Being in Sydney after losing a test to Australia is not a pleasant experience. And it’s not like it’s any old test. Is it?
I don’t mind the ribbing. Straight “We beat you you bastard!” or “Choker!” are fine by me. Fair call. I’d do the same if the result were reversed.
No. It’s the sympathetic, consoling ones that hurt the most. Twice now I’ve had people coming up to say how well the All Blacks played and how the result was a bit “unlucky”.
Those are the worst of all.
The Girlie has taken it hard. She dreamed about the game twice in the nights leading up to last weekend. In one of those dreams we won 40-0. During the day, however, she was really worried. So was I. I’ve always said Aussie were a chance, even when the Australians were writing their own team off.
Despite that I thought we’d pull it off. The form was good and player for player we had to have the edge. And we had Carlos.
I was confident enough to go to a barbecue with a bunch of Aussies on Saturday night. Girlie was less confident, more nervous as the night wore on. Then the game started and the signs of an upset were there early. The Australians were pumped – and they had a plan.
Earlier I’d said I didn’t think Eddie Jones was smart enough to spring a major tactical surprise. I was wrong. I’m sorry Eddie. Kudos.
By the end of the game my host was a happy chappy. So was everyone else except me and the Girlie.
“Can we go now, Dad,” she whispered.
“Not yet, Girlie. We can’t be the first out.”
Luckily a group left pretty soon after the game and we made our escape, but not before I received a call on my mobile, from my mate Nige who had been to the game. He was singing:
“Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free…”
I later heard he’d rated it better than sex.
The next day I watched the replay. The result hadn’t changed overnight. Each missed opportunity was now a might have been.
What would have happened if…
Now the issue is who to support in the final. I have never supported an Australian side. Ever. I wanted the French to make it, but they blew their chance. For the Girlie it was easier. It may be small recompense, but even before the second semi she was going for the result that would upset the Australians most.
I can't bring myself to do that either.
So it’s England v Aussie, and that's a fucking nightmare.
Kosovo v Iraq
Back to reality: The right likes to compare the Kosovo intervention with Iraq to show how inconsistent us liberals are. If you can support one, you should be able to support the other. Right?
Well, Fred Kaplan on Slate gives a nice analysis of the differences in his defence of Wesley Clark's role:
"In fact, the two wars—both their beginnings and their conduct—were extremely dissimilar. True, when Clinton realized Russia and China would veto a resolution calling for intervention, he backed away from the Security Council. However, he did not subsequently piece together a paltry, handpicked caricature of a coalition, as Bush did for the war in Iraq. Instead, he went through another established international organization—NATO.
"From that point on, the aim of the war was not only to beat back Milosevic, but also to hold together the Atlantic Alliance, which was, after all, fighting the first war of its 50-year history. Compromises had to be made in military tactics in order to achieve this political objective—and that, too, was anathema to U.S. officers.
"Air Force Gen. Michael Short, who presented Clark with a plan involving a classically massive set of opening-day airstrikes, was "dismayed," Boyer writes, when Clark didn't approve the plan on the grounds that NATO's member nations would never approve it.
"Boyer, on balance, takes Short's side on this tale. Under Clark's command, Boyer laments, the United States "could only wage war by committee; the process was so unwieldy that it became, to future American Defense officials, an object lesson in how not to fight a war."
"Maybe. But is there much doubt today that Clark was correct in this choice? Does anyone care to argue that intervening in Kosovo was a bad idea, that the Western alliance wasn't (at least for a brief spell) strengthened as a result, or that the war was unsuccessful? Milosevic surrendered, was captured, and is standing trial for war crimes in a court of international law—which is more than can be said of Saddam Hussein. The Serbian defeat was total, unchallenged, and internationally imposed, which may explain why the (truly multinational) postwar peacekeeping forces have suffered minimal casualties in the intervening years."