tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post6497754442548924906..comments2023-10-24T09:06:30.200-04:00Comments on No More Mister Nice Blog: IF DAVID BROOKS WERE A LIBERAL, WOULD HIS JOB BE ON THE LINE NOW?Steve M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-19361408796142837072015-05-20T18:44:53.327-04:002015-05-20T18:44:53.327-04:00Brooks argument is dissembling of the highest orde...Brooks argument is dissembling of the highest order. Who strangles babies anyway? Even Hitler babies. Put me in a time machine. I still won't strangle baby Hitler. So beside the point. "Strangle Baby Hitler" arguments obfuscate the fact that plenty of people warned the world early enough about fascism to neuter the movement. They were ignored. Adult Hitler was a solvable problem if the right arguments had been taken seriously enough, early enough. Likewise, Man-child Bush's ambitions were solvable enough at the time as well. Re-arguing the Iraq war might not win Democrats votes. It might even lose a few. It's still an argument that needs to take place if this country ever can ever hope to start venerating people who are right and vilifying people who are wrong about stuff like this.petrillihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17889489779105405703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-54250541738417433152015-05-20T11:53:10.479-04:002015-05-20T11:53:10.479-04:00BTW, what made the "Pax Americana" DB so...BTW, what made the "Pax Americana" DB so proudly refers to? <br /><br />Russian occupation of half of Germany and nearly all of Europe south and east of their half of Germany. <br /><br />In other words, a peace far more Carthaginian than the peace of Versailles American CW blames for WW2 <i>and blames on the French</i>, when in truth French post WW1 demands for a more extensive and lasting demilitarization and occupation of Germany were shot down by that fool, Wilson.<br /><br />And French efforts to enforce compliance with the treaty right up to and after 1933 were undermined or ignored rather than backed by America. <br /><br />In the interests of endless military interventionism and globalism, our political classes tell whopper lies about WW2 to make ourselves heroes who saved the world.<br /><br />It was a "Pax Sovietica," not a "Pax Americana."Philo Vaihingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17150326435392881297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-89540547595055595262015-05-20T11:39:25.974-04:002015-05-20T11:39:25.974-04:00DB's question is "If you could go back to...DB's question is "If you could go back to 1889 and strangle Adolf Hitler in his crib, would you do it?"<br /><br />He deliberately chose something no one at the time would have had good reason to do and asks whether we, with our knowledge of the century since then, might want to do it if we could go back in time.<br /><br />But GW's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are nothing like that.<br /><br />The decisions for war were bad choices at the time, given information available at the time, as many people insisted at the time and about every day since.<br /><br />And now, looking back, with our knowledge of how things turned out, we can say things have indeed gone about as badly as expected as a result of those choices, and if we could go back in time and correct them, preventing those wars, we would, leaving aside the interesting qualms you mention about that change involving changes in who does or does not get to exist, etc.<br /><br />DB is one of those who think we won the Cold War. We didn't. In a nutshell, the Russians got tired of communism and threw the bums out. <br /><br />Blinded by their exaggerated notions of the efficacy of state power to control minds under totalitarianism, no one, absolutely no one, in the American <i>classe politique</i> thought such a thing was even possible.<br /><br />But it happened before our eyes and the American conservatives have been lying about what happened, what we SAW happen, ever since.<br /><br />We should call them on that lie every chance we get.Philo Vaihingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17150326435392881297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-14745237515753822492015-05-20T02:43:29.636-04:002015-05-20T02:43:29.636-04:00I think Brooks gets a free pass because practicall...I think Brooks gets a free pass because practically everyone agrees he's a jerk. Taking him down would therefore not serve as a proxy blow against political opponents in the way taking down George Stephanopoulos would.Ken_Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11709548046018362581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-336799181606372002015-05-19T22:04:11.502-04:002015-05-19T22:04:11.502-04:00Good grief. Forget Hitler, I kinda want to strang...Good grief. Forget Hitler, I kinda want to strangle Brooks.Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00823375829281404872noreply@blogger.com