{"id":878,"date":"2006-03-19T17:44:28","date_gmt":"2006-03-19T22:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/delusions\/"},"modified":"2006-03-19T17:44:28","modified_gmt":"2006-03-19T22:44:28","slug":"delusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/delusions","title":{"rendered":"Delusions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back to semi-real-world stuff. I just read an article in Foreign Affairs, about how absolutely misguided and deluded Hussein’s regime was before the invasion<\/a>. It’s long (12 pages), but you oughtta give it a read, if only to get a greater understanding of what may have been going on at the upper levels of the government.<\/p>\n

It made me wonder what we’ll find out when North Korea collapses. I think we’ll discover that there were some absolutely insane management choices, similar to some of the appointments made in Iraq, but I really wonder what we’ll find out about the “limits of dissension” in the military and inner circle. Will it turn out to have been even more restrictive than Iraq under Saddam?<\/p>\n

I also wonder about Iran’s “management”, but at least there we know that there’s dissension (and its quashing). I don’t know if there’s a North Korean analog to, say, my buddy the Brooding Persian<\/a>. Can anyone clue me in on such a blogger? And if one doesn’t<\/em> exist, is that a sign of North Korea’s ruthless control over external displays of dissension (even anonymous ones), or is it even worse: a level of repression that bans even the thought<\/em> of dissension?<\/p>\n

Just wondering. I promise to get back to posting wedding pictures soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back to semi-real-world stuff. I just read an article in Foreign Affairs, about how absolutely misguided and deluded Hussein’s regime was before the invasion. It’s long (12 pages), but you oughtta give it a read, if only to get a greater understanding of what may have been going on at the upper levels of the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Delusions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-explicit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-ea","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2661,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-four-in-one-specials","url_meta":{"origin":878,"position":0},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of four-in-one specials","author":"Gil","date":"October 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm going to cover four shorter essays this week, because it's my party. * * * Our first essay, Of giving the lie (pp. 611-615), actually continues the conversation from Of presumption, to my gratification (see last week's post to get an idea of how overwhelming that essay is). Montaigne\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":253,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/solidarnosc","url_meta":{"origin":878,"position":1},"title":"Solidarnosc","author":"Gil","date":"June 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A leader of Poland's Solidarity movement gave an interview to Dissent recently, explaining his support for the war in Iraq: [W]e know what dictatorship is. And in the conflict between totalitarian regimes and democracy you must not hesitate to declare which side you are on. Even if a dictatorship is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1293,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/backward-and-forward","url_meta":{"origin":878,"position":2},"title":"Backward and forward","author":"Gil","date":"January 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"On the weekend, I linked to a Ron Rosenbaum post about parallels between Vietnam & Cambodia and the war in Iraq. If that subject interested you, this post from Jane Galt about 20\/20 hindsight regarding Iraq is a must-read.","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/well-show-them-well-show-them-all-part-8567341778","url_meta":{"origin":878,"position":3},"title":"We’ll Show Them, We’ll Show Them All (part 8,567,341,778)","author":"Gil","date":"September 9, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"We regret to inform you that The Immensity of the Here and Now has not been selected for review.-ForecastsPublishers Weekly360 Park Avenue SouthNew York, NY 10010","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":152,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-parkers-and-the-wmd-question","url_meta":{"origin":878,"position":4},"title":"“The Parkers” and the WMD question","author":"Gil","date":"February 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a transcript of a GREAT interview with Mo'Nique.However, to get to it, you'll have to read a conversation with Christopher Hitchens about the invasion of Iraq, faulty intelligence, Mel Gibson's historical anti-semitism, Bloomberg's attempt at Disney-fying NYC, and more. Here's a piece from Hitchens:My allegiances have changed in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1598,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/an-unfailing-eye-and-ear-for-the-ersatz-and-the-kitsch","url_meta":{"origin":878,"position":5},"title":"“An unfailing eye and ear for the ersatz and the kitsch”","author":"Gil","date":"July 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the new City Journal, Theodore Dalyrmple lays an unholy beatdown on Tony Blair's decade as PM. I can't do justice to its thoroughness, so give it a read. It looks like there's more fallout from having Terry Jones' unfunny brother take over as PM: longtime VM reader and official\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}