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Jonah, you'll like this.
By the way, a reader reminds me of what I wrote on the back page of NR six years ago — May 31, 2004 — contemplating Iraq round about now:
I know what I’d like: Iraq, circa 2010, is a functioning confederal state, not a perfect democracy, but a respectable one – not New Hampshire, not Norway, but not Zimbabwe, either. Think Singapore or Belize. It has a growing economy, an enlightened education system, a free press, and an expanding middle-class. Its representative at Arab League meetings votes with the King of Morocco more often than with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Its presence as a free society in the heart of the region changes the dynamic, encouraging reform in some of its neighbors (Jordan) and shriveling the dictatorships in others (Syria).
We're not there yet. Obviously, Iraq isn't Singapore or Belize economically, but its political culture, in far less promising circumstances, is catching up: It's respectable, restrained, and, all things considered, mostly admirable. In the same 2004 column, I quoted Thomas Friedman's then latest genius prescription for the "quagmire":
Mr. Bush needs to invite to Camp David the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the heads of both NATO and the U.N., and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. There, he needs to eat crow, apologize for his mistakes and make clear that he is turning a new page.
Brilliant! That's why he's the Pulitzer-winning foreign-policy grandee of the New York Times, and I'm foraging for berries in the foothills of the White Mountains.
Incidentally, I don't know why Friedman is so hostile to The Flintstones. After all, isn't Bedrock — a primitive society with mod. cons. and gizmos — exactly like the China he so admires?
ChiComs! Meet the ChiComs!
They're the modern stone-age autocraceee!
National Review's The Corner, March 10th 2010 |
