Hypocrisy's Pinnacle

The meteoric rise and the magnificent fall is a pattern oft-repeated in history and nature. Financial markets and fragile empires, exalted careers and execrable reigns, the Himalayas and the Hindenburg have all traveled this beaten path of climb and descent, the former defined by blinding arrogance and conviction of endlessness, the latter by free-fall and disintegration.

The rationale for invading Iraq in 2003 followed a similar trajectory. The seed for war was planted, and down came the showers of justification. First, Saddam was just a bad guy. Then, he was a bad guy with weapons of mass destruction. Soon, he became the bad guy with weapons of mass destruction and connections to Al-Qaeda. And finally, the bad guy with weapons of mass destruction, connections to Al-Qaeda, a shipment of yellow cake from Niger, and some mysterious aluminum tubes for uranium enrichment. And if by that point the American public, whipped into a frenzy of “patriotic” feeling and fear by armies of demagogues and jingoists, hadn’t been ready to cast the first stone, more such “intelligence” would likely have been unearthed. A reason to go to war would have been found. We were going to war.

That was the rise. And then came the fall. The aluminum tubes had nothing to do with uranium enrichment, the intelligence on yellow cake in Niger was false, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found, and there wasn’t a shred of evidence connecting Saddam to Al-Qaeda. The case for war fell and disintegrated, but by then it was too late. A million dead, by some estimates, and only one reason for war left standing: Saddam the bad guy.

Today, most Republicans believe it was reason enough. In a recent survey of Republicans by Esquire magazine, 71% said that they felt the invasion was justified. Again: 71% of Republicans believe that we were justified in invading a sovereign country by military force and against the will of its people, causing mass death and destruction in the process…because Saddam was a bad guy. It was okay, you see, because we brought the Iraqis hope and change. That’s hope, and change.

But we Americans know better, because at home we fiercely oppose the same “gifts” we brought the Iraqis. We resist change. We hear of ideas that are different from what we’re used to and we label them “socialist” or “communist” or “fascist.” We reject, in the name of American exceptionalism, the notion that occasionally we’re wrong. We threaten to rise up, to arm our militias, to take down the democratically elected “dictator” who dares threaten us with a mandate given to him by the American people on Election Day: hope and change.

Isn’t that hypocrisy’s pinnacle?

The fall comes next.