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Flame » in reply to re: And just who is Jane Galt?

Hindsight bias
Robert — (archived)

I guess you don't remember that Gen. Eric Shinseki testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 25, 2003? You don't remember that it was in that meeting that he revealed his estimate that 300-400,000 troops would be required in Iraq? You don't remember the public brouhaha when Rummy and Wolfie publicly ridiculed him for it? You don't remember that he "retired" as Army Chief of Staff four months later? It's all a matter of public record. Wikipedia has a bio that summarizes it, and links to documentary sources such as the Committee, and several contemporaneous news accounts.

You really don't remember any of that?

Ya know, Tom, there's a very good reason why you have hindsight bias about what was and wasn't discussed here on the HabitableZone during that era. Go back and check the March 2003 message digest that I prepared a while back, and tally up the roster of participants.

You won't see too many people posting who might've raised a dissenting point of view. Bowser and Don and Raoul persisted. LJ raised his head occasionally. That's about it.

I just searched the message database for the time period from 1 February 2003 through 1 April 2003, looking for my name. You know how many hits I got? Zero. Exactly zero.

Zero for Mary Anne.

Zero for Fox.

To call that period of time on the HabitableZone a "RightWing circle jerk" is to make it sound like a party. In point of fact, the HabitableZone during that period had become a vicious pit of RightWing jingoism and vicious attacks on anyone who dared deviate from the Party line. I couldn't stomach the place. Neither could a lot of other people. You RightWingers had the place pretty much to yourselves.

And, as always, the Zone was a microcosm of the real world. The Right was insane with war fever throughout America, and it wasn't safe to speak your mind back then.

Too bad. See the consequences of attacking freedom of speech and labelling it "treason"? The country lost the benefit of advice and counsel that might have mitigated the disaster of Iraq, a disaster that can be laid squarely at the door of RightWing groupthink and ideological blinders.

You don't remember anyone raising objections to the war back then because you and your RightWing extremist colleagues had succeeded in driving us out of the HabitableZone.

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