The only question worth asking

I read White House Briefing pretty much everyday and Dan Froomkin asks a lot of good questions that reporters should put to George and company. But in the end I think there is only one question worth asking, over and over again in a Helen Thomas sort of way: Why should I believe this time?

Bush Gives Time Line for Troop Withdrawal from Iraq?

In an interview this past Tuesday with several conservative journalists, George noted that the current mis-administration is engaged in an ideological war and that such battles take time. Indeed, George was quoted as saying that weeks and months were just a "nanosecond" compared to the long course of the conflict. So if the Iraq debacle is just a nanosecond in the GWOT, and assume that it will be over in a second, we can expect a troop withdrawal in about 34.5 years, or the year 2040. And yes, that is 2040 AD.

Thought experiment to help us think about Iraq

With someone actually referencing this site, I’m feeling some pressure to get something new out. So here it is: a thought experiment that might help some of us gawd-fearin’ ‘mericans to get a handle on the current situation in Iraq.

Imagine that a foreign country, let’s say China, takes over the US, the way we've taken over Iraq. As modern wars go, it’s relatively bloodless with only a few tens-of-thousands of Americans killed. So China takes over but rather than putting themselves in direct charge they decide to keep the US constitution and most of our institutions but add the sole rule that rich people can not be in positions of power--no political offices, no boards of directors, no legal positions, etc. Anyone in the top 20% of the wealth bracket is out. You can vote but that's about it. Further, imagine that everybody could tell with a very high degree of accuracy who was rich. Of course, it would be an imperfect system and there would be exceptions (maybe even a lot) but on paper and mostly in practice the rich would be denied their gawd-given-right to rule over the masses. Finally, to cover all the bases, the Chinese insist on a national poll and, miraculously, the results show that more than half of all Americans polled are in favor of the new system. Not surpisingly, many are very suspicious of the results of the poll.

Now, what do you think America’s rich would do? They’d still have money, they still have access to guns and ammo, newspapers, and some TV channels to broadcast their views. What would the US look like after three years? Five years? How long would it take for the “Chinese system” to be accepted? What would you think of the new folks in charge?