HeavenlyPossum on Nostr: During the lead up to the Iraq War, the Bush administration came up with *endless* ...

During the lead up to the Iraq War, the Bush administration came up with *endless* reasons for the war. Iraq had WMD. Iraq helped al-Qaeda. Iraq would blossom into democracy that would liberate the region. Saddam tried to assassinate Bush Senior. On and on it went, like a fever dream. Once the seed of an idea was planted, the coalition of actors around Bush all glommed onto it as a mechanism for pursuing their own goals and self-interest.

There was no one “real” reason hiding behind pretense. All of those excuses were simultaneously true and also inadequate to explain why they did it: they simply wanted to.

I think it is likewise a fool’s errand to try to make sense of the fascist demands of the Trump/Musk junta. Why do they *really* hate USAID? Is it because it pursues outcomes that are coded as “liberal”? Is it to save money to finance tax cuts for the rich? Is it to assert their dominance over the federal service? Is it because Musk hates the post-apartheid South African government? Is it because USAID features in conspiracy theories that emerged from the cesspit of online right wing spaces and have now become folk-wisdom among the brainworm crowd?

Yes! These are all true and simultaneously inadequate: they want to. Trying to make sense of it is like trying to make sense of a fever dream: you simply cannot.