Stardate: 20021021.2325
Word Count: 3,000
Title: Later When?
Impetus: France.
Thesis: Follow the money. Iraq owes Russia and France billions of dollars, which they may collect if Saddam stays in power but probably won’t if he doesn’t. But they can’t ally themselves with Iraq openly. Thus they dither over bureaucratic resolutions, in an effort to postpone war as long as possible.
Psychological Analogy: Parkinson’s Second Law: Delay is the deadliest form of denial. In child-rearing: “I’ll take you to the mall…later.” In politics: the Environmental Impact Statement. In engineering: “That’s a Version 2 feature.”
Best Quote: “The Environmental Impact Statement is easily the greatest achievement of the environmentalist movement. Imagine: an entire government bureaucracy was created for the sole purpose of forcing anyone who wants to build anything anywhere to spend vast amounts of money on studies and create truly awesome reports, all of which can then be used by enemies of the project to work against it.”
Bonus: There is an international agency of French-speaking countries called La Francophonie, which is just too good.
Oct 222002