« local governments and independent civic websites | Main | helping with a website »

March 11, 2003

reading George W. Bush

I've been thinking a bit about various theories that eorge Bush is pursuing war for unstated motives, some nefarious and some honorable. These thought are prompted by a Michael Kinsley editorial and various conversations and email exchanges with friends. As a general rule, I don't believe that we should try to assess leaders' motives. That's because:

  1. We can never tell for sure what their motives are. (Or even what motivates our own actions.)
  2. Motives don't matter. You can do a bad or stupid thing with the best intentions, or you can do a great thing for awful reasons. We need to spend our time thinking about policies, not policymakers.
  3. A focus on motives makes us turn for advice to insiders, those who may have insight into leaders' secret thoughts. (For example, presidential advisors, speaking off the record.) We should instead listen to fellow citizens and experts with knowledge of the substantive issue.

Unfortunately, we cannot make a very intelligent judgment about war in Iraq, because so much of the important information that George W. Bush has on his desk is classified. Also, much depends on how the war will turn out in the end. No one knows, but George Bush's motives are relevant, since he will make many crucial decisions. Thus it is hard not to think about his motives as a surrogate way of grappling with the issue.

Posted by peterlevine at March 11, 2003 12:52 PM

Comments