David Brooks: In Iraq, America's Shakeout Moment

[Cocoa]

the neocons have been reduced to just throwing out historical parallels. This time around it's Jamestown and also the settlement of the West. Funny, you'd think the obvious parallel would be Vietnam, but these guys never mention that one...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/18/opinion/18BROO.html

here's something about our venture into Iraq that is inspiringly, painfully, embarrassingly and quintessentially American.

No other nation would have been hopeful enough to try to evangelize for democracy across the Middle East. No other nation would have been naïve enough to do it this badly. No other nation would be adaptable enough to recover from its own innocence and muddle its way to success, as I suspect we are about to do.

American history sometimes seems to be the same story repeated over and over again. Some group of big-dreaming but foolhardy adventurers head out to eradicate some evil and to realize some golden future. They get halfway along their journey and find they are unprepared for the harsh reality they suddenly face. It's too late to turn back, so they reinvent their mission. They toss out illusions and adopt an almost desperate pragmatism. They never do realize the utopia they initially dreamed about, but they do build something better than what came before.

This basic pattern has marked our national style from the moment British colonists landed on North American shores. Overly optimistic about the conditions they would find, the colonists were woefully undercapitalized, underequipped and underskilled. At Jamestown, there were three gentlemen and gentlemen's servants for every skilled laborer. They didn't bother to plant enough grain to see them through the winter.

[barbaraann]

1. What idiotic drivel.

Sean Hannity BS with an intellectual veneer--putting lipstick and a graduation cap on a pig.

[nodictators]

2. TruthSquad rewrite of the third paragraph above

American history sometimes seems to be the same story repeated over and over again. Some group of Big-Time but foolhardy Oil Men head out to perpetrate some evil and to realize some black gold fortune. They get halfway along their scam and find they are unprepared for the harsh reception they suddenly find. It's too late to turn back, so they reinvent their mission. They toss out illusions and adopt an almost desperate prevarication. They never do realize the fortune they initially dreamed about, but they do create something much worse than what came before.

[Cocoa]

3. well done!

:thumbsup:

[struggle4progress]

4. Your thinking is too bizarre for me, Mr. Brooks

"There is talk of moving up elections so when an Iraqi official is assassinated, he is not seen as a person working with the U.S., but as a duly elected representative of the Iraqi people."

So the neocons believe that the real point of elections in a democracy is to help manage perceptions when government officials are killed by the opposition?

"Some of these policies seem incoherent, but they may work."

When blind ideology leads to chaos, the next logical step is to hope that thrashing about incoherently will work? This passes as an important insight in your circles?

"The weeks until June 30 are bound to be awful, but we may be at the start of a new beginning now."

I can only assume that (since the Administration long ago committed itself to the view that continuing Iraqi attacks against "the coalition" are signs of our victory) the new spin must not blatantly contradict the old. But -- 'the fact that Iraq's really bad and will stay that way might indicate that victory is just around the corner'? Is that really your tweak?

x(

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[Miss Authoritiva]

5. Another rewrite (this column is just too tempting)

"No other nation would have been hopeful enough to try to evangelize for democracy across the Middle East."

No other group of self-appointed ideologues would have been stupid enough to try to install democracy-lite under duress in a country in an already unstable region whose history, culture, and religion it did not understand.