[Vision2020] Missing Molly Ivins

[Carl Westberg]

Paul Krugman from today's NY Times:  Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died 
of breast cancer on Wednesday. I first met her more than three years ago, 
when our book tours crossed. She was, as she wrote, ''a card-carrying member 
of The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers 
now schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly 
of Our Leader's record.''

I can't claim to have known her well. But I spent enough time with her, and 
paid enough attention to her work, to know that obituaries that mostly 
stressed her satirical gifts missed the main point. Yes, she liked to poke 
fun at the powerful, and was very good at it. But her satire was only the 
means to an end: holding the powerful accountable.

She explained her philosophy in a stinging 1995 article in Mother Jones 
magazine about Rush Limbaugh. ''Satire has historically been the weapon of 
powerless people aimed at the powerful,'' she wrote. ''When you use satire 
against powerless people it is like kicking a cripple.''

Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the times when 
people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the times when it's 
most important to do just that. And the fact that she remembered these 
truths explains something I haven't seen pointed out in any of the tributes: 
her extraordinary prescience on the central political issue of our time.

I've been going through Molly's columns from 2002 and 2003, the period when 
most of the wise men of the press cheered as Our Leader took us to war on 
false pretenses, then dismissed as ''Bush haters'' anyone who complained 
about the absence of W.M.D. or warned that the victory celebrations were 
premature. Here are a few selections:

Nov. 19, 2002: ''The greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is probably not 
war itself, so much as: What happens after we win? There is a batty degree 
of triumphalism loose in this country right now.''

Jan. 16, 2003: ''I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our 
side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after 
we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent 
Shiite. Can you say, 'Horrible three-way civil war?' ''

July 14, 2003: ''I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would lead 
to the peace from hell, but I'd rather not see my prediction come true and I 
don't think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not 
going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. We don't need people 
with credentials as right-wing ideologues and corporate privatizers -- we 
need people who know how to fix water and power plants.''

Oct. 7, 2003: ''Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure looks like 
a quagmire.

''I've got an even-money bet out that says more Americans will be killed in 
the peace than in the war, and more Iraqis will be killed by Americans in 
the peace than in the war. Not the first time I've had a bet out that I 
hoped I'd lose.''

So Molly Ivins -- who didn't mingle with the great and famous, didn't have 
sources high in the administration, and never claimed special expertise on 
national security or the Middle East -- got almost everything right. 
Meanwhile, how did those who did have all those credentials do?

With very few exceptions, they got everything wrong. They bought the 
obviously cooked case for war -- or found their own reasons to endorse the 
invasion. They didn't see the folly of the venture, which was almost as 
obvious in prospect as it is with the benefit of hindsight. And they took 
years to realize that everything we were being told about progress in Iraq 
was a lie.

Was Molly smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver. The 
administration's exploitation of 9/11 created an environment in which it 
took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.

Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.

And it's not over. Many of those who failed the big test in 2002 and 2003 
are now making excuses for the ''surge.'' Meanwhile, the same techniques of 
allegation and innuendo that were used to promote war with Iraq are being 
used to ratchet up tensions with Iran.

Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the follies 
and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her life to 
questioning authority, will be sorely missed.

Carl Westberg Jr.

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