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ustwo: you should read machiavelli's "the prince" sometime, if you haven't.
it may be that occupation is in itself humiliating, particularly in an ideological context centered around the various illusions that we laughingly call the nation-state. but there are nonetheless better and worse ways to do them: machiavelli's book is basically a guidebook for occupations. the basic conceit is that the prince has to be able to generate a series of appearances of coherence, to generate a convincing illusion of being-in-control, of being-evenhanded in order to stabilize the situation created by the change-over in power. otherwise, chance will blow you apart.
to be coherent about this, you would need at the minimum three things: adequate information, a coherent plan and flexibility.
much of the prince treats these situations as complex hydraulic systems, in the context of which there are types of reactions that you can know about in advance (given adequate information) and maybe play strategically (in the context of a coherent plan) in order to use them as devices for generating the illusion of coherence (flexibility)--and in such a context, there is no meaningful distinction between illusion and reality.
this is early 16th century advice for invaders.
it is as if the neocons collectively didn't even get through the cliff notes version.
even if you accept---which i do not--that the invasion was legitimate, that the grounds were adequate, that the case for it had been made and consent generated--you know, the way you do things in a democratic context, which we collectively can dream about but do not have---there is still no excuse for the simple incompetence with which this action was carried out. none.
if it were possible to step outside the apparent need to follow the party line on this issue, so that ideological claims are transposed into a priori that organize the world such that when you look all you see are these a priori variously arranged, we might even agree on this.
the refusal to gather adequate information about the place you are going to invade, the substitution of a cartoon of Evil for strategy, is incompetence.
you can call it other things: blinded by ideology, whatever--but the bottom line is that it is incompetent technically and irresponsible because of that.
substitute an imaginary democrat administration for the bush administration and work it out in your head.
there has to come a point where the information becomes so dense that ideology crumbles in the face of it. if there isn't, you aren't even working with an ideology: you're living in a dream.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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