President George W Bush intends to build an "umbrella of Arab allies" against Hezbollah while giving Israel a free hand in attacking the group's strongholds, according to American officials.
White House aides have said they consider the Lebanon crisis to be a "leadership moment" for Mr Bush and an opportunity to proceed with his post-September 11 plan to reshape the Middle East by building Sunni Arab opposition to Shia terrorism. Yesterday Mr Bush cited the role of Iran and Syria in providing help to Hezbollah.
Billmon is perplexed and puzzled:
The question is whether this astonishing statement is the product of bad writing, the slack-jawed stupidity of the Telegraph's Washington correspondent, or a deliberate Eastasia/Eurasia switch by our fun-loving Orwellians in the Cheney administration.
I'll admit the story had me scratching my head for a moment. We've always been fighting against Shia terrorists? Really? What about Bin Ladin? I thought he was an wahabist sunni?
On further reflection, I believe I have the answer. The cheney administration isn't being inconsistant, they're merely demonstrating their adherence to the principles of radical authorial intentionalism (as I recently articulated during the Thersites/Pasty-boy dust-up).
Simply put, what Bush meant after 9/11 is what he says he meant right this second. The rest of us just need to try to keep up.
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6 comments:
All I can say is -- thank god for Billmon and Juan Cole.
What about me? don't you thank god for your sibling?
(grumble, grumble)
My cats and I thank the Goddess for 4Legs and the Great Plushy One, whose image soothes our worried souls in these dark times.
And we don't even have to make burnt offerings to you both, or send donations! What a deal.
If Flory is your sibling, does that mean she also is a centaur? Are there female centaurs?
The Internets do teach us wonderous things.
Flory is normal- I was adopted, and thus, the only centaur.
I had a sad, sad, sad childhood.
Here are some links that I believe will be interested
I love your website. It has a lot of great pictures and is very informative.
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