Shallow coattails?

Sun, 06 Jan 2002 12:31:13 -0600

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  Bush is stupid, and that may be a plus for the moment. The main  thing 
that has won Bush broad but shallow approval is that he has taken the 
sort of brute force military approach that the public supports. Why? 

As part of our post WWII cultural response, further fanned by corporate 
nationalism via Fox, etc., and additionally as a primal satisfaction of 
the emotion of quick revenge in response to unanticipated attack. All 
these political factors being more or less additive.

But they are not a very promising basis for political support for more 
armed guards everywhere and many more years of war against a world full 
of vaguely defined terror and evil. Like apparently the flag and war 
have short coattails, compared to the economy, as an issue. So Bush is 
in danger of his patriotic support being weakened by Senate Dems focused 
on the economy and corporate and Enron corruption, etc.

Now the side effects of a short-range, casualty-shy, unilateralist, 
military approach will start to become more apparent. In other words, 
high tech bombing using American spotters along with a proxy army of 
antagonistic tribal warlords to move in afterwards was an amazingly 
successful approach, BUT is not much of a general answer to growing 
Islamic antimosity, and flagging support for a continuation of an 
expanded military effort by other allies and the UN.  -- Roger

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Simple Gifts
How Bush's shallowness makes him a good war president.
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Friday, January 4, 2002, at 10:10 AM PT

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2060408

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<div class="moz-text-html" style="font-family: Times New Roman; "><small><font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace"><span class="headline">
 Bush is stupid, and that may be a plus for the moment. The <big>main </big>
 thing that has won Bush broad but shallow approval is that he has taken
the sort of brute force military approach that the public supports. Why? 
<br>
<br>
 As part of our post WWII cultural response, further fanned by corporate
nationalism via Fox, etc., and additionally as a primal satisfaction of the
emotion of quick revenge in response to unanticipated attack. All these political
factors being more or less additive. <br>
<br>
 But they are not a very promising basis for political support for more armed 
guards everywhere and many more years of war against a world full of vaguely 
defined terror and evil. Like apparently the flag and war have short coattails, 
compared to the economy, as an issue. So Bush is in danger of his patriotic 
support being weakened by Senate Dems focused on the economy and corporate 
and Enron corruption, etc. <br>
<br>
 Now the side effects of a short-range, casualty-shy, unilateralist, military 
approach will start to become more apparent. In other words, high tech bombing 
using American spotters along with a proxy army of antagonistic tribal warlords 
to move in afterwards was an amazingly successful approach, BUT is not much 
of a general answer to growing Islamic antimosity, and flagging support for
a continuation of an expanded military effort by other allies and the UN.
 -- Roger<br>
<br>
<br>
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 Simple Gifts</span><br>
<span class="subhead">How Bush's shallowness makes him a good war president.</span><br>
</font></small><small><font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace" size="2"><span class="clsBioLink">
 By Jacob Weisberg</span></font></small><small><font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace"><br>
<span class="clsSmaller"><font color="#cc0000">Posted  Friday, January 4, 
2002, at 10:10 AM PT 	</font></span><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://slate.msn.com/?id=2060408">
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2060408</a>
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