{"id":16388,"date":"2021-08-27T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T19:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=16388"},"modified":"2021-08-27T15:33:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T19:33:12","slug":"washington-arrogance-is-incurable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/washington-arrogance-is-incurable\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Arrogance is Incurable"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

White House Garden Party for Wounded Veterans, May 21, 1925 via Picryl.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Counterpunch, August 27, 2021<\/h3>\n

Washington Arrogance is Incurable<\/a><\/h1>\n

by<\/span> James Bovard<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Americans are finally recognizing that the federal government lied to them for 20 years about progress in the war in Afghanistan. Many of the most brazen liars have long since collected a pension, joined the board of directors for defense contractors, or become ensconced with a \u201cno heavy lifting\u201d job at a Washington think tank. Unfortunately, \u00a0there is no reason to expect U.S. foreign policymakers to become less arrogant or myopic regardless of how many more nations they desolate.<\/p>\n

On a winter hike almost a decade ago, I witnessed first-hand both the haughtiness of officialdom and the human carnage it helped produce. I arrived at Great Falls National Park in Maryland early for that Sunday morning jaunt and found a wooden rail fence to lean against as I \u00a0awaited the arrival of other hikers.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, a handicapped van pulled to the side of the nearby road.\u00a0 A 20-something woman bounded out of the shotgun seat and zipped around to the side of the van.\u00a0\u00a0 Her long brown hair was pulled back into a single ponytail topped by a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap. That bright red hat perfectly complemented a bit of rouge \u2013 or maybe she was naturally red-cheeked.<\/p>\n

When she slid open the side door, her husband poked his head out warily. He had a sturdy jaw rounding out Hollywood-caliber rugged good looks. His military-style close-cropped haircut and his Army Rangers t-shirt settled any doubt about his occupation.<\/p>\n

She reached up to provide a slight assist as he moved gingerly out of the van like a toddler taking his first steps.<\/u>One shirt sleeve was cut off.\u00a0 Instead of a left arm, I saw a metal rod protruding with a wire hand at the end. As he exited the van, I noticed that, in place of legs, he had two metal rods protruding downwards from his knees.<\/p>\n

The soldier clenched a monogrammed wooden cane in his right hand while his wife by his left side eased him forward, brightening a cloudy morning with an\u00a0 unforgettable radiant smile. Perhaps this was a day that she had probably been hoping and praying for\u00a0 ever since she got the bad news from the other side of the world.\u00a0 This couple was desperately seeking to regain a little normalcy and recapture some of the joys they feared were lost forever when the husband was maimed by a roadside bomb, likely one of thousands of American casualties during Obama\u2019s surge in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

I had no idea how long this guy had been in rehab or how much progress he might have already made.\u00a0 Walter Reed Hospital, the nation\u2019s top military hospital,\u00a0 was only a dozen miles away from the park. The drop-off point the van chose offered quick access to the C & O Canal Towpath and a vista overlooking the Potomac River.\u00a0\u00a0 I have seen many such couples at this park, or the National Zoo, or the National Mall.\u00a0\u00a0 The vast advances in medical treatment assured that far more soldiers survive grisly wounds than in prior wars.\u00a0 But there had been no corresponding progress in assuring that politicians gave a damn about the plight of the soldiers they sent off to fight.<\/p>\n

As I waited, a chunky, blue-eyed blond recognized me from earlier hikes and plumped down hard on the fence rail next to mine. The hangover she boasted of having made her look fortyish before her time. She sported a bright green down vest atop a maroon running outfit and the latest chic walking shoes.<\/p>\n

Heather was an affable Midwesterner who, like many hikers, defined herself in part by athletic feats she flourished like a row of\u00a0 Olympic medals. She told me she\u2019d hiked half of the 2000+ mile Appalachian Trail all by herself and was forced to abandon the quest to become a \u201cthrough hiker\u201d because of severe ankle problems.\u00a0\u00a0 Twenty years earlier, as a college student in Switzerland, she continued hiking in the Alps even though altitude sickness spurred severe migraines and heavy vomiting day after day. She wanted to prove beyond a doubt that she was not a \u201cquitter\u201d \u2013 perhaps the most despised term in her vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Turnout was sparse for the hike and Heather couldn\u2019t find anyone else to brag to.\u00a0 She probably assumed that I was not \u201cthe sharpest knife in the drawer\u201d based on my barn coat and battered Aussie-style canvas hat. (Okay, maybe it was the scruffy beard.) \u00a0Her hunch that I was a loser were confirmed when, in response to her question, I said I\u2019d never done a marathon but had run on 880-yard relays for the high school track team. \u00a0Any distance less than 26 miles was beyond contempt.<\/p>\n

She confided that when she applied to grad school for her Masters of Business Administration, \u201cmy GMAT scores were very impressive.\u201d\u00a0 After she repeated that point, I wondered if she had the test scores tattooed where the sun doesn\u2019t shine. And then she transcended that triumph by\u00a0 passing the Foreign Service Officer exam.<\/p>\n

And she was off and running with the\u00a0 \u201cmy brilliant career\u201d storyline. She boasted that she had an extremely high level of security clearance \u2013 unlike the other half million Washingtonian area employees with humdrum security clearances. She spent a decade based at U.S. embassies in South America, defending the U.S. drug war and other policies that made life hell for the locals.<\/p>\n

She extolled the State Department as the wisest of federal agencies.\u00a0 Other government agencies were not only technologically far behind the State Department, she said, but they also had failed to develop ways to assure that the best and brightest (such as herself) rose to positions of command and influence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about Americans who say the invasion of Iraq in 2003\u00a0 was the biggest blunder since the Vietnam war?\u201d\u00a0 I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unclear whether invading Iraq was a bad idea,\u201d she curtly replied. \u201cSaddam Hussein was an evil ruler. There is a lot of inside information that has not been made public that would put the Bush administration\u2019s decision in a very different light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t bipartisan congressional investigations conclude that the Bush team blundered horribly?\u201d<\/p>\n

Heather scoffed: \u201cThere were a lot of facts that Congress didn\u2019t know \u2013 you can\u2019t rely on their conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This woman sounded like she had exclusive access to the Temple of Delphi, or at least the inside-the-Beltway equivalent.<\/p>\n

Tapping my \u201cinnocuous country boy\u201d tone, I asked, \u201cWhat do you make of Wikileaks disclosing all those secret State Department cables that contradicted the public statements of the U.S. policymakers?\u201d<\/p>\n

She snorted. \u201cI have not looked at any of those cables. We were told that we would lose our security clearance if we read any of those unauthorized disclosures.\u201d\u00a0 Since the information had not been officially disclosed, good Washingtonians were obliged to pretend it did not exist.<\/p>\n

I mentioned in passing that I was a journalist but that tidbit did not hold her attention. She was enjoying strutting her expertise \u2013 which was fine by me.<\/p>\n

She then revealed why private citizens could not make competent criticisms of U.S. foreign policy: \u201cEven if you study the relationship between the U.S. and another country the whole time, you would only know at most 80% of the most important facts. It is like trying to judge a married couple who you casually know \u2013 it is simply not possible to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

And since Heather was between the sheets of U.S. foreign policy, I should take her word that Americans weren\u2019t getting screwed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to deal with unadulterated mass stupidity,\u201d Heather warmed to the subject, \u201cjust look at the opinion polls on foreign aid.\u00a0 Almost everybody is against it but they don\u2019t even know how much money the U.S. distributes abroad. Even worse, people\u00a0 totally fail to recognize how aid advances America\u2019s grand strategic objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaven\u2019t there been some controversies about U.S. aid money bankrolling atrocities by foreign governments?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. has no responsibility for the actions of foreign governments that receive U.S. foreign aid. They are separate entities.\u00a0 It is like responsible adults \u2013 they do their own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I silently lamented that the U.S. government hadn\u2019t given me a few billion dollars to \u201cdo my own thing.\u201d I had been writing about foreign aid for decades but couldn\u2019t recall it previously vindicated as a windfall for foreign politicians\u2019 self-expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp me figure this out,\u201d I said. \u201cAny American who donates to a foreign group that commits atrocities gets charged with material support of terrorism. Why isn\u2019t the same standard applied to\u00a0 recipients of U.S.\u00a0 foreign aid?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different when our government does it because it serves the national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we know that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

She affixed me with the glare a schoolmarm uses to smite the dumbest kid in the class: \u201cThat\u2019s why we have a democracy \u2013 there are checks and balances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we have self-government when the feds withhold so much information from citizens?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople know what they need to know,\u201d she replied testily.\u00a0 \u201cThey don\u2019t need to be told everything because the people in charge are experts. Besides, sometimes it\u2019s more important for the government to do what\u2019s right, not just what\u2019s popular.\u201d She omitted mentioning that the U.S. State Department is doing God\u2019s work \u2013 or doing what God would do if He knew the facts of the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if the government is so secretive\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans are free because they can vote \u2013 everybody knows that,\u201d she snapped.<\/p>\n

Sensing that her patience with my pesky questions was damn near done, I asked if she felt any personal responsibility for promoting policies that worked out badly for the U.S. or foreigners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to be an adult \u2013 and being an adult means taking responsibility.\u00a0 It is like proposing a budget\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes you don\u2019t have control of all the items in your budget and not all the numbers are met.\u00a0\u00a0 But you have to take responsibility.\u201d\u00a0 Heather knew all the rhetorical tricks to absolve the government and herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does that apply to cases where the U.S. bombs foreign nations and unleashes mass killing and chaos like in Libya?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I should not even be talking to you,\u201d she growled as she glared with disgust.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of late, honey,\u201d I didn\u2019t say.\u00a0 Instead, I gave her my best Chesire Cat smile as she scowled and raced ahead on the trail.<\/p>\n

Heather was a classic Washington high achiever, a very intelligent woman whose career progress hinged on zero intellectual curiosity. She only read official sources, and thus knew that officialdom was wonderful. Disputing with her was like conversing with a religious devotee who had memorized responses from a foreign policy catechism.<\/p>\n

For her, any alleged U.S. foreign policy debacle was either nonexistent or irrelevant.\u00a0\u00a0 Her guiding principle was \u201cgovernment is smarter than you are.\u201d Her notion of democracy consisted of little more than inferiors submitting to the secret decisions of their anointed superiors.\u00a0 And as long as government keeps so much information classified, it can always deride ignorant critics.<\/p>\n

As I headed back to my car, I saw another van pull up at the edge of the parking lot.\u00a0 A reddish curly-haired lass barely out of her teens sprang out of the shotgun seat and circled around to the side door.\u00a0 She was wearing a puffy pink sweater and a calico skirt but her young face was riddled with angst.\u00a0 Her soldier husband\/boyfriend was missing only one leg but I suspected that he also suffered a lot of other physical damage that would not be evident to a passerby.\u00a0 He repeatedly grimaced in pain but that couple advanced together bravely regardless.<\/p>\n

Heather was long gone by that point but I suspected she would not have given that couple a second glance. She would have presumed that none of the maimed soldiers hobbling through the park that day could have\u00a0 passed the Foreign Service Officer exam.<\/p>\n

An earlier version of this article was published by the Mises Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

James Bovard<\/em><\/strong> is the author of <\/em>Attention Deficit Democracy<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>The Bush Betrayal<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Terrorism and Tyranny<\/em><\/a>, and other books.\u00a0Bovard is on the\u00a0USA Today Board of Contributors. He is on Twitter at @jimbovard. His website is at <\/em>www.jimbovard.com<\/em><\/a> \u00a0This essay was originally published by <\/em>Future of Freedom Foundation<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Counterpunch, August 27, 2021 Washington Arrogance is Incurable by James Bovard Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Americans are finally recognizing that the federal government lied to them for 20 years about progress in the war in Afghanistan. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16390,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16388\/revisions\/16390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}