War war war, not jaw jaw jaw

[tinyjo]

Listened to an excellent File on Four on Sunday night. The premise was that the purpose of suddenly changing tack and heading full speed for Iraq was to distract the American press who were asking a lot of uncomfortable questions about the behaviour of Bush appointees when they'd been in business, in particular the Secretary for the Army and the man appointed to run the new business ethics task force. One of the interviewees put it like this

The corporate crime wave was dominating the newspapers and on television and they had to change the subject. The only option was war. It has sucked all the air out of the media and so it has trumped all these other issues.

I have to say that listening to it, I found it convincing. One of the appointees (the army guy?) had actually been involved in Enron at one point and then got rid of his shares before the crash in a suspicious fashion. Several others (including Cheney) had been up to various dodgy practices back in the day. And they can't afford to let it go on - they'd lose the midterms and very possibly the presidency in a couple of years time. So there had to be a distraction. My suspicion is that the intention is not actually to have a war but to talk one up to keep the media busy until after the midterms in November and then let it slide back quietly. Lots of patriotic "rally behind the president" feeling but no actually body bags to deal with.

File on Four is actually a damn fine programme. Their reporters are firm but not confrontational in the way the Today program ones are (perhaps because they have more time to do the research for each piece and so are more confident of their own positions), the topics are nearly always interesting and they're pretty sharp. They ran a programme last November about the audit system and how foolish it was to have audit and consultancy services all wrapped in together, how it all ended up with cosy lunches between directors where they decide "We'll just record that over here instead". Which was of course about a month before Enron happened. So listen to what they say.

Comments

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

There's a Dead Kennedys song you'd appreciate. It's a 'recording' of the President of the US phoning the Prime Minister and talking about starting a war to boost the economy among other things. It's been years since I heard it so I don't remember the specifics but it's on Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death and I think its' called 'Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Round'.

I must replace that album. Don't know where my copy went.

BTW have I pointed you at the_separatist yet?

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've heard any of their stuff but that definitely sounds like a laugh :) Re: the_separatist, I don't think you've mentioned it but I see both you and andypop are there so could be interesting... thanks.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

The only thing I would dispute is the idea that the Bush administration got bellicose after Enron happened. The truth is, this president has wanted a foreign war ever since taking office; the first eight months of his presidency were spent trying to provoke armed conflict with China, before 9/11 dropped the Afghan War in his lap. That dealt with, Iraq (who the Americans have actually not stopped bombing since 1991 anyway) seems, in the post-9/11 world, to be the next most obvious target.

Food for thought

[applez.livejournal.com]

I posted this on my LJ, but thought you'd appreciate this as part of this thread too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/20/magazine/20INEQUALITY.html

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I agree with Swisstone on their observation; I have consistently held that this President has no policy - merely agenda items which he pursues doggedly, regardless of consequences.

Incidentally, this article may also be of interest:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/10/20/MN73839.DTL

Another Churchill moment

[applez.livejournal.com]

There's another quote by Churchill that I always thought fun:

"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash."- Churchill, 1954

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