(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Saturday, September 28, 2002
The imbecilic "chickenhawk" and related debates continue in the cheap seats; allow me to put forward a plan that would silence even the term's most ardent employers while simultaneously sending Bush's approval rating through the roof - via an unprecedented show of warmth to that disreputable thing known as "world gubbernmint" twinned with John Rambo-style unilateralism.
As Robert Fisk noted this past week, if Tony Blair's dossier is at all true, if Saddam has been able to acquire the materiel as reported, then UN sanctions failed completely and scores of Iraqi children "were killed by us - for nothing." Fisk alleges this failure constitutes a war crime - for which our current president's father bears partial responsibility.
In another of Bush's already famous "preemptive" tactics, Bush the Elder would be sat before the International Criminal Court, despite the absence of any bill against him. Should discovery be conducted by even someone of minimal competence in re: the law, all sorts of goodies should be revealed, some possibly actionable.
As anxiety mounts in Kennebunkport, Bush the Younger is briefed on peculiarities of the American Service Members Protection Act, which, as reported in the Guardian some time back, "could theoretically empower the president to invade the Hague, where the ICC sits." The above words are taken literally, and a troop deployment is eschewed. Lil' George, stripped to the waist and armed to the teeth, goes it alone and rescues Daddy.
Even the numbest of numskulls has noticed the American propensity to rally around the President - or his proxy, the flag - in times of crisis, be they real or manufactured. The public is admiring; the warbloggers are exuberant; Philip Shropshire, seeing the Head Chickenhawk in Charge prove himself in so manly a fashion, is shamed into shelving the term.
Unlikely, I know, but more likely than you lot making good on your Shropshire Challenge promises - which I accepted. I've been checking the mailbox daily for those two tickets (Messrs. G. Olivier and J. Lileks, both business class) but have yet to receive them. posted by Anonymous4:58 PM
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The Watchers
WBW: Keeping track of the war exhortations of the warbloggers.
