No way to run a factory

George Packer, writing in The New Yorker. The first sentence spins off the idea that no one wants to see how sausages are made.

The problem with making sausage the President’s way—other than the fact that it deceives the public, precludes a serious debate, bitterly divides the body politic when war requires unity, exposes American soldiers to greater risk, substitutes half measures for thoroughgoing efforts, and insures that no one will be held accountable for mistakes that will never be corrected—is that it doesn’t work. What determines success in this war is what happens in Iraq and how Iraqis perceive it. If U.S.A.I.D. releases a report that prettifies the truth, officials here might breathe easier for a while, but it won’t speed up the reconstruction of Iraq. Covering up failures only widens the gap in perception between Washington and Baghdad—which, in turn, makes Washington less capable of grasping the reality of Iraq and responding to it.

It is possible to run a country on a fuel of lies and misguided idealism. Stalin did it for decades. But it's not possible to run a democracy that way.

More about how to run a democracy

Now

Tying Kerry to Terror Tests Rhetorical Limits, Dana Milbank, Washington Post, Friday, September 24, 2004:

Terrorists "are going to throw everything they can between now and the election to try and elect Kerry." On Fox News, Hatch said Democrats are "consistently saying things that I think undermine our young men and women who are serving over there."--Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), 21 September 2004

"[Tom Daschle's] words embolden the enemy."--John Thune, Republican Candidate for the federal Senate, South Dakota, 19 Sept. 2004. Thune, on NBC's "Meet the Press," declined to disavow a statement by the Republican Party chairman in his state saying Daschle had brought "comfort to America's enemies."

"I don't have data or intelligence to tell me one thing or another, [but] I would think they would be more apt to go [for] somebody who would file a lawsuit with the World Court or something rather than respond with troops."--Dennish Hastert, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, 18 Sept. 2004

Terrorists in Iraq "are trying to influence the election against President Bush."--Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, 17 Sept. 2004

"If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating."--Dick Cheney, earlier this month.

Then

Nazi leader Hermann Goering, interviewed by Gustave Gilbert during the Easter recess of the Nuremberg trials, 1946 April 18, quoted in Gilbert's book Nuremberg Diary.

Goering: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece.

Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Goering: Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

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I don't know how I got onto the RNC's mailing list in the first place, but I wish they'd take me off.