War and Deliverance

From Newsweek.com comes the movie Deliverance as an analogy for Iraq War. Written by James Dickey's son. Ordinarily, I would call this kind of exercise a stretch (hmmm, Dick Cheney yelling sooeee while the country plays Ned Beatty?). Instead, we get a subtly written piece about character and characters. Something the writer does not point is that Cheney and Rumsfeld are of an age with the characters in Deliverance. Here is an excerpt I liked from War and Deliverance:

"Normally, the role of government—of civilization—is to curb our sense of personal license when civilized society is under pressure from anger and fear. Government is supposed to put a brake on cynical, self-serving calculation, especially at times of great danger and confusion. Nobody knows that better than professional soldiers, who are trained to understand the laws of society and of war. But the core coterie around Bush and Cheney, who never were soldiers, pushed for war with Iraq at all costs and as an end to almost all constraints."

As much as I like that quote and the article from whence it came, I suggest reading this post on Masson's Blog: Cheney’s Law.

Last night I watched the Frontline story entitled Cheney’s Law. If half of that is true, any real patriot would be pissed off at the monstrous power grab Dick Cheney, David Addington, and John Yoo have tried to execute on behalf of the executive. I paraphrase, but essentially what these chowderheads are arguing is that the President gets to be a king and there’s not a damn thing Congress can do about it so long as the President mutters the terms “commander-in-chief” or “war” every so often. It’s been dressed up under the moniker “unitary executive theory” but I don’t see any practical limitations that distinguish it from monarchy.

Please, read it all.