The Useless Tree

Iraq Study Group

    Not much to add to the US media outpouring on the Iraq Study Group report that came out yesterday.  Can’t get better commentary than that of my neighbor Abu Aardvark.  It strikes me, in the end, as a fairly useless (and not in a good "useless tree" sort of way) exercise, as "events on the ground" in Iraq seem far beyond American control.

    In any event, in keeping with the spirit of this blog, we might ask: what would Confucius think of the whole ISG process? 

     I think a modern Confucian would have to be saddened by the new heights of irresponsible power demonstrated in all of this.  Bush is President, the "Decider" as he once famously put it.  Shouldn’t he be the one to look squarely and honestly at hard issues and speak the truth?  But he doesn’t.  Perhaps he can’t.  Instead he has a group of non-elected media presences hand up some of the truth – all that is polite to utter in "serious" Washington company – and symbolically kowtow to the Emeperor.   Will Bush accept the remonstrace?  News at 10…

    Bush is not a leader.  He is not a Decider.  He is a bad student in a seminar that he cannot comprehend.  And thousands upon thousands of lives of lost because of his incapacities…..

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Sam Crane
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3 responses to “Iraq Study Group”

  1. Alexus McLeod Avatar
    Alexus McLeod

    Wouldn’t Confucius have approved of having highly skilled ministers and advisors surrounding one, though? After all, a ruler cannot carry out the work of the government all by himself. Confucius seems to think that the ideal role of a ruler is to serve as an example of virtue. I think Confucius might consider it brash for a ruler to make decisions without consulting those who have a better understanding than he does on the issue.
    I agree with you that the Iraq study group’s report will probably be fairly useless, but I think it was at least a good idea–it just would have been much better (and more effective) had Bush decided to take such a group seriously a few years ago, before getting into such a mess.

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  2. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    Yes, Alexus, Confucius would want to have good people around him – he was in the business of training such good ministers. Of course, that has not been the case with the Bush administration. The top “ministers” (Cheney and Rumsfeld) have not given good advice. I would hesitate here to put all the blame on them – though they certainly deserve some. I do not want to endorse a Han Fei Tzu-like move of shifting all responsibility onto the ministers to save the supreme leader. The top man bears a clear duty. I think I am influenced here more by Mencius than Confucius himself. Mencius is quite clear, when he is speaking to emperors and kings, that they need to take personal responsibility for the state of their countries.

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  3. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Sam and Alexus,
    I wonder if Confucius would say that we should (a) directly (to his face) blame Bush for his own failings, failures of effort (perhaps like Tsai Wo, sleeping in the daytime) and perhaps for his failure of shu, in refusing to recognize the limitations of his own perspective but also (b) when not around Bush directly, to blame his ministers, who surely are needed by Bush for him to formulate clear vision. Here perhaps we have a connection with another analect, where “Hui is of no use to me, he agrees with everything I say.”

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