Feel the Hype

I would be remiss if I didn't link to my op-ed in today's Los Angeles Times:

The United States is now well into the fifth year of a war in Iraq that has, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, managed to get more Americans killed than 9/11 while alienating global opinion, undermining our strategic posture around the world, arguably speeding nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran and detracting from American efforts against Al Qaeda. The nation's elites, ever vigilant, have located the source of the problem: Public outrage over the sorry situation.

Read the whole thing, as they say.

Comments

Nice work, but for this bit of (I hope unintentional) alliteration: "Of course, those of us who read Pollack's celebrated 2002 book ... might feel a little too bitter to once again defer to our betters."

You should have taken a poetry-writing class while at Harvard.

Posted by Professor Booty | August 2, 2007 1:04 PM

When did the Brookings Institute become liberalish? Did I miss the memo? Is it liberalish just because two shit-for-brains named Pollack and O'Hanlon work there?

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | August 2, 2007 1:04 PM

They left out "ruined our Army," but maybe it wasn't public outrage that did that. Maybe it was the people who thought this was a good idea.

Posted by Peter Driscoll | August 2, 2007 1:06 PM

That's consonance, not alliteration.

Posted by Njorl | August 2, 2007 1:39 PM

Damn, that was music to my ears.

Posted by Scott E. | August 2, 2007 1:43 PM

Actually Njorl, it's both. Look it the fuck up!

As for you, Matt, you lost me at Los Angeles.

Good op-ed. In the future, refrain from ever typing the college-freshman-taking-his-first-ever comp-class phrase "More ironically still." Your bitter thin taht, Mtat.

Posted by Gregorio | August 2, 2007 1:52 PM

So are paired with Jonah Goldberg now too, not just Douthat?

"Two young commentators. One smart, one dumb. One liberal, one conservative. One honest, one entirely otherwise. Balance!"

Posted by John Emerson | August 2, 2007 1:53 PM

"Actually Njorl, it's both. Look it the fuck up!"

Alliteration only concerns the beginnings of words which are consecutive by word or by meter.

The italicized words are seperated by six other words which essentialy precludes alliteration.

The whole phrase:

"a little too bitter to once again defer to our betters",

is dripping with consonance, which merely requires repeated consonant sounds within a phrase.

Posted by Njorl | August 2, 2007 2:04 PM

The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences” (Hart Crane). Modern alliteration is predominantly consonantal; certain literary traditions, such as Old English verse, also alliterate using vowel sounds.

we've just been over this last week

therefore liTTle Too biTTer To is indeed an example of alliteration in the modern sense. May not be what you're referring to, but if you split hairs, you open up the damn door yourself, and must deal with the revolting results.

Posted by Gregorio | August 2, 2007 2:17 PM

I liked it better this morning when the LAT had "By By [sic] Matthew Yglesias" and "united states [sic]" (as I mentioned this morning). Too bad they fixed it - it fit more in the blog with the grammatical errors.

Posted by Al | August 2, 2007 2:18 PM

BTW, I should have mentioned that I think it is pretty misleading for Matthew to cite the July 23 Brookings Iraq Index when the more recent Iraq Index, after O'Hanlon came back from Iraq, where O'Hanlon said "revisions are needed in some key numbers in the Iraq Index. This is in part because fresh data have recently become available, and in part because the U.S. military and Bush administration have not done a sufficient job getting data into the American public debate. It required a trip to Iraq to get access to some information that really should be widely available on this side of the Atlantic."

Posted by Al | August 2, 2007 2:31 PM

I think Njorl may be right, and I and Gregorio wrong: it was bitter and betters to which I objected, not little too bitter to, although the more we look at that sentence the worse it becomes.

Posted by Professor Booty | August 2, 2007 2:36 PM

Nice job, Matthew.

Posted by bobbo | August 2, 2007 2:38 PM

@Professor Booty, DDS: Then you are wrong and I am righter than Jesse Helms at a Right Said Fred concert.

Posted by Gregorio | August 2, 2007 3:00 PM

Now if he wants to turn his op-ed into a Gilbert and Sullivan song, that sentence is great.

A little to bitter to defer again to our betters,
Now appealing to be kneeling in rusted centrist fetters,
Rather get into a lather than smile at leather elbow'd sweaters,
Wrapped around a clown who wears the gown of a man of letters.

Posted by Njorl | August 2, 2007 3:10 PM

Best Op-Ed I have read in LA Times for a long time. And I have been a faithful subscriber for over 20 years.

Posted by gregor | August 2, 2007 3:28 PM

Njorl, you fucking rule.

Posted by Professor Booty | August 2, 2007 4:03 PM

Great Editorial, Matthew.

What's neat is that if you want to make a career of stirring up shit like this --well, there's ACRES of it.

No one ever got laid off because they had finished cleaning up corruption in Washington DC.

Posted by Don Williams | August 2, 2007 4:08 PM

Additional costs of the war include the fact that it has diverted critical attention and funding from other projects on which the lives of millions depend.

The funds spent so far in Iraq could have gone to support the fight against global poverty. 1.2 billion people in the world are trying to survive on less than a dollar a day. Its not a direct cost of the war, but an important one nonetheless.

Posted by Maggie | August 2, 2007 4:23 PM

Moderates, your day is done,
your bell is rung, your song is song,
that closing bell, that harrowing hell
awaits you moderates.

You centrists with your wrists aflutter,
signing away your souls and rudder,
to steer you away from the rocks that loom,
all pregnant with impending doom
will churn you into butter, the center rent asunder,
oh hark that harrowing thunder and
avert impending doom.

You compromising misers of the middle-road,
your chintzy principles do sag
beneath a heavy load. Beware, beware those without care,
who veer and career and cleave the air, and never give thought who might be there,
in the middle of the road.

Tongues wag wearily like the tails of broken curs,
and tell the tales of timorousness with weak and wilted words.
Embracers of the status quo! Your hugs go unreturned,
and in the end, a shrug or worse, is all you've ever earned.
But how much more must one meek cur be spited and be spurned
before he rages back with fangs at fire in which he burned?
The lesson here is a lesson of fear, and necessarily learned.
We crossed this ground together, but circled 'round and now returned.
Cycles are for breaking and pillars are for shaking
and no mistake is worth remaking--
Moderates be burned.

~After I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby

Posted by Gregorio | August 2, 2007 4:48 PM

Ye must be careful wandering among these mountains, stranger, lest ye find yourself buried beneath an avalanche of doggerel!

I just wanted to say that since I read your article I have decided to market my own bubble bath with the name Soothing Bipartisanship. Tired of all that bickering at work? Has political debate made you red-eyed, tired and sore? Why don't you flip on the tub tap, turn on some soothing music, and slip into the warm embrace of my Soothing Bipartisanship bubble bath? Let your worries and cares drift away, while you dream of a better day. Soothing Bipartisanship, in stores everywhere-get yours today.

Posted by Gordon Lightfoot | August 2, 2007 8:30 PM

BAM!

Mazeltov, young Matthew. You know how to hit them where they live.

Posted by fasteddie | August 2, 2007 8:51 PM

Matt:

It might be interesting to hear about exactly how the process works. That is, how does one get invited to write an editorial for the LAT? The nuts and bolts of it: Who contacted you? Do you know what prompted them to contact you? Did they specify the topic? Did they specify a deadline?

Posted by Muddy Mo | August 2, 2007 10:18 PM

Doggerel my foot!

I am like the Rod McKuen of the Blogospheroversaxy!

Posted by Gregorio | August 3, 2007 2:28 PM