Reflections: Conversations, Essays, and Other Writings

More Important Than Boxing: 2006

The results of the 2006 Congressional elections were a gratifying coda to this article. More Important Than Boxing: 2006 I received an e-mail recently from a reader complaining about an article that I wrote twenty-one months ago.The article was entitled “Jack Newfield and George Bush” and recounted my final conversation with Jack Newfield, who died of cancer in December 2004. The article was timed to coincide with Mr. Bush’s second inauguration . In it, I wrote,“For many Americans, myself included, the reelection of George Bush feels like a death in the family. Our rulers have retained power by distorting the truth and twisting reality into a grotesque fantasy. Contrary to some, we don’t find George Bush charming as a person.We think he’s a smug arrogant little man and we dislike him intensely.But our feelings go far beyond the personal.We’re appalled and devastated by how he and his administration are changing our country.We’re horrified at what our government is doing around the world in our name.” Each year, the boxing articles that I’ve written the previous year are published in book form.“Jack Newfield and George Bush” was included in the most recent volume.That seemed fitting, since the three public areas of Jack’s life were journalism, politics, and boxing. Indeed, after the article was posted on Secondsout.com, one of Jack’s friends wrote to me, “Jack would have especially loved it that this was published on a boxing website.” The e-mail referenced in the first paragraph above was from a dissenting reader.“Dear Mr. Hauser,” he wrote.“A friend gave me your new book. If I want to read about politics, I’ll buy a book about politics.Take your conversation with Jack Newfield and shove it.” I assume the writer has more of an affinity for George Bush than I do. I also assume that he won’t like the column that follows. But I believe that the distortion of American values by the Bush administration and its allies in Congress is more important than the result of a prizefight and should be commented upon in every forum possible. Thus, with the 208 THOMAS HAUSER November elections approaching, this seems like a good time to revisit some important issues that affect us all.Anyone who is offended by the presence of politics on a boxing website need not read on. I believe that the administration of George Bush, acting in concert with the Republican-controlled Congress, has done more damage to the United States than any other group of politicians in our nation’s history. The invasion of Afghanistan was a necessity.We didn’t take military action there on the pretense of bringing freedom to the Afghani people. We did so because the government of Afghanistan condoned, aided, and sheltered the terrorists who were responsible for 9/11. The invasion of Iraq was a poorly chosen war of choice. It was launched on the fiction that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction and is now justified on grounds that it is about “bringing freedom” to the Iraqi people. It is an unwinnable war.A historical equivalent would have been Franklin Roosevelt responding to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by invading China. Saddam Hussein was a malevolent dictator, but neither he nor Iraq was responsible for 9/11. It is a war that has diminished our resources, led to tens of thousands of deaths, and exponentially increased hatred toward America in the Islamic world. The “reconstruction” of Iraq has failed. Mouthing platitudes like “freedom is on the march” is not a substitute for an effective foreign policy . Iraq is in chaos, and the chaos is worsening with each passing month. Iraqi oil production is still below pre-war levels. Baghdad has an average of slightly more than three hours of electricity per day.American and Iraqi officials acknowledge that, even as insurgents ravage the country’s infrastructure, corruption within the new Iraqi government is rampant. Forty to fifty percent of all profits from the smuggling of Iraqi oil are flowing to the insurgency. The strain on our military caused by the war in Iraq has forced military recruiters to lower standards with the result that our armed forces are now inducting soldiers who have serious drug problems and score far below what was once considered an acceptable level of intelligence for military duty. It has also led to the induction...