But every time I read the papers, that old feeling comes on...
I was reading through this week's crop of HNN articles, and I noticed an interesting thread. This week's articles include "The Politics of Cutting and Running" by John Mueller and "End the Occupation Now" by Ruth Rosen. (Next week's will, reportedly, include an article by me with another attempt at historical analogy leading to a similar conclusion.) Last week included "Can We Really Get by without a Draft?" by Michael S. Foley and "Why Extending Soldiers' Time in Iraq Could Prove Dangerous" by Philip Gerard. Historians, HNN readers at least, overwhelmingly believe the President is doing a terrible job (or a good job towards terrible aims, in my case), and even Matthew Mason's article finds virtue in President Bush over Saddam Hussein only by careful comparison (and it strikes me that the differences are structural, rather than personal).
I'm reminded of Pete Seeger's infamous (well, banned from the Smother's Brothers Hour by the network, anyway) "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", and for those of us who are rooting for the taller of the two candidates (actually a good bet most years), the line"Soon even a tall man'll be over his head" seems a little, well, prophetic.
Some would simply cite this as an example of the"liberal professorate" or as evidence of editorial bias. But those charges of bias, frankly, doesn't carry a lot weight at a site that carries both P.M. Carpenter and Daniel Pipes, leftists like Herbert Bix and Chalmers Johnson, and stuff from CampusWatch and FrontPageMag. Any site that includes both me and Thomas Reeves covers an awful lot of ground. Both our own forever-fresh Cliopatria and freshly-launched Rebunk include scholars who disagree on fundamental political issues and ideas (which is really rare for blogs, in my experience).
So perhaps there is a consensus emerging: we need to reconsider our position, without pride or prejudice, and seriously consider what we want to accomplish, how it can be accomplished without creating new problems, and what we can afford to commit without sacrificing other important goals and projects.
Update: MoveOn.org is doing a survey to see what Americans want to do about Iraq, and currently about 1/4 of us want to pull out now, 1/4 haven't a clue, and half want to set a firm date for withdrawal. Not surprisingly, the number of MoveOn supporters who want to"stay the course in support of President Bush" is well under the margin of error. I probably got put in the"don't have a clue" category, because I didn't pick a button. Here's what I wrote:
None of the above statements reflects my position particularly well. The op-ed you sent by Steinberg and O'Hanlon [Washington Post, or you can click the survey link and scroll down] comes closer because it argues in favor of meaningful self-determination as both the goal and the end-point for the US occupation. I support a substantially stepped up effort to help the Iraqi people create and function under a democratic government, and to respect the will of the Iraqi people as expressed through that government. I support increased efforts to create a secure Iraq, both internally and externally. I support increased efforts to rebuild Iraq, not to the level of"pre-war" which is usually cited as the standard by the government, but to the level of pre-Gulf War, because our illegal attacks on non-military targets in that conflict and under sanctions (which also were arguably illegal) set the stage for the decade of misery, death, suffering and decline in Iraqi society. I support the restoration of American honor through a committment to justice. That's how we get out of this situation, and, by the way, make sure that we don't make more problems for ourselves in the future.Just in case you had any doubt about my position.
Second Update: OK, the President's position doesn't seem that far off from mine. Curious. Is he serious, or double-talking us moderates with what we want to hear? Like he did last election? The specifics of the UN draft resolution seem less promising....