How Can We Make the Irrational Irrational?

Back during the 2004 campaign, GW never tired of assuring us he had a plan for victory in Iraq, and he disparaged Kerry for not having a plan, or at least, not having his plan. Its now the end of 2006, and even GW’s supporters are, for the most part, willing to admit GW’s vaunted plan isn’t working.

So now GW trots out a new plan which doesn’t even seem designed to work. It seems that GW doesn’t know how to win (whatever that would mean) but he doesn’t want to be tarred with the loss. So consider that his incentive. Now, if he fails, regardless of how spectacularly, what is the cost? Well, he’s a lame duck, and his supporters will pay him a lot of money when he leaves office regardless, so his costs of doing pretty much anything he wants (assuming it is something Congress or the Courts allow, and they’ve been pretty pliant so far) is pretty much zero. (Others may bear a cost, but this seems to be of less consequence to those who “fight the war of ideas.”)

So… he (and the cheerleaders) are being quite rational in running with whatever silly plans he can come up with, no matter how irrational the silly plans might be. Add one more thing in… these are a bunch of boys who have also been wrong about just about everything they’ve told us about the war so far. (As an example – one dude who has been cropping up a lot lately telling us about the very very many troops that are available for this last one big magical push is Rich Lowry.)

Expect the ride to get a lot bumpier, especially if you’re a member of the US Armed Services, or an Iraqi.

But that raises a number of questions… How can the equation be changed? How can costs be imposed on these clowns to ensure that their plans are at least one step up from borrowing scads of money to give away to their friends and buy lotto tickets with the remainder? Clearly shame retired decades ago, so what is left?