Open Letters to George W. Bush

Letters to the president from his ardent admirer Belacqua Jones

 

Dear George,

 

Two words explain why victory is ours in Iraq: pathological rationalism. This dynamic allows us to pursue a linear course of action driven by a series of if/then constructions that move us forward regardless of the consequences of these actions. Translation: staying the course no matter how deep the shit is.

 

Take Iraq. The logic of it all sings. Controlling oil in the Middle East is a matter of national security. We lost a client state when the Iranian revolution swept the shah out of office. So when the Neocons came to power, it seemed only logical to replace Iran with Iraq, especially since between the first gulf war and our draconian sanctions, the regime was too weak to stand. A cakewalk, as one sage put it.

 

And, what the hell, while we were at it, why not democratize and secularize the whole region, another cakewalk for the world’s sole surviving superpower.

 

It is a basic precept of pathological rationalism that once an action is initiated, it continues even if all the premises upon which the action was based turn out to be wrong. And when it came to Iraq, they were about as dead wrong as you could get. 

 

But, that doesn’t matter. It is far better to bleed slowly to death than to lose face by admitting a mistake. 

 

Besides, as a western democracy we are entitled to take whatever we want because the purity of our motives are always above reproach regardless of our actions. Columbus established this precedence when he Christianized the natives by enslaving them. 

 

It’s only right. We are rational; they are irrational. We practice the serene violence of the civilized; they practice the savage violence of the barbarian. We practice policy while they practice passion.

 

Policy is the sand we spread to absorb and conceal the pools of blood we leave in our wake. Madness poured into the mold of policy is no longer madness. As policy, madness becomes clarity of vision as seen through the opaque lens of ideology.

 

The reason you have christened this The Long War is because we will plod on and on until we have shed so much blood that we finally see a return on our success, no matter how small or insignificant that success is. 

 

To the pathologically rational mind, whatever is posited is. A policy promulgated defines reality and in doing so transcends the grim, unpredictable concreteness of fire, earth, water and air as it orbits in the ethereal realm of fantasy where all is well that ends well.

 

Your admirer,

Belacqua Jones

 

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