Anti-Climacus

QUOTE: David Brooks:

"esterday, I was listening to "The World" which is a left-wing foreign affairs program produced by Public Radio International and which appears on many NPR stations. There was a fawning interview with an American woman living in Pakistan who argued that if the United States goes into Iraq, (A) the Arab Street would explode, (B) the Middle East peace process would be destroyed, (C) a thousand terrorists would arise to replace the ones we topple or kill.

They could have taped that interview 11 years ago. They could have taped it before the war in Afghanistan. They could have taped it before Reagan bombed Libya. And yet there was no hint in the voice of the woman making the remarks or in the voice of the starry-eyed interviewer, that this was anything but the freshest and sagest counsel. This is the real Nile Virus--people developing amnesia about their past false predictions about the Middle East.

And the idea that we should pay attention to the people who took the last invasion of Iraq and turned that military triumph into a stunning political defeat, is simply mind-boggling. But the veterans of Bush I--who should live in ignominy for letting Saddam think the United States doesn't have the guts to take him out, who should hide in disgrace for the way they abandoned the Kurds to their slaughter--instead ride high. It is an amazing example of the establishment's ability to protect their most incompetent members."