With the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion, and the decent likelihood that when history is written this will be seen as the high-water mark for the United States in world affairs, it is downright tragic -- at least for those like me who think the U.S., with all our flaws, is better than the plausible replacements -- to think that war was driven at its heart by leaders who believed that when Saddam was sent packing, the reset for Iraq would inevitably and somewhat effortlessly be liberal democracy.
I met a young Republican who was off to Iraq to start a stock market. We were writing a constitution to establish justice and equality. I recall a picture of a U.S. army guard after our conquest lounging in a folding lawn chair. Little did we realize that a la what Sam wrote in this excellent essay, that many in Iraq might "prefer a bit of violence." And the rest, as they say, is history.
This has me thinking about Ross Douthat's opinion piece from 2020, arguing that the United States has entered into an age of decadence: "Instead, we are aging, comfortable and stuck, cut off from the past and no longer optimistic about the future, spurning both memory and ambition while we await some saving innovation or revelation, growing old unhappily together in the light of tiny screens." I wonder if Fujiyami's concept of boredom and Douthat's concept of decadence are synonyms.
With the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion, and the decent likelihood that when history is written this will be seen as the high-water mark for the United States in world affairs, it is downright tragic -- at least for those like me who think the U.S., with all our flaws, is better than the plausible replacements -- to think that war was driven at its heart by leaders who believed that when Saddam was sent packing, the reset for Iraq would inevitably and somewhat effortlessly be liberal democracy.
I met a young Republican who was off to Iraq to start a stock market. We were writing a constitution to establish justice and equality. I recall a picture of a U.S. army guard after our conquest lounging in a folding lawn chair. Little did we realize that a la what Sam wrote in this excellent essay, that many in Iraq might "prefer a bit of violence." And the rest, as they say, is history.
This has me thinking about Ross Douthat's opinion piece from 2020, arguing that the United States has entered into an age of decadence: "Instead, we are aging, comfortable and stuck, cut off from the past and no longer optimistic about the future, spurning both memory and ambition while we await some saving innovation or revelation, growing old unhappily together in the light of tiny screens." I wonder if Fujiyami's concept of boredom and Douthat's concept of decadence are synonyms.