Delusions of Grandeur
John McCain: “World history is often made in remote, obscure countries. It is being made in Georgia today.”
Really, no. An awful lot of bad idea about foreign policy over the past eight years have been driven by what Josh Marshall termed the “Orwell Temptation” — a desire to make our present-day situation seem as dramatic as possible, in order to serve the egomania of the analyst. But the starting point of wisdom here is simply to observe that world history, in the sense that McCain means it, just isn’t “often made” at all. In the neocon imagination a new Hitler pops up every six months, but in the real world the reason we all remember Hitler is that this stuff is rare while great powers smacking down nationalist leaders in small neighboring countries is common.
34 Responses to “Delusions of Grandeur”
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August 12th, 2008 at 10:42 am
yep.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Although to be fair, world history can be made when the U.S. gets involved in military struggles in remote, obscure countries. So, for example, I would say the Vietnam War counts as an important part of world history, simply due to the U.S. involvement. The same goes for our involvement in the Iraqi Civil War.
Of course, those aren’t necessarily good historical episodes for the United States, which I would think is the most important point when it comes to making U.S. policy.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Yeah, George Will’s been making this history point as well. And perhaps within a greater context of Russian imperialistic actions this might fit nicely into a broader historical narrative someday.
And indeed, Russia’s been up to no good. But there really is this conservative/neocon/hawk tendency to presume that bad actors in bad governments = imperialistic, threatening, dangerous. Like Saddam Hussein- the Right assumes that because he’s a bad dude that he is inherently posing an imminent threat to neighbors and the West. Likewise, Russia tries to poison a Ukrainian politician, mysterious assinations seem to be taking place, Putin is hoarding power, markets are being closed… yet Russia has yet to go stampeding thru Europe Hitler-style. Matt gets the magnitude of this conflict exactly right.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am
World history becomes world history when someone drunk with power and yes, visions of grandeur, decides it to be so. Like McCain…
http://www.political-buzz.com/
August 12th, 2008 at 11:13 am
McCain needs to speak grandiloquently about foreign affairs because it’s his only advantage in this election. He needs people to feel scared, so they will ignore all the other issues and vote for him like they did Bush in 2004. Maybe that’s cynical, but I think it’s true.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Yeah, and you can read all about it on wikipedia.
.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:39 am
This should go down in history as the 2008 Putin Surge.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I thought a foreign policy advisor to Obama – some Russian expert – made a good point on Charlie Rose last night (while Robert Kagan, McCain’s guy plugged his book). He said yes it’s a crisis, but it’s also an opportunity to galvanize and lead those in Europe and in the wider international community to get on the same page. A nice jujitsu move.
I have the feeling that the Russians sensed this dynamic and pulled up short of ousting Saakashvili.
It’s weird how some on the right have become idealistic while the the “anti-war” left has turned complacent and callous.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Nearly everyone in the business of politics has a vested interest in portraying current issues and events in very melodramatic terms. After all, it’s a lot harder to attract donations and grants, or sell commercial spots, by saying, “There really isn’t anything historically unusual or unusually dangerous occurring here”.
The unfortunate aspect to this is that when a truly uniquely dangerous condition arises, like, for instance, the almost guaranteed prospect of classical nuclear deterrence failing catastrophically, once proliferation becomes sufficiently widespread, it often receives insuffcient attention, due to every development being portrayed in a melodramatic fashion.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:53 am
A pedantic nitpick: One thing I always find problematic – and there’s very little criticism of this outside the academy – is that statements like McCain’s on “History” confuses the study of the thing with the thing itself. Presumably, “world history” is being made all over the world, by everyone. Of course, the implication is that from some future vantage, historians will see a disproportionate importance to some people and places, in this case Georgia – and some turning point or peripiteia. Unfortunately, in the present moment, we’re not very well situated to recognize which events are disproportionately important and which ones just seem that way. Even the 20/20 hindsight of historians does not lead to agreement on this.
This may be a fancier way of agreeing with the Orwellian temptation diagnosis, but I think it’s a broader problem with popular understanding of history.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Josh Marshall termed the “Orwell Temptation” — a desire to make our present-day situation seem as dramatic as possible, in order to serve the egomania of the analyst.
I think with Marshall everything is reflected throught local political concerns. Everything is an opportunity to bash Republicans and the issues’ real-life consequenses are besides the point. It’s a very Rovian, mercenary outlook.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
1) What’s “Hitlerian” in the modern world is the monolithic DECEIT of our News Media.
Which throws a hissy fit if Russia moves to protect ethnic Russians on its own borders. But if, on the other hand, our government wreaks massive death and destruction of the far side of the world for no godly reason than the business interests of some campaign donor, then that rolls over our media elites like a cool summer breeze.
2) Notice how the New York Times and Washington Post are printing the lies of the Neocons — but are absolutely refusing to discuss to any extent the business interests some US and Israeli plutocrats have in the Caspian region.
The most dirty, underhanded actions are veiled in a simplistic, deceitful morality play — the good guys versus the “Evil Empire”. Because that’s what the fucking morons who make up half of our voting population understand. Oh — and the football metaphor. “Our Team” versus “Their Team”.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
That doesn’t mean he isn’t right in this case. What has often struck me is how often neocons truly choose not to understand foreign countries and fit everything into a pre-determined ideological frame. Think of how Douglas Feith was telling career bureaucrats that knowing Arabic was going to hurt their careers at the Pentagon under Bush. Think of Kagan recently saying the actual series of events leading up the Russian invasion don’t matter. Paul Berman, the subject of Marshall’s essay leading to coining that phrase, frames everything in a rather provincial manner – trying to force every bad foreign ideology into the frame of either European fascism or European communism, including radical Islamism – in order to reduce it to something understandable to his strain of the neocon former left. Fukuyama pointed out that in the 1990’s, the Weekly Standard crew decided that China was going to be hyped as a new enemy (over the second choice, radical Islam) because having a foreign enemy to bash would help the GOP electorally.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
McCain’s camp is pondering, “Where’s Franz Ferdinand when you need him?”
August 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
More support for my theory about McCain: namely, that McCain’s entire interest in politics is in Duty and Honor, and that he takes positions in order to maximize his experience of feeling Dutiful and Honorable. As situations change his positions change based on what is most likely to make him feel this way. And he’ll happily inflate a non-world-changing event into Issue #1 if it gives him a platform for appealing to Duty and Honor and feeling like he’s Dutiful and Honorable.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I have the feeling that the Russians sensed this dynamic and pulled up short of ousting Saakashvili.
It’s more Diplomacy 101. Make Sarko feel good, and most of all, show the Americans what ’sphere of influence’ means in 2008. And ’sphere of influence’ doesn’t mean ’sphere of control’. It’s more useful if Saakashvili stays in power with a bloody nose, his strategic relationship with the US weakened.
Now, it does present the incoming president with a mid-term problem of what to do about NATO’s eastward expansion. Again, Diplomacy 101 dictates some kind of deal with Russia in which both sides look like they’ve won. But that requires determining precisely where Russian interests lie, and the relationship between its desires for resource control and nationalistic dick-swinging.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:25 am
This article clearly explains that it IS a “historic moment” – which could have really bad consequences.
Russia marks its red lines
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH13Ag05.html
August 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
As far as Engdahl is concerned, I because a bit skeptical of his opinions when I read this from a bio of him:
“Engdahl now believes that petroleum is not produced from remains of prehistoric zooplankton and algae, which had settled to a sea or lake bottom in large quantities under anoxic conditions (the theory supported by physical evidence as well as the majority of petroleum geologists and engineers).[1] Instead he believes in the hypothesis that petroleum is produced underground by unknown materials, conditions and forces deeper down in the Earth’s core.”
Which raises the question of how moored to reality his political views might be.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Um… that’s “became skeptical”…
August 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Thanks for some shrewd and telling comments! What sticks in my throat is this phrase about ‘remote, obscure countries.’ That really tells us where the centre of the world is doesn’t it?
August 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Conservatives tend to have a feeble understanding of history or buy into false narratives like Ronnie Reagan actually ended the Cold war (when he likely prolonged it). So, they keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
McCain’s camp is pondering, “Where’s Franz Ferdinand when you need ‘m?”
I think their next album is due out in January.
Unless Obama gets elected. Then they’ll be too scared to go to the studio to work on it. Maybe someone should explain to them that we’re fightin’ the terrists over there so we don’t have to fight them in Glasgow.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
“… false narratives like Ronnie Reagan actually ended the Cold war (when he likely prolonged it).”
Heretic! Blasphemer! Thou shalt grovel before the fiery sword of Saint Ronnie!
August 15th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
It’s interesting to compare the diplomatic history of this conflict with the warmed-over Churchillian rhetoric coming from the McCaniacs.
Since 1999 or so, Russia, Georgia and NATO have been engaged in an extended three-sided haggling marathon over, among other things, Russia’s legacy bases inside Georgia and Russian support for the separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. And all along Russia has done what Russian diplomacy usually does: stonewalled and doubletalked and made absurd claims and demands — and then grudgingly complied with their agreements:
Which they did, ahead of schedule — and were publicly praised by the Georgian government for doing so:
Likewise, Russia made a big point of ignoring US and NATO demands to limit its presence in South Ossetia strictly to the terms of the 1992 treaty with Georgia that authorized Russian peacekeepers on the ground — and then largely did so anyway, which is why Georgia’s little pocket army was initially able to overrun the place last week.
The point is, the Russians are no angels, and their determination to be the dominant power in the region is obvious, but they’ve basically played by the rules — the same rules Saakashvili and his gang of junior league neocons threw out the window last week.
How, exactly, is that like Munich?
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