PM Carpenter: The ideology of ignorance

A repost from May 2005--Dictynna

Reading journalists’ reports from Iraq is like being sucked into a time warp where ancient incompetence comes flying at you with mocking vengeance. It’s a confirming experience as well -- a confirmation that policy makers will never learn as long as ideology is seen as capable of trumping history.

This time around the Bushies were the best-and-brightest “adults.” They were the steely-eyed realists who understood the world as it is and how to handle it. They alone -- the neocon grownups and hard-asses -- could overcome the wimpish stain of Vietnam on America’s ego.

Iraq I? The Balkans? Child’s play. Not nearly enough to refurbish our standing in the world and erase those 1960s remnants of failure. They would do it right, in a big way, in the Middle East, and start with Iraq. They could hardly wait for excuses. In fact, they didn’t wait. They just made some up.