>>I would really like to get your opinion on the views of this astute observer<<
Sure. I have looked at xymphora before. My main issue with xymphora is that, as far as I can tell, this material is written anonymously. Beyond that, it is written from a specific ideological perspective, with the goal of casting every action of the current administration in the worst possible light. However, it contains much that I agree with. I particularly liked this:
Looking at the pictures of the torture of Iraqis, I see a group of Americans who look like extras from the movie 'Deliverance' ('squeal like a pig'; you can almost hear the banjo music). They like George Bush because he is so obviously a moron. What is a modern democracy supposed to do with people like that? The extreme ostentatious in-your-face religiosity is just a symptom of the general and profound absence of intelligence and curiosity about the world. Rather than have to think, they prefer religious fairy tales. The problem is all over the country, but the main Axis of Stupidity seems to run from West Virginia, through western Virginia, and on through Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas. Is it possible to just cut that part out, call it Evangelica or Stupidia, and carry on with the rest of the country? The United States would actually be a nice country, with people as smart as people anywhere, but it is being dragged down by the anchor of this mass of stupidity.
The Axis of Stupidity! That's great!
The one thing that I most don't get about the USA is why so many are so religious. When I lived in Ohio, briefly, the first question asked by people we met was often, "which church do you attend?" I would either make a non-committal response, or if I felt that the question was particularly intrusively asked, I would reply that I am an atheist, which I am.
While George Bush is clearly not a moron, he is no rocket scientist either, and he does not draw a sufficient distinction between church and state, imo.
We went to Iraq with the goal of combating terrorism and I was willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt on that. It doesn't hurt to use the big hammer once in a while, to remind our ideological opponents that it exists. The problem is that if you have a really excellent hammer, before long everything starts to look like a nail. It now seems clear that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, while not policy, was not actively prevented by the command structure. I do not think that it is fair to say there was a cover-up, but it does seem to me that the problem was not taken seriously when reported months ago by the Red Cross. Allowing prisoner abuse to occur that is photographed and videotaped most certainly does not fall into the category of combating terrorism. It falls into the category of promoting terrorism, which is why Bush now gets an F from me for his Iraq adventure. Whatever we do now, those photos will be American Culture 101 in terrorist schools everywhere for decades. |
