Well this is the last week of school. I'm uneasy about it. Awesomes: graduating, being finished. Un-Awesomes: what next, where and how, and unsettlement. And evals. I hate unsettlement (sorry to pull a Dobelieu but it's an apt description). I myself have really enjoyed this last semester (much more so than fall), and gotten in some great classes that once or twice more around will become outstanding classes. But not my best work this semester, I feel. Definitely not. But I learned the most, worked the most, so, eh. Whatevs.
Hard however lately in classes to not get on my soapbox. Modern Europe a little difficult w/ McCarthy, and the obvious parallels to Communism and containment, and then Algieria and the FLN and, well, what some people knew years ago. Fun with McCarthy when Repub party is going off the rails. But lately to be frank, it was beyond what even I could have imagined. I was down with getting the Taliban out, knew the historical context, the Afghanistan mess. Cool with that. But Iraq from the beginning I knew just smelled rotten. Never for a moment doubted it was all bullshit. Knew it was being justified by 9-11 though it had nothing to do with it. I'm not unsympathetic - Saddam was a pretty horrible guy, even considering the "long, lamentable catalogue of human crime." [H/t: Sir Winston] Really, you know, it's hard to disagree with the sentiment that 'the world is better off without him.' But everything about the way it was handled was so blasè, so offensively naive and fully-assed (twice as worse as "half-assed"), justified with such BULLSHIT - you don't get to use that justification when you pooch it so badly. And what is coming out now about torture is just really stunning. I am not surprised - I was flying back from Rome when the torture scandal broke - I bought The Economist with the breaking story at Da Vinci. I knew it then. But I never believed I was actually right - there are some very evil people in the world, and they are banal indeed.
Hard however lately in classes to not get on my soapbox. Modern Europe a little difficult w/ McCarthy, and the obvious parallels to Communism and containment, and then Algieria and the FLN and, well, what some people knew years ago. Fun with McCarthy when Repub party is going off the rails. But lately to be frank, it was beyond what even I could have imagined. I was down with getting the Taliban out, knew the historical context, the Afghanistan mess. Cool with that. But Iraq from the beginning I knew just smelled rotten. Never for a moment doubted it was all bullshit. Knew it was being justified by 9-11 though it had nothing to do with it. I'm not unsympathetic - Saddam was a pretty horrible guy, even considering the "long, lamentable catalogue of human crime." [H/t: Sir Winston] Really, you know, it's hard to disagree with the sentiment that 'the world is better off without him.' But everything about the way it was handled was so blasè, so offensively naive and fully-assed (twice as worse as "half-assed"), justified with such BULLSHIT - you don't get to use that justification when you pooch it so badly. And what is coming out now about torture is just really stunning. I am not surprised - I was flying back from Rome when the torture scandal broke - I bought The Economist with the breaking story at Da Vinci. I knew it then. But I never believed I was actually right - there are some very evil people in the world, and they are banal indeed.
