You kind of like to imagine the United States, in its third century, as a calm, sophisticated place, notwithstanding the rough-and-tumble populism we so much enjoy.
The great sorrow of the war on terror, five years after its commencement, is our inability to discuss it and its future and its implications, with anything approaching sophistication, intelligence or even calm. It's the sorrow, I say. It's also the gaping wound in our national life.
I wonder if anyone can see anything good coming out of our protracted therapy session on whether we ought to have gone to war and why didn't we do things differently and why don't we just get out now and blah, blah, blah. What I really like is the lowercase-"d" democratic model we exhibit to a world we have invited to join us in the delights of free speech, open elections and so on.
This Labor Day I mined a few of the popular blogs for examples of the reasoned, large-minded commentary you might imagine we need to work through a difficult period. I'll share a few findings.
On President Bush: "He is part of a concerted plan of action to incrementally destroy the America we know."
On U.S. interrogation policies: "By seeking authority to torture other human beings, Bush seeks to DESTROY our nation's soul."
On a story about Grand Ayatollah Sistani's pessimistic projections for his ability to control Iraq's Shiites: "I hate Bush so bad that the more it screws up and goes to hell, the better I feel."
On administration response to war critics: "When are we going to ride these guy's [sic] on a rail out of town and off our air way's [sic]... Are we going to submit to this reich winged propagaganda?"
On Republicans: "Anyone voting Repub has to be insane."
Continued... |