The continual mistake of the Bush administration is to think, based on not much thinking to begin with, that people are people -- pretty much the same the world over. This is why the president extols democracy. (Lenin, more of a cynic, purportedly observed: ``Democracy counts heads without regard to what's in them.'') It must be what everyone wants because it is what everyone here wants. To denigrate this kind of talk suggests racism -- You mean we are not all the same? -- or a musty neocolonialism. But the hard truth is that culture and religion matter, and we should not expect moderation (as we did garlands and ecstatic maidens when U.S. troops entered Baghdad) just because that's how we would react. Toto knows the truth. The Middle East is not Kansas.
Who do you think? George Will? Nope. Brent Scowcroft? Nope. Pat Buchanan? Uh-uh.
The correct answer is: Richard Cohen!
Dr. Potomac long ago observed to me that he had stopped reading Richard Cohen because he was tired of reading whatever had popped into Richard Cohen's head before deadline. Case in point. It doesn't even fit into the opera omnia of Professor Richard Cohen. Skepticism of democracy? A belief that some cultures are better than others? Wuh! Huh! Do I have to even bother to look at old columns to see that this has nothing whatsoever to do with any of his political though in general?
Didn't think so.
1 comment:
Finally, someone giving the Sunflower State its due. As the husband of one of Kansas' fair daughters, I know the state's virtues well enough... but Richard Cohen? While he sticks up for the middlest state, maybe he can clue Thomas Franks in too. Haven't read "What's the Matter with Kansas?" yet? Skip it, you've heard Ron Reagan Jr say it all before on Hardball...
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