RE: "Any group of policymakers and analysts is bound to get things wrong, sometimes badly wrong. When you have an unaccountable class that never pays any professional price for plunging the country into disasters, the incentive to learn from past errors is weak." --
I remember after the end of the Bush II administration, the policymakers responsible for the Iraq war were rewarded with newspaper columns, think tank chairs, and visiting professorships. Opponents of the Iraq War got nothing. I was actually surprised by this blatant rewarding of incompetents and for the first time began to feel that something was seriously wrong with our political system, our media, and our society.
Bob Wright is one of the greatest men who has ever lived. Daniel, you should go on his podcast and talk about the Blob. If possible I think it would be cool to see both of you gang up against Bob Kagan on an episode, and possibly introduce an ordinary Palestinian or Iranian citizen into the conversation so that Kagan's comfortable bubble gets burst. That'd make for some good youtube watchin'!
It kinda reads like that old Jeff Foxworthy gag....
If you've ever used the term "moral equivalence" disparagingly to shame someone for having the gall to compare the crimes committed by the US to comparable crimes committed by "bad-actor" states... you might be a Blobster.
Thank you for pointing out Wright's article and for these useful addenda. You may want to make this post available to him and the folks that are commenting on his article.
If you say that you are against war, but you never met a war that you didn't like, you are definitely Bill Kristol.
RE: "Any group of policymakers and analysts is bound to get things wrong, sometimes badly wrong. When you have an unaccountable class that never pays any professional price for plunging the country into disasters, the incentive to learn from past errors is weak." --
I remember after the end of the Bush II administration, the policymakers responsible for the Iraq war were rewarded with newspaper columns, think tank chairs, and visiting professorships. Opponents of the Iraq War got nothing. I was actually surprised by this blatant rewarding of incompetents and for the first time began to feel that something was seriously wrong with our political system, our media, and our society.
Bob Wright is one of the greatest men who has ever lived. Daniel, you should go on his podcast and talk about the Blob. If possible I think it would be cool to see both of you gang up against Bob Kagan on an episode, and possibly introduce an ordinary Palestinian or Iranian citizen into the conversation so that Kagan's comfortable bubble gets burst. That'd make for some good youtube watchin'!
It kinda reads like that old Jeff Foxworthy gag....
If you've ever used the term "moral equivalence" disparagingly to shame someone for having the gall to compare the crimes committed by the US to comparable crimes committed by "bad-actor" states... you might be a Blobster.
Thank you for pointing out Wright's article and for these useful addenda. You may want to make this post available to him and the folks that are commenting on his article.