Why am I not surprised that some of the best reporting from Iraq is suddenly appearing from Victor Davis Hanson on his Pajamas blog? Part II is up with the following excerpt:
John Kerry once quipped, “You know, education – if you make the most of it – you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
But perhaps we should amend that to something like ‘if you get educated, you serve in Iraq.’
I say that because in the small circle I met or corresponded with the last week in Iraq the number of MAs and PhDs there is astonishing. Colonels Rapp, Gibson and McMaster have PhDs, as does Gen. Petraeus, scores of others I talked with as well. I don’t mean to suggest that PhDs are smarter (some of the stupidest people I’ve ever met have them), only that the military puts a high emphasis on continuing education and original research, especially valuable in a complex, if not bewildering situation like contemporary Iraq.
As a humble MFA in Playwriting (I know – pointless), I’m impressed – with the military and VDH.
Meanwhile, sorry not to be writing more on here myself. I never intended this to be a linking blog. I wouldn’t be particularly good at that anyway. But I have been working away – on another lengthy essay for Pajamas which I am calling “Why They Hate the Neocons.” It will appear Tuesday
“But I have been working away – on another lengthy essay for Pajamas which I am calling “Why They Hate the Neocons.”
Hating Neocons is an intellectually dishonest and socially “polite” way of blaming the so-called Jewish conspiracy for our troubles in the Middle East. It is presumably the fault of Israel that the radical Muslims are enraged at the Western world. Sadly, many self-hating Jews also feel this way.
Recounting Al Qaeda’s ‘Irreligiosity’ VDH says they are “serving children up to their parents”
I don’t understand what that means.
Lem, it’s more literal than any of us want to think about.
Totalitarian utopian Manicheans have a history of proceeding directly to maximum depravity.
David, yes, that has been said and is often true. But I tried to bring something else to the story.
David, those euphemismists ought to ask themselves how many of the half-dozen great Muslim offensives happened without the existence of the state of Israel (hint: all but the current).
I usually give the NYT a perusal, at the very least.
I don’t recall ever coming across any of this there.
If that’s not negligence I donít know what is.
NYT archive search
“al qaeda atrocities” got 0 hits
“American atrocities” got 16 hits
Its like searching Daily Kos.
Lem, don’t miss this Jules Crittenden –NYTimes American History 101 (the comments are good, too).
Get yer Ernie Pyle columns here:
An MFA. If it weren’t for people like you, dropouts like me would have nobody to feel superior to.