Interesting Times : The New Yorker

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margin: 0 0 20px 20px;"/></p> <p>It’s hard to accept that there won’t be any more Anthony Shadid bylines in my morning paper. He’d been doing it so well for so long that I’d begun to take for granted his readiness to get the story of the Arab world, however hard the place—Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Syria—and bring it to us with his characteristic thoughtfulness and grace. What’s happening in the Iraqi south now that the Sadr militia has joined the political process? Anthony knows that terrain better than any foreigner. Is Tripoli about to fall? Shadid will get inside as soon as he can. Is Cairo having another revolution? He’s there and knows how to explain why it’s happening. If anyone can get into Homs, it’ll be Anthony. He combined professional excellence with quiet indefatigability, so that you only noticed it when he <em>wasn’t</em> on the scene. He was the Cal Ripken of foreign correspondents.</p> <p>By the time I got to Iraq in the summer of 2003, Shadid knew so much about the state of Iraqis under American occupation that it was impossible to imagine anyone in the tribe of foreign reporters ever quite catching up. I met him in early 2004 at a poker game in the Washington <em>Post</em> bureau (it consisted of a few disorderly rooms at the decrepit and frequently targeted Sheraton Hotel). He was a little too gentle and transparent to be as good a poker player as he was a reporter. He wore the depth of his knowledge so lightly, and was so open with any newcomer who wanted to tap into it. I remember Anthony complaining about being taken for a spy by Sadrists in Najaf, a hazard of speaking fluent Arabic and passing in a crowd. It was a liability few other foreigners could hope to have. He kept returning to the subject of the Mahdi Army: he expressed a lot of empathy for the poor young Shiites who were flocking to its banner, even as he worried about their capacity for violence and extremism. (Not long after that night, the Sadrists staged an insurrection across the country that radically changed the course of the war.) Most of all, he knew that Iraq’s future belonged to those young Iraqis, not to the nominally pro-Western politicians with whom less deeply immersed journalists spent their time. </p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Anthony Shadid鈥檚 Passion"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4 class="nocats">POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Anthony Shadid鈥檚 Passion"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Anthony%20Shadid%26%238217%3Bs%20Passion" rel="nofollow" title="email "Anthony Shadid鈥檚 Passion" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001508964" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Anthony Shadid鈥檚 Passion""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001508964"; if (typeof pluckHandler != 'undefined') { pluckHandler.crLogicHelper["nyr_2000000001508964"] = "C"; } </script> </ul> </div> <div class="socialUtils"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-fb-recommend"> <iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101if_/http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=150&action=recommend&colorscheme=light&height=40" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:150px; height:40px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </li> <li class="utility-tweetmeme-sm"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html?mbid=social_retweet" data-counturl="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html" data-text="Anthony Shadid鈥檚 Passion" data-count="horizontal" data-via="NewYorker" data-related="NewYorker">Tweet</a> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101js_/http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </li> <li class="utility-gplusone gplusone-medium"> <g:plusone href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html" size="medium"></g:plusone> </li> <li class="utility-in-share"> <script type="IN/Share" data-url="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2012/02/anthony-shadid.html" data-counter="right"></script> </li> <li class="utility-reddit-share"> </li> <li class="utility-stumble-upon"> </li> <li class="utility-tumblr"> </li> <li class="utility-pinit"> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="entry-2000000001357080" class="hentry entry"> <div class="published" title="2011-09-09T11:09:41">September 9, 2011</div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html">Obama Against the Nihilists</a></h3> <div class="byline">Posted by <cite class="vcard author"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/george_packer/search?contributorName=George Packer" title="search site for content by George Packer">George Packer</a></cite></div> <div class="entry-content"> <p><img alt="obama-jobs-speech.jpg" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101im_/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/obama-jobs-speech.jpg" width="465" height="292" class="mt-image-none" style=""/></p> <p> It was a clever speech, a reminder of two things that had gone understandably forgotten through President Obama’s awful summer: he’s capable of passionate feeling, and he can also be politically dextrous. The feeling was indignation on behalf of the country’s unemployed, underemployed, foreclosed, stretched to the limit. Not sympathy or feeling their pain—Obama doesn’t do that well and didn’t try last night, because it’s really beside the point. As <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/94704/schmitt-obamas-jobs-bipartisan" target="_blank">Mark Schmitt</a> points out in the <em>New Republic</em>, polls show that “people no longer care that he cares. They’re fed up with gestures, empathy, or good ideas that get blocked in the political process—all they want is results.” No, what the President expressed was a fairly unquiet anger at Washington’s—meaning Congress’—failure to act on those Americans’ behalf. </p> <p> That was also the politically dextrous move. Having spent the summer futilely negotiating on the Republicans’ terms, he’s now calling them out to negotiate on his, trying to turn disastrous economic circumstances to his advantage by presenting the choice before the country in a simple way: do something or do nothing. He didn’t waste much time arguing against the Republican idea of solving all problems by cutting taxes and regulations. He just cited it and moved on, hoping that the public will see that it’s beside the point, an ideology without relevance to the facts, as the country descends into another recession. The rhetoric of the speech was all pragmatic: these are the facts—do something about them, or do nothing. </p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Obama Against the Nihilists"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4>POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> <li><span class="catsep"> | </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/obama/" title="view posts in Obama category" rel="tag">Obama</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Obama Against the Nihilists"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Obama%20Against%20the%20Nihilists" rel="nofollow" title="email "Obama Against the Nihilists" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001357080" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Obama Against the Nihilists""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001357080"; if (typeof pluckHandler != 'undefined') { pluckHandler.crLogicHelper["nyr_2000000001357080"] = "C"; } </script> </ul> </div> <div class="socialUtils"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-fb-recommend"> <iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101if_/http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=150&action=recommend&colorscheme=light&height=40" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:150px; height:40px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </li> <li class="utility-tweetmeme-sm"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html?mbid=social_retweet" data-counturl="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html" data-text="Obama Against the Nihilists" data-count="horizontal" data-via="NewYorker" data-related="NewYorker">Tweet</a> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101js_/http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </li> <li class="utility-gplusone gplusone-medium"> <g:plusone href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html" size="medium"></g:plusone> </li> <li class="utility-in-share"> <script type="IN/Share" data-url="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/09/obama-against-the-nihilists.html" data-counter="right"></script> </li> <li class="utility-reddit-share"> </li> <li class="utility-stumble-upon"> </li> <li class="utility-tumblr"> </li> <li class="utility-pinit"> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="entry-2000000001331976" class="hentry entry"> <div class="published" title="2011-07-29T16:36:45">July 29, 2011</div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraqi-refugees.html">Iraqi Refugees: A Debt Defaulted</a></h3> <div class="byline">Posted by <cite class="vcard author"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/george_packer/search?contributorName=George Packer" title="search site for content by George Packer">George Packer</a></cite></div> <div class="entry-content"> <p>Two weeks ago, Tim Arango of the <em>Times</em> wrote <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/world/middleeast/13baghdad.html?hp" target="_blank">an expose</a> of the Administration’s failure to admit into the U.S. more than a tiny number of Iraqis who were affiliated with the U.S. in Iraq. He got the government’s attention. Three days later, Senator Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to Secretaries Hillary Clinton and Janet Napolitano asking why so few Iraqis who helped America are making it here. Seven other senators wrote to Napolitano separately. “If these individuals do not deserve a visa,” Schumer wrote, “it is hard to imagine who does.” The Senator even went so far as to suggest the Guam option, first proposed on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2007/11/the-guam-option.html">this blog</a> almost four years ago.</p> <p>In the first nine days of the month, before the article came out, nine U.S.-affiliated Iraqis were rejected for entry and zero were approved. In the week after the article, thirty-nine were rejected and thirty-one were approved. The good news is that the pace of decisions increased. The bad news is that it remains excruciatingly slow, and the rate of rejections is high—strangely high. Consider that, in order to work in the Green Zone and on military bases, these Iraqis already passed background checks that many of the people reading this post would probably fail. They are, in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-cant-abandon-iraqis-who-aided-the-us/2011/07/19/gIQAZK7IXI_story.html" target="_blank">the words</a> of Kirk Johnson, founder of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://thelistproject.org/withdrawal/">The List Project</a>, “the most heavily documented refugees on the planet.”</p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraqi-refugees.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Iraqi Refugees: A Debt Defaulted"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4>POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> <li><span class="catsep"> | </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/iraq/" title="view posts in Iraq category" rel="tag">Iraq</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraqi-refugees.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Iraqi Refugees: A Debt Defaulted"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraqi-refugees.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Iraqi%20Refugees%3A%20A%20Debt%20Defaulted" rel="nofollow" title="email "Iraqi Refugees: A Debt Defaulted" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraqi-refugees.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001331976" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Iraqi Refugees: A Debt Defaulted""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001331976"; 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On the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/world/europe/12russia.html?ref=europe" target="_blank">Volga River</a> in Russia, a mother fights her way out of a sinking pleasure boat and loses her grip on the hand of her ten-year-old daughter, who joins dozens of other children in the depths.</p> <p>Nolan Ryan, owner of the Texas Rangers, said that the rails had passed the safety test and there were no immediate plans to change them. Ryan added, “I think what baseball has done is they want to try to make the experience at the ballpark as memorable as possible for our fans and for them to connect as much as they can with our players. I’m no different than our fan base. When I was younger and went to the ballpark, my hope was to get a foul ball. We’re about making memories, about family entertainment and last night we had a father and a son at the game and had a very tragic incident. It just drives to the core of what we’re about, and the memories we try to make in this game for our fans.” What does this mean? I can’t tell and don’t want to know, but it proves that Ryan, a pitching legend, was wise to let his arm do the talking during his twenty-seven-year career. In Moscow, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, was more direct: “We have far too many old ships sailing our waters. Just because up until now nothing had gone wrong did not mean that this kind of tragedy could not happen. It has happened now, and with the most terrible consequences.” If this sounds startling, it’s because we’re not used to officials talking without regard to ridicule and lawsuits.</p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Iraqis Pass the Safety Test"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4>POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> <li><span class="catsep"> | </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/iraq/" title="view posts in Iraq category" rel="tag">Iraq</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Iraqis Pass the Safety Test"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Iraqis%20Pass%20the%20Safety%20Test" rel="nofollow" title="email "Iraqis Pass the Safety Test" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001321411" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Iraqis Pass the Safety Test""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001321411"; if (typeof pluckHandler != 'undefined') { pluckHandler.crLogicHelper["nyr_2000000001321411"] = "C"; } </script> </ul> </div> <div class="socialUtils"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-fb-recommend"> <iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101if_/http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=150&action=recommend&colorscheme=light&height=40" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:150px; height:40px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </li> <li class="utility-tweetmeme-sm"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html?mbid=social_retweet" data-counturl="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html" data-text="Iraqis Pass the Safety Test" data-count="horizontal" data-via="NewYorker" data-related="NewYorker">Tweet</a> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101js_/http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </li> <li class="utility-gplusone gplusone-medium"> <g:plusone href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html" size="medium"></g:plusone> </li> <li class="utility-in-share"> <script type="IN/Share" data-url="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/07/iraq-visas.html" data-counter="right"></script> </li> <li class="utility-reddit-share"> </li> <li class="utility-stumble-upon"> </li> <li class="utility-tumblr"> </li> <li class="utility-pinit"> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="entry-2000000001304377" class="hentry entry"> <div class="published" title="2011-06-23T12:18:23">June 23, 2011</div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html">Goodbye to a Kind of War</a></h3> <div class="byline">Posted by <cite class="vcard author"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/george_packer/search?contributorName=George Packer" title="search site for content by George Packer">George Packer</a></cite></div> <div class="entry-content"> <p><img alt="obama-packer.jpg" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101im_/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/obama-packer.jpg" width="465" height="309" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;"/></p> <p>At the core of President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy there’s always been a tension, if not an outright contradiction, between means and ends. The goal has always been to destroy Al Qaeda, but the path to Al Qaeda led through the Afghan state and people. Because of the dense interconnections between militant groups in the Hindu Kush, and because Afghanistan once served as host to a much healthier and more dangerous Al Qaeda, Obama concluded that the global jihadists couldn’t be fought in isolation, with drones and Special Forces. We had to go after the Taliban as well, for the Taliban threatened the very existence of the regime in Kabul. So to fight terrorism we had to fight insurgents: counterinsurgency was the means, counterterrorism the end. That’s why the surge troops went to Kandahar and Helmand, not the Afghan-Pakistan border, and into population centers rather than remote areas. That’s why agriculture and legal experts were recruited and sent out into rural Afghan provinces. That’s why an entirely new office was created, under the late Richard Holbrooke, to coordinate all the civilian efforts in Afghanistan. That’s why an anti-corruption office was established in Kabul. No one in Washington wanted to use the phrase “nation-building,” but that’s what we were doing—or trying to do, and, honestly, without much success.</p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Goodbye to a Kind of War"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4>POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> <li><span class="catsep"> | </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/afghanistan/" title="view posts in Afghanistan category" rel="tag">Afghanistan</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Goodbye to a Kind of War"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Goodbye%20to%20a%20Kind%20of%20War" rel="nofollow" title="email "Goodbye to a Kind of War" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001304377" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Goodbye to a Kind of War""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001304377"; if (typeof pluckHandler != 'undefined') { pluckHandler.crLogicHelper["nyr_2000000001304377"] = "C"; } </script> </ul> </div> <div class="socialUtils"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-fb-recommend"> <iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101if_/http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=150&action=recommend&colorscheme=light&height=40" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:150px; height:40px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </li> <li class="utility-tweetmeme-sm"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html?mbid=social_retweet" data-counturl="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html" data-text="Goodbye to a Kind of War" data-count="horizontal" data-via="NewYorker" data-related="NewYorker">Tweet</a> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101js_/http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </li> <li class="utility-gplusone gplusone-medium"> <g:plusone href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html" size="medium"></g:plusone> </li> <li class="utility-in-share"> <script type="IN/Share" data-url="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/06/obama-afghanistan-drawdown.html" data-counter="right"></script> </li> <li class="utility-reddit-share"> </li> <li class="utility-stumble-upon"> </li> <li class="utility-tumblr"> </li> <li class="utility-pinit"> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="entry-2000000001258843" class="hentry entry"> <div class="published" title="2011-05-02T02:01:56">May 2, 2011</div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-better-late-than-never.html">Osama Bin Laden: Better Late Than Never</a></h3> <div class="byline">Posted by <cite class="vcard author"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/george_packer/search?contributorName=George Packer" title="search site for content by George Packer">George Packer</a></cite></div> <div class="entry-content"> <p><img alt="osama-bin-laden.jpg" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101im_/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/osama-bin-laden.jpg" width="465" height="334" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;"/>It came almost a decade late, after far too many subsequent deaths, some necessary but most of them needless. Nor does it bring to an end anything other than the living embodiment and inspiration of Islamist terror. Still, the killing of Osama bin Laden is cause for deep satisfaction. The President, in his announcement, used the word “justice” several times. Yes, in part—because Osama would not be captured to face official judgment. (We should be grateful, given the way military law has turned the trials of lesser Al Qaeda figures into self-inflicted wounds.) But a completely honest explanation from President Obama would also have mentioned revenge.</p> <p>Which doesn’t diminish the significance or rightness of this action. I wish it had happened at Tora Bora, at the end of 2001. The years since have been a series of almost unrelieved setbacks and disasters for the United States, while Osama himself was practically forgotten. But Americans, along with many others, needed to see this man dead. And now he is—and better still, killed in close quarters, by skillful and courageous soldiers, rather than by remote control from the sky or kidney failure.</p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-better-late-than-never.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Osama Bin Laden: Better Late Than Never"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4 class="nocats">POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-better-late-than-never.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Osama Bin Laden: Better Late Than Never"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-better-late-than-never.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Osama%20Bin%20Laden%3A%20Better%20Late%20Than%20Never" rel="nofollow" title="email "Osama Bin Laden: Better Late Than Never" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-better-late-than-never.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001258843" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Osama Bin Laden: Better Late Than Never""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001258843"; 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display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;"/></p> <p>The Libyan rebels, with the backing of <small>NATO</small> air power and massive international pressure on Qaddafi, are having a hard time holding any town west of their base in Benghazi. Meanwhile, all but ignored by international media until today, the Ivorian rebels are poised to enter <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/world/africa/02ivory.html?_r=1&hp" target="_blank">Abidjan</a>, the last and most important stop on their relentless southward advance. </p> <p>Back in 2003, I <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/11/03/031103fa_fact2">spent some time</a> with Ivory Coast’s northern rebels. They had a just cause—the government of Laurent Gbagbo, with the help of armed youth gangs from the Christian south, was pursuing a policy of anti-northern, anti-Muslim discrimination that had genocidal overtones—but they didn’t inspire much confidence. Stuck behind a U.N. ceasefire line that was patrolled by French and West African troops, the rebels spent their ample free time getting drunk, boasting about their prowess, and committing acts of petty banditry. They drove around armed in pickup trucks, with Spider-Man logos and names like “Delta Force” painted on the sides. At night they sat in outdoor restaurants with pet pythons wrapped around their shoulders and downed glasses of local moonshine. No one was over thirty; everyone was his own chief. And these were the more disciplined rebels; the Liberian mercenaries were truly scary.</p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/04/ivory-coast-rebels.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "The Other Rebels"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4 class="nocats">POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/04/ivory-coast-rebels.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "The Other Rebels"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/04/ivory-coast-rebels.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;The%20Other%20Rebels" rel="nofollow" title="email "The Other Rebels" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/04/ivory-coast-rebels.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001233972" class="totalComments" title="Comment "The Other Rebels""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001233972"; 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display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;"/></p> <p> The British historian Timothy Garton Ash, who’s seen a few popular uprisings over the past quarter century, writes this in an essay called “Velvet Revolution in Past and Future,” from his recent collection “Facts Are Subversive”: </p> <p> <blockquote>One might suggest that the best chances are to be found in semiauthoritarian states that depend to a significant degree, politically, economically and, so to speak, psychologically, on more democratic ones—and most especially when the foreign states with the most passive influence or active leverage on them are Western democracies.</blockquote> </p> <p> When the people rise up, there’s no guarantee they’ll succeed. Just ask a Burmese or an Iranian. Egypt’s revolution has a number of counts against it, the main one being the hollow core where Egyptian civil society ought to be—the absence of institutions, groups, and leaders that could shape this massive expression of popular will into an organized counterforce to the regime’s violence, with the means to reach deep into the military hierarchy and a strategy for victory. Instead, Mubarak systematically closed off that space, so that he could say to the world: me or the Islamists, choose. In Burma in 2007, there was a similar void of opposition leadership, other than the moral power of the monks. Young Burmese later told me that they considered their headless revolution more flexible and durable than the older kind—one student called it “post-modern”—but the regime crushed it without much trouble, and hundreds of young Burmese are now rotting away in far-flung prisons. </p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Egypt and the Velvet Revolutions"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4 class="nocats">POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Egypt and the Velvet Revolutions"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Egypt%20and%20the%20Velvet%20Revolutions" rel="nofollow" title="email "Egypt and the Velvet Revolutions" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001154888" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Egypt and the Velvet Revolutions""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001154888"; if (typeof pluckHandler != 'undefined') { pluckHandler.crLogicHelper["nyr_2000000001154888"] = "C"; } </script> </ul> </div> <div class="socialUtils"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-fb-recommend"> <iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101if_/http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=150&action=recommend&colorscheme=light&height=40" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:150px; height:40px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </li> <li class="utility-tweetmeme-sm"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html?mbid=social_retweet" data-counturl="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html" data-text="Egypt and the Velvet Revolutions" data-count="horizontal" data-via="NewYorker" data-related="NewYorker">Tweet</a> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101js_/http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </li> <li class="utility-gplusone gplusone-medium"> <g:plusone href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html" size="medium"></g:plusone> </li> <li class="utility-in-share"> <script type="IN/Share" data-url="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/02/egypt-and-the-velvet-revolutions.html" data-counter="right"></script> </li> <li class="utility-reddit-share"> </li> <li class="utility-stumble-upon"> </li> <li class="utility-tumblr"> </li> <li class="utility-pinit"> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="entry-2000000001139611" class="hentry entry"> <div class="published" title="2011-01-19T15:05:29">January 19, 2011</div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html">Holbrooke Remembered</a></h3> <div class="byline">Posted by <cite class="vcard author"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/george_packer/search?contributorName=George Packer" title="search site for content by George Packer">George Packer</a></cite></div> <div class="entry-content"> <p>Last Friday, the late Richard Holbrooke was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.c-span.org/Events/Memorial-Service-for-Veteran-US-Diplomat-Richard-Holbrooke/10737418919-1/" target="_blank">remembered</a> at the Kennedy Center in Washington. In keeping with Holbrooke’s life, the ceremony transcended his pay grade: the lineup of onstage speakers included the President, both Clintons, as well as friends and family. Joe Biden, other American luminaries, and a bunch of foreign heads of state and dignitaries were in the audience, which ran somewhere over a thousand people, and which also included Rufus Phillips, an eighty-something retired C.I.A. legend, who was Holbrooke’s first boss from his Vietnam years. (I wrote about Phillips in my Holbrooke <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/28/090928fa_fact_packer">Profile</a>, and you can read about him <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2009/10/why-rufus-phillips-matters.html">in this post</a> as well.)</p> <p>Phillips sent me this remembrance of his rambunctious young protégé:</p> <p><blockquote>Barbara and I were seated with Vlad Lehovich and his wife. I was reminded that Vlad and Richard first arrived in coat and tie at the Saigon airport together as young Foreign Service officers in June, 1963. They were greeted by our administrative officer, Ralph Boynton, who said, “Take off those coats and ties; this is a shirtsleeves outfit.” That specific side of his character was not much talked about at the memorial, but in my mind he remained at heart under all that sophistication a shirtsleeves guy who loved being out on the ground where the action was.</p> <p>As you remember, when I saw him in Kabul in July 2008 at a dinner party in his honor at the Ambassador’s residence he had just returned from the field. Our meeting was very emotional, and when he spoke before dinner he singled me out as his first boss in extravagant terms—nothing about Richard was ever half-hearted—and seated me at his table. As you described in your <i>New Yorker</i> profile he had been briefed that same day in Ghazni Province about some successful but exclusively American-administered project. His reaction was that wasn’t good enough, we had to get the Afghan government involved; we weren’t going to be there forever. That came straight from his counterinsurgency experience as a provincial rep in a tough Mekong Delta Province where I had sent him at age 22.</p> <p>While I think about what an enormous loss his passing means for his family and for all those in so many walks of life who were his friends, I am also saddened by what it may mean for his unique mission to help resolve favorably the Afghanistan- Pakistan conundrum. I last saw him this past October at a 90th birthday dinner party for a former American official in Saigon, Barry Zorthian, who has since died himself. Naturally all the table talk was about Vietnam. But as we were shaking hands to say goodbye, I brought up Afghanistan, asking him directly, “Does anyone at the top of this Administration understand how long this is going to take?” He replied, “They’ll have to learn the hard way.” Then when we were at the elevator he said, “I am reminded of a scene in ‘Blazing Saddles’ where the sheriff says, ‘Stop or I’ll shoot!’ while pointing his gun at his own head.” That irreverent comment referred, I think, to the American inclination to threaten Afghan and Pakistani leaders when they failed to take certain actions with an “or else,” without having an answer to the question “or else what?” It was the last time I saw him.</p> <p>Richard was indeed one of kind. Besides a deep sense of personal loss, he will be sorely missed not only for his knowledge and skill but particularly, I believe, because he was the sole civilian at the top of our government who had actually served on the ground during a similar struggle even though it was long ago and in a different place. He had been there and worked at that, giving him more than a fleeting notion of what it was going to take to change the population’s mind in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That he felt, I believe, was key to any reasonable outcome. </blockquote></p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4 class="nocats">POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print "Holbrooke Remembered"">PRINT</a></li> <li class="utility-email"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/contact/emailFriend?referringPage=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html&title=Interesting Times%26%2358;%26%2332;Holbrooke%20Remembered" rel="nofollow" title="email "Holbrooke Remembered" to a friend">E-MAIL</a></li> <li class="utility-comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html#comments" id="totalCommentsshort_nyr_2000000001139611" class="totalComments" title="Comment "Holbrooke Remembered""></a></li> <script type="text/javascript"> pluckArticleIds[pluckArticleIds.length] = "nyr_2000000001139611"; if (typeof pluckHandler != 'undefined') { pluckHandler.crLogicHelper["nyr_2000000001139611"] = "C"; } </script> </ul> </div> <div class="socialUtils"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-fb-recommend"> <iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101if_/http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=150&action=recommend&colorscheme=light&height=40" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:150px; height:40px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> </li> <li class="utility-tweetmeme-sm"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html?mbid=social_retweet" data-counturl="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html" data-text="Holbrooke Remembered" data-count="horizontal" data-via="NewYorker" data-related="NewYorker">Tweet</a> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101js_/http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </li> <li class="utility-gplusone gplusone-medium"> <g:plusone href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html" size="medium"></g:plusone> </li> <li class="utility-in-share"> <script type="IN/Share" data-url="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/richard-holbrooke-rufus-phillips.html" data-counter="right"></script> </li> <li class="utility-reddit-share"> </li> <li class="utility-stumble-upon"> </li> <li class="utility-tumblr"> </li> <li class="utility-pinit"> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="entry-2000000001125898" class="hentry entry"> <div class="published" title="2011-01-10T16:09:12">January 10, 2011</div> <h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/tucson-revisited.html">Arguing Tucson</a></h3> <div class="byline">Posted by <cite class="vcard author"><a href="/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/george_packer/search?contributorName=George Packer" title="search site for content by George Packer">George Packer</a></cite></div> <div class="entry-content"> <p>Over <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/judging-from-his-internet-postings.html">a hundred comments</a> and counting! Many are well-argued, including a lot of the dissents, and make me want to argue back. Some are nasty enough to give my original post a sort of roundabout boost. But who knew that so many conservatives read <i>The New Yorker</i>? I hope they stay subscribers.</p> <p>I’ll group my answers and after-thoughts under several topics that come up frequently in the thread.</p> <p><strong>Marx wasn’t Hitler!</strong> I paired them, in the shorthand of blogging, as influences on Loughner (he cited “The Communist Manifesto” and “Mein Kampf”) whose destructive legacies do not include the shootings in Tucson. Obviously, a philosopher of political economy and a genocidal totalitarian dictator are not remotely commensurate—I should have made that clear. But when tens of millions of people are killed under the banner of an ism that bears your name within a century of your life, you don’t get the philosopher’s free pass. Were those murders the result of a tragic distortion of Marx? Yes—and yet, at the same time, one can’t read Marx’s writings without being aware of his brutal inflexibility, his hatred of what he considered humanistic moral cant. Marx heralded the remorseless wheel of history, whatever victims it might claim.</p> <p><strong>You started it!</strong> It’s undeniable that some Americans on the left never accepted the Bush Presidency as legitimate after the Florida recount. It’s also undeniable that the left’s rhetoric over the Iraq War was often hostile, simplistic, and unfair. For commenters who don’t know my work and assume I’m a partisan hack, take a look at Chapter 11 of “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Gate-America-Iraq/dp/0374530556/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294691856&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Assassins’ Gate</a>,” my book about Iraq, for detailed criticism of just that tendency, which flourished on both sides of the war. I try to call them as I see them, and I get in trouble with both sides along the way. </p> <p>But it won’t do to dig up stray comments by Obama, Allen Grayson, or any other Democrat who used metaphors of combat over the past few years, and then try to claim some balance of responsibility in the implied violence of current American politics. (Most of the Obama quotes that appear in the comments were lame attempts to reassure his base that he <em>can</em> get mad and fight back, i.e., signs that he’s practically incapable of personal aggression in politics.) In fact, there is no balance—none whatsoever. Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side’s activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage and incendiary falsehoods. Only one side has an iconic leader, with a devoted grassroots following, who can’t stop using violent imagery and dividing her countrymen into us and them, real and fake. Any sentient American knows which side that is; to argue otherwise is disingenuous.</p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/tucson-revisited.html#entry-more" class="entry-more-link" title="continue reading "Arguing Tucson"">Continue Reading >></a> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var pluckArticleIds = pluckArticleIds?pluckArticleIds:new Array();</script> <div class="entry-categories"> <h4 class="nocats">POSTED IN</h4> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/" title="view Interesting Times entries">Interesting Times</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="utilsPrintEmail"> <ul class="utilities"> <li class="utility-print"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/tucson-revisited.html?printable=true&currentPage=all" class="printico" rel="nofollow" title="print 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class="px"> <div class="navComponent first"> <div class="bios">  <div class="bio">  <div class="bioImgBox"> </div>  <dl> <dd>George Packer is a staff writer and the author of <u><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.amazon.com/Village-Waiting-George-Packer/dp/0374527806/">three</a></u> <u><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Liberals-George-Packer/dp/0374527784/">nonfiction</a></u> <u><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Gate-America-Iraq/dp/0374530556/">books</a></u>, <u><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.amazon.com/Half-Man-George-Packer/dp/039458192X/">two</a></u> <u><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.amazon.com/Central-Square-George-Packer/dp/1555972772/">novels</a></u>, and a <u><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130307213101/http://www.amazon.com/Betrayed-Play-George-Packer/dp/0865479917/">play</a></u>.</dd> 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