The latest proof that we are winning in Iraq

Powerline is an intelligent Bushite/neoconservative website. What this means is that it is good at exposing and analyzing the lies and falsities of the left, and at following the ins and outs of various political controversies, but that it has a tendency to be ideological—and thus blind to reality—on larger issues. Consider this. “The war in Iraq is steadily being won,” according to Powerline, and “Time is on our side.” The evidence? Zarqawi’s family and clan in Jordan have disowned him for his recent terrorist attacks in Jordan. Now of course this is the kind of thing that happens constantly in the Arab and Muslim world. People get angry and even try try to kill each other, then they kiss and make up, then they try to kill each other again. Such fluctuations change nothing essential in Islamic society—and let us be clear that the success of democratization requires nothing less than that Islamic society be fundamentally and permanently changed. But so given over is Powerline to neoconservatism’s ideological view of human nature (all people are like us and want democracy), and so eager for signs that we are winning in Iraq, that it sees such a trivial event as such a sign.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 20, 2005 03:52 PM | Send