemies, and if you moved against Iraq, you ended up de-stabilizing it and involuntarily strengthening Iran, the far more dangerous country in the region. While "axis of evil" was intended to serve as a sort of historical banner, embodying the highest moral vision imaginable, it ended up only helping to weaken us.
Despite his recent conversion to history, the president probably still believes, deep down, as do many of his admirers, that the righteous, religious vision he brings to geopolitics is a source of strength - almost as if the less he knows about the issues the better and the truer his decision-making will be.
David Halberstam was killed in a car accident on April 23, 2007. It didn't take too long to find someone else who believes he was probably murdered. The above kinda makes it seem ---- beyond doubt.
His brother, Michael Halberstam, a cardiologist, was murdered during a robbery. Those robberies .............
Here's some more from tabloid baby.
This is USA Today. Linked mainly because they were sketchy about the book(s) he was working on before his death. Obviously, they left out the one about Bush which I excerpted above.
This lists many of his books. One was made into a movie about the children of the civil rights era: The Children.
An excellent autobiography which mentions Andrew Bacevich.
And then this --- which repeats some but has essential facts.
God Speed, Mr. Halberstam --- I thought of you today. Like other days.
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I don't care what you talk about but keep sending letters until they publish one. They're very selective with WHOM they publish because I see the same names over and over. Don't let a few people speak for ALL of us.
And call your congressman and talk to her of Inherent Contempt. Do it. And hug everyone you can reach.
North Jersey JUST DOIN it.
Headlights to Impeach
Turn them ON. PlEaSe ! Help a country out here. Also, click the link to sign the petition. Takes three seconds.
Live Vote for Impeachment
Vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll
Click Here
Bush Business (two states moving to convene grand juries)
Email your Congressman
Court of Impeachment and War Crimes
Brought to you LIVE from THE TAMPA NAIL HOUSE ... : Proud members of the drive-by media (just like Thomas Paine, father of America)
... located in the midtown desired redevelopment center just one block from the river.
The City of Tampa and it's assorted city-sanctioned gang members need this property because it's in the middle of land they intend to develop for gambling facilities.
LaS VEgas here in Tampa : Ta-Vegas or Tam-Gas.
But it's going to cost YOU a helluva lot of money as they defend their criminal acts in federal court due to what they are doing to my family and I in
the process of attempting to steal our home.
Terrorist,"Cause" and Gang Stalking Perpetrated by Tampa Firemen and other Firemen -- revealed and written about.
Some more threats from Tampa firemen (we'll just drive by your burning house if we know who you are) no kidding? I would NEVER have guessed that !
Stop Organized Stalking
More mention of Firefighter and Police participation in gang-stalking
Technorati Tags David Halberstam
Technorati Tags: Bush, Michael Halberstam, revenge, best and the brightest
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