Stewart ignores neocon failures

Reflecting on one of Brian Stewart’s recent columns (“Vulture politics”, Jan. 30), I must say I am pleasantly surprised to read that he is such a big George Orwell fan. Perhaps he can pull “1984” down from the shelf. Sadly, given Stewart’s blind loyalty toward authoritarians like Bush and Cheney, I suspect that he most likely admired the tactics of Big Brother.\nBut sticking with the essay Stewart has chosen, he quotes Orwell’s assertion that “(These positions) can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face.” So let’s take Stewart’s advice and speak in “honest terms” while we figure out how we got into the mess we are in now (and, more importantly, how we get out). We can freely discuss the British breakup of the Ottoman Empire, or the 1953 U.S.-led coup that overthrew the democratically elected government in Iran. There are no more barriers in bringing up the CIA’s support for the Baath Party that produced Saddam Hussein (whom the U.S. eventually armed while he battled East Asia ... I mean Eurasia ... er, Iraq ... no, Iran!).\nStewart contemptuously dismisses Democratic resolution opposing the escalation as he describes that “flippancy and light-mindedness are injected in the place of seriousness”. Let me just say that since Stewart’s neoconservative heroes have been so spectacularly wrong about every aspect of this war, maybe we should give “flippant, light-minded” ideas a chance. Especially since Bush’s father chose not to occupy Iraq for the exact reasons we are bogged down there now.\nStewart laments, “Politics and the English language have remained so degraded since Orwell.” I will ignore many memorable quotes made by George W. Bush in the past six years, although I wish the only thing he tortured was the English language. But recent statements have been made in language that can only be described as Orwellean: “We were welcomed (in Iraq), it just wasn’t a peaceful welcome”. Or “There is no express grant of habeas (corpus) in the Constitution. There is a prohibition against taking it away.” Or my personal favorite (regarding the failure to capture Bin Laden): “It’s a success that hasn’t occurred yet.”\nBob Piercy\nEmployee IU HRMS Java Team