John's Blog: "Whack-a-Mole" as Foreign Policy
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"Whack-a-Mole" as Foreign Policy
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Shortly after the Bush administration announced its foreign policy of "Pre-Emptive Unilateralism" last year (in which we assert our right to make war on any nation we perceive as a threat, before they attack us, and without the consent of any other nation), an image started occurring to me of gophers popping their heads out of their holes, and us busily running around trying to hit them before they got away.I'm not enough of a video game-o-phile to have recognized this image at the time for what it is, namely, the classic"Whack-A-Mole" video game, which is played precisely as I just described it. Although that is undoubtedly what led to the image's appearance in my mind, I only recently was able to consiously put the name to it. Now armed with a name, I was able to do a search on it, and was pleased to find that this analogy has occurred to others as well. I present the highlights below, ranging from serious to sarcastic to humorous.
The thing that bothers me most about this policy is that it seems almost designed to make enemies, thus ever increasing the number of "moles" needing to be "whacked". Indeed, in the video game, each level presents you with an increasing number of moles, until you fail to whack enough of them to advance any more, at which point the game is over. In real life, the consequences of "not whacking enough" would probably be a little more severe (although it might still be termed "game over").
Before I get all maudlin about realpolitik, here's the list:
- Whack-a-Mole Foreign Policy
- Robert Scheer Editorial (not a Whack-A-Mole reference, but a good article referred to by the above)
- What A Suprise! Unilateral Whack-A-Mole Can't Stop Nuclear Proliferation
- Jon Stewart Quote
- Ted Rall Editorial
- Hans Blix says "I told you so." (Also not a Whack-A-Mole reference, but I couldn't resist throwing it in.)
- U.S. Stymied by "Axis of Wascawwyness"
Labels: politics
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