|
and that is forcing a large number of Americans to re-evaluate their blind faith in our government and in our military.
I recall almost crying in my beer at a bar at the start of the war when we were bombing Baghdad with cruise missiles to the enthusiastic response of most of those in the bar. One guy even stood up and bellowed "shock and awe, baby, shock and AWE!" and it was all I could do not to punch him. I thought that if such a large percentage of Americans were such neanderthals then there was no hope for this country. Unfortunately, it looks like there will always be a solid 1/3 or so of the population (especially down South) that fits this description, but I have been gratified to see that a lot of people around me have slowely realized that the world is a bit more complicated than a John Wayne movie and that the good old USA isn't always right when it starts wars.
Given human nature, it was perhaps inevitable that the world's sole superpower would have to learn this lesson the hard way, but the elections yesterday give me hope that a majority of Americans at least have learned it. And for that I have to give some credit to Donald Rumsfeld, whose incompetence and malice became so clear that even many red staters could see it.
|