Allawi tells a polite fib. Kerry tells the truth. Glenn Reynolds disapproves: of Kerry, of course.
In his public remarks, Iraqi PM Allawi stuck with the official happy horsesh*t. In private, he told the truth: things aren’t going well. Just to rub it in, Rumsfeld publicly speculated on running an election in Iraq excluding twenty or twenty-five percent of the voters: the ones who live in areas so insurgent-controlled that no vote could be held.
John Kerry was rude enough to share that truth — the truth understood by everyone in the world, with the possible exception of George W. Bush and a few warbloggers — with the voters.
Glenn Reynolds thinks that makes Kerry look “small.” Right. It’s crucial to protect the children from bad news they can’t handle.
Of course, Glenn also thinks that serious talk about winning in Iraq is the same as chanelling Howard Dean.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman