Tuesday, July 27, 2004
What is one to make of The Frenzy Over Lewinsky, a bizarre Washington Post story expressing nostalgia for the 1998 White House scandal? Are they out of their gourds?
1998 was not, as the subtitle states, a "simpler time." Osama bin Laden was plotting to kill Americans wholesale. The national GOP was going for broke in its efforts to remove a sitting president. A constitutional provision was about to be abused in the most serious way.
And the media treated it like a damn circus - another event in a long parade of celebrity debacles. That whole Whitewater thing had been so boring anyway! Now they could just focus on something juicy and simple.
1998 was the year that India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons. It saw the collapse of the Russian economy. It was the year when Ethiopia and Eritrea descended into a grueling, exhausting war. The war between African states in the Congo region escalated. Yugoslavian repression in Kosovo attracted international attention. Concern over Iraq's weapons programs led to a crisis in March and a set of bombing raids in December. And, two bombings at embassies in East Africa left a death toll in the hundreds.
The year of Monica (who now gratefully rests in relative obscurity) wasn't anything to look back upon with favor. It was a year of crises and grave challenges to national security, in which the national media chose to obsess itself over a minor sexual affair. The writing for 9/11 was on the wall by the end of the year. That anyone can deem it a more innocent time now is appalling.
1998 was not, as the subtitle states, a "simpler time." Osama bin Laden was plotting to kill Americans wholesale. The national GOP was going for broke in its efforts to remove a sitting president. A constitutional provision was about to be abused in the most serious way.
And the media treated it like a damn circus - another event in a long parade of celebrity debacles. That whole Whitewater thing had been so boring anyway! Now they could just focus on something juicy and simple.
1998 was the year that India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons. It saw the collapse of the Russian economy. It was the year when Ethiopia and Eritrea descended into a grueling, exhausting war. The war between African states in the Congo region escalated. Yugoslavian repression in Kosovo attracted international attention. Concern over Iraq's weapons programs led to a crisis in March and a set of bombing raids in December. And, two bombings at embassies in East Africa left a death toll in the hundreds.
The year of Monica (who now gratefully rests in relative obscurity) wasn't anything to look back upon with favor. It was a year of crises and grave challenges to national security, in which the national media chose to obsess itself over a minor sexual affair. The writing for 9/11 was on the wall by the end of the year. That anyone can deem it a more innocent time now is appalling.
