Asymmetrical Information

"On the way back to Baghdad, the traffic came to a halt near a town called Habbaniya. Up ahead, a five-ton American military truck burned in the road, struck, no doubt, by one of the homemade bombs that only then were becoming a common menace. An American soldier lay in the road, his clothing torn and soaked with blood."

Yeah, that happens pretty often on I-5 here. What an elitist!

Apart from the bomb, actually, that scene is all too common here. Look at some of these stories:

http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/medalofvalor.html

"This is not high science ... "
Oh. So that's what this clown usually deals in.
High? Science?

Nobody likes traffic, but only elitists fail to recognize that is often accompanies material progress.
True, look at the congestion on the roads in China.

Methinks you're too hung-up on a bad example.

Elitists?

Why is this code-word ok? Why can't we just call the left "the left," instead of hanging on to this weird myth that, if you harbor the slightest bit of doubt, it can only be because you spend too much time in the Hamptons?

And for Christ's sake, what's more elitist than a snarky, wonky blog? I love your snarky, wonky blog and I come here every day; funny, though, I keep missing your in-depth discussions of bowhunting and domestic car repair, so forgive me if I get the wrong impression.

Contributer B:

Give Mindles a break. For four years he must have lost every policy bet he could make against the Democratic center. (Cf. Dsquared on whether the Bush Admin. has ever not f*cked up). At this point, with Bremer scampering out two days early because we're afraid of the violence, what's left for the Bush supporters but snark?

(Leaving two days early after a shotgun ceremony - it would be funny if it wasn't my country. Jeebus).

'tim' - who's a snark now, Snark?

For four years he must have lost every policy bet he could make against the Democratic center. (Cf. Dsquared on whether the Bush Admin. has ever not f*cked up).

Uh, tim, would you mind confining that sort of activity to a private restroom or other place where the door can stay closed and your hands can be washed afterward?

For both the sanitary and mental health of us all, you understand.

Mindles:

Of course it was snarky. I'm at least 50% snark. My father was a snark, and his before him. I come by it honestly. But people expect more from you. So low have the great fallen....

More honestly, though, I think the sad fact is that more and more often there is little for people on either side of the Iraq issue to do but be snarky to each other. We seem to be looking at two entirely different worlds. I step outside, point up and say, "It's the sun." You say, "No, of course not, it's the moon."

This, to me, is the most depressing part of the whole George-and-Dick's-Great-Iraq-Adventure. No matter how it goes, Iraq is a pittance. We've lost lives, but we have many more. We spent money, but not so much that it cripples us. We've wasted our credibility and our leadership in the world at large, but there isn't anyone out there to replace us - getting things done will just cost more. I suspect terrorism will go up, but I've never thought that terrorism was particularly threatening to the Union.

But what do we do when half of the country looks at Bush's Iraq policy and says, "Are you kidding me?" and half says, "It's about time." Or when y'all look at what has happened and see all-but-unqualified success, and we look at it and see a clusterfuck. (I swear that when I read the headline about the sovereignty transfer first thing this morning, I was shocked, and the image of those guys clambering on a helicopter getting out of the American Embassy in Vietnam flashed in my head).

I'd almost like to believe that its bad faith on your part, or that you guys are mindles(s) idiots who can be shepherded away from the important decision with promises of pie. But I don't. You and Jane (standing in here for the many on the right like you) are clearly bright and well-educated and decent people. You guys honestly believe Bush has done a great job - and I can't fathom how you could think that. It's as if when I say "Up" you hear "Down." (Or vice-versa).

In the end, its like a troubled but comfortable marriage. There are areas where we are in complete agreement, and they are the majority of most of our days (the kids must be fed and taken to school, capitalism works pretty well). But there are areas, important areas (foreign policy, deficit reduction, civil rights, what it means to do something well), where we don't so much disagree as we don't even understand what the other person could possibly be talking about. This too shall pass - we'll be out of Iraq in less than 18 mos one way or another - but that inability to communicate will remain. And that depresses me.

I'm going to cheat on you with the Brits.

I think that Mindless is missing the point of the example. "...trucks crawling over the sidewalks..." I interpret this to mean that a society in which people refuse to follow certain norms, like at least minimally obeying the traffic laws and not driving on the sidewalk is not a society where democracy is likely to find root.

The real problem is the excessive use of anecdotal evidence. None of us know how Iraq's traffic compares with other places. The reporter and us just see what we want to see.

Tim,

Up, down, black, white. You see Vietnam every time you look at Iraq, and I see ... Iraq.

Yes, indeed. Black, white. Up, down. Indeed.

You see Bremmer sneaking out of Iraq two days early before the clamoring hordes descend on the embassy. I see a guy who did a so-so job in a near impossible situation leaving Iraq so the symbolism of the final transfer of power is nailed down emphatically.

You see the two-days early thing as a sign of weakness. I see it as a pretty smart thing to do. The level of invective this simple but powerful move has generated on the left is telling. Indeed.

Black, white, clusterfuck, nonclusterfuck. Meanwhile the hordes of angry Iraqis haven't materialized in my quantum universe. Have they in yours?

Come to think of it, Massachusetts is pretty much a one-party state...

Something has been bothering me lately.

If - as has been suggested in many quarters on the left - Arabs are inherently incapable of democracy and Iraqi experiment thus doomed to fail...

Why aren't the nay-sayers campaigning to remove the right to vote from American citizens of Arab origin? much less allow them eligibility to run for office?

Merely changing continental zip codes can't be enough to make over a cultural world view so fundamentally "different" from our western ideals ... can it?

Or are we only begrudging them those rights, with a knowing wink and a nod?

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