[Peace-discuss] Benny Morris in NYT

[C. G. Estabrook]

Shall we, therefore, devote our time to urging greater sincerity in Washington?

It's better to try to understand what's going on than to retain our comforting 
but inaccurate prejudices -- e.g., the administration does what it does because 
Bush is stupid; the Democrats are good and will save us; etc.

It's been an ethical commonplace at least since the Greeks that, without an 
accurate analysis of a situation, the best will in the world will take 
appropriate action only by accident. --CGE


Brussel Morton K. wrote:
> Pure, and useless, speculation. Other scenarios can explain the 
> administration's actions in the ME, such as …they are not sincere… Time 
> will tell, and we should be skeptical, an attitude missing from Carl's 
> analysis.  --mkb
> 
> 
> On Jul 18, 2008, at 2:52 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
>> Couple this with the recent announcement of an accelerated withdrawal 
>> of "combat troops" from Iraq,/ and it becomes clear what the 
>> administration is doing: undercutting Obama by adopting his program/. 
>> They may not like McCain much (who does?), but they recognize that 
>> there are dangers in being succeeded by a Democratic administration 
>> (indictment, f'rinstance).
>>
>> …
>>
>> /The Bush administration looked at that and said, "Hell, we can do 
>> that /-- and Obama'll lose his only semi-substantive issue, the war."
>>