And these visions of democracy are now all that remain

Last night I came upon this entry, from Sept. ‘07, and it made me laugh:

I stopped by a Barnes & Noble on Wednesday and looked up Hamas in the index of Norman Podhoretz’s new book, World War IV. I wanted to see if Podhoretz discussed the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories and what that event said about his hopes for Muslim democracy. In fact, Podhoretz did mention (on p. 211) the electoral victories of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood. By way of reply to the idea that these developments disprove his own belief in the salvific power of democracy, he quoted one of his two all-purpose authorities on things Islamic, Amir Taheri. Podhoretz’s other all-purpose authority on things Islamic is Fouad Ajami, a once-engaging intellectual whose brains have been fried by smoking too much “Dubya.” In fact, there is an entire sub-culture in America populated by once-talented individuals who have destroyed their brains the same way—it’s the Desolation Row of the neocons.

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MG writes:

You write:

“In fact, there is an entire sub-culture in America populated by once-talented individuals who have destroyed their brains the same way—it’s the Desolation Row of the neocons.”

What has happened to Cheney and Rumsfeld is a deep mystery to me. Both were superb, experienced politicians, top level government bureaucrats, and private industry executives. Both had sterling reputations as well as reputation for brilliance. All that was before they served in Jorge Boosh administration. Both leave Jorge’s service with their reputation pretty much destroyed. How did it happen?

Did they see how idiotic Jorge “WarOnTerror” is? Did they decide to stay anyway to correct the worst excesses out of duty to the country?

There is something of a Shakespearean tragedy in this story of a provincial fool destroying the wise men.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 24, 2009 07:39 AM | Send