Out of a coma of sorts

I've been neglecting this digital soapbox, I know. But things have been strange, okay, and they will continue to be for some time. I quit my job at Sears. It was, er, unfulfilling. My readers, of whom there can't be more than 3, have no doubt missed my poor argumentation and uninformed blather.

The Iraq war is supposedly over. That's a good thing. But I don't suppose I'm alone in thinking that things aren't really going well, above and beyond the most discussed problems like the looting of antiquities museums and the National Library of Iraq. From what I've read and seen, Iraq is still very divided, and it can be argued that the loss of the Baathist state has made it easier for Iran-based Shiite groups to drive further wedges between Shia and Sunni at the very moment when a sense of national unity would be most desirable.

Our would-be anglophone puppet, Achmed Chalebi, who is, surprise, surprise, a white collar criminal as well as someone who hasn't stepped on Iraqi soil since the Eisenhower administration, is not exactly inspiring much love in the country he was picked to lead. In general, the Iraqis see the current situation through a different lens from the pair of rose-colored neocon glasses that brought us to Baghdad.

And what the hell do we think we're doing with Syria? Maybe I don't know enough about international diplomacy to comment, but aren't there ways for the world's sole hyperpower to convince Syria not to harbor Iraq's leadership, etc. without making military threats?

If there's one thing the Bush administration lacks, it's finesse. Endlessly pumped in the weeks before and after Bush's inauguration as a thoroughly professional bunch, they sound like a bunch of angry, unarticulate high school football team jackasses.

I think I just hit on something that's important for me. I recognize the Bush team's attitude. It's the attitude of every jackass in a varsity jacket, driving a beamer, hitting on fourteen year olds; every rich prick I went to high school with. -Who went to the school of throwing his weight around. -Who wasn't afraid of buying popularity with his fists or the threat thereof. A uniter not a divider my ass.

My point is that the world isn't high school. There's no incentive for someone outside the US to admire America's foreign policy bullying. Outside high school, the all-state 250 pound running back who trips undersized freshman and pressures girls into sex doesn't demand the same type of intimidatory respect he commands inside it. It's outside his sphere of strongest social influence. So it is beyond Senior High.

Whereas an American President can, but obviously shouldn't, encourage or condone the characterization of his critics as UnAmerican, or UnPatriotic, and in so doing prescribe certain behaviors or attitudes in US citizens, similar actions lack sense within the context of international relations.

So perhaps Bush could find it in himself to honor at least one campaign promise and project American Power as he said he would, with humility.