Isn't it Rich?

Literary Manhattan has become unhinged. It’s a postmodern wreck in the age of irony, bankrupt of sensitivity and devoid of reason.

Two articles in The New York Times Sunday edition underscore the above brilliantly, albeit unintentionally. I’ll discuss one article here, and the other in Saturday’s post.

In his column, Frank Rich, an esteemed member of the New York liberal elite, treats us to yet another lesson in absurdist logic.

Rich is in a lather about The Kennedy Center Honors, held last month in Washington, DC. He’s dismayed that none of the high-level politicians or art-world celebs attending the annual fete mentioned the Iraq war. This year the president and first lady, as well as John Kerry and other dignitaries, honored Warren Beatty, Sir Elton John, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Dame Joan Sutherland and John Williams for lifetime contributions to American culture.

Rich views their silence on Iraq, at least as demonstrated in the television special airing a couple of weeks after the event, as an oblivious dis to the soldiers. As if FDR never hosted state dinners on evenings when American servicemen were dying by the hundreds in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. As if we should use a “carefree variety show” (Rich’s own words) as an occasion to mourn our dead. And as if doing so wouldn’t play into the hands of the insurgents in their vicious efforts to derail Iraq’s march to free elections.

Rich writes, “The razzle-dazzle Hollywood martial music, the what-me-worry Washington establishment, the glow of money and red plush: everything about the tableau reeked of the disconnect between the war in Iraq and the comfort of all of us at home, starting with those in government who had conceived, planned, rubber-stamped and managed our excellent adventure in spreading democracy.” In case you missed it, Rich is likening “all of us” to the moronic title characters in the film, “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Like, man, we just don’t get it, do we?

But then he observes that “ordinary” folks are “feeling that disconnect more and more.” He cites an ABC News/Washington Post poll, released the same day The Kennedy Center Honors aired, which “found that 70 percent of Americans believed that any gains in Iraq had come at the cost of ‘unacceptable’ losses in casualties and that 56 percent believed the war wasn't ‘worth fighting’ — up 8 percent since the summer. In other words, most Americans believe that our troops are dying for no good reason, even as a similar majority (58 percent) believes, contradictorily enough, that we should keep them in Iraq.”

What Rich fails to point out is that, during times of increased violence and controversy in Iraq, such as occurred last month, some Americans waver in their support for the war. A CNN/Time poll, released May 22, 2004, right on the heels of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the videotaped beheading of American Nicholas Berg, found the following:

“More people than not believe that going to war with Iraq was the right thing to do, but that number has declined to 48 percent in this poll, compared to 53 percent in April. And 56 percent of those polled say the war is not worth U.S. lives and other costs.”

So in December 56 percent of polled Americans believed the war wasn’t worth fighting, and last May 56 percent felt the same way. If Rich is correct in his contention that last month’s 56 percent figure is “up 8 percent since the summer,” then at some point after the May poll that number decreased to 48 percent. How much would you like to bet the drop came at a time of relative quiet in Iraq?

Along with wavering poll numbers, it appears that during times of stepped-up suicide bombings and beheadings in Iraq, we should expect more “disconnected” blather from liberals like Frank Rich. Meanwhile, those dunderheads in Washington enjoy the greatest support for their “excellent adventure in spreading democracy” from the soldiers on the ground.