The real David Brooks

New York Times’ columnist, David Brooks, is as well a philosopher and psychiatrist for the White House, surely without pay. In the last three years, he has distorted events in order to justify the un-justifiable accumulation of mistakes by our leaders. Recently, he explained how brilliant was Hillary Clinton by refusing to disavow her vote for invading Iraq.
Anthropologist, psychiatrist, historian, visionary, nothing will stop Mr. Brooks for trying to convince his readers how great is our Dear President.
In his article: “Human Nature”, Mr. Brooks has no qualms to present a one-sided opinion about the evolutionary biology. According to him, it shows human being as selfish, nasty and competitive by nature.
Mr. Brooks goes even further: men are warriors. Surely, another justification for our Great Leaders to invade Iraq, and be arrogant with almost the rest of the world.
According to the weekly The Week, Mr. Brooks is convinced that the US hegemony will survive, even after the end of the war in Iraq. His justifications:
1- in 1975, when Vietnam War ended in disaster (he admits that?), America embraced an isolationist stance. But not for long.
2- Vietnam syndrome is not occurring now, and it’s not likely to occur, no matter how Iraq ends.
3- among the 2008 presidential candidates, McCain and Giuliani are both aggressive internationalists. Clinton is from the Democrat party’s hawkish wing; Edwards, is looking for tougher action against Iran.
4- in the post-Bush world, the new president will try to exert its will through negotiation and strategic alliances. To the credit of Mr. Brooks, he confirms that we will be slower to launch wars. Oops! Is he recognizing a tiny mistake from his protégés (Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice)?

Surprisingly, for a professional journalist of New York Times, Mr. Brooks, who should be non-partisan, ignores (or prefers to evade) the following:
a) we have lost our credibility with the real world
b) European Union is much stronger than never before (politics, economy, business)
c) we are not a player anymore in the Middle East
d) China and Russia are working together for a powerful military force, to Cheney's displeasure
e) most Asian countries have developed a stronger economy than us
f) closer to home, we have neglected Latin America to the point that we are losing a market of 500 million people
g) we have accumulated a series of faux pas in our disastrous foreign policy
h) because of our invasion in Iraq, several countries including Iran and North Korea have pursued a strong desire to develop nuclear weapons for their own protection
i) we have stimulated the cloning of terrorists
j) we have been naïve to believe certain minority groups of Iraq, Pakistan, and ex-Cubans
k) in spite of all our failures, we still stay the course in Latin American, Middle East and with the Arab world.
l) our spineless Congress is still ignorant about the real world

m) we are still sending abroad non-diplomat ambassadors

n) we are still lecturing the world, and creating more enemies

o) how about our alarming budget deficit and trade deficit
p) half of our total debt is owned by a few foreign countries, China being the main actor
q) for generations to come, our children will pay an astronomical price.

s) we have shown the world that our democratic system is a joke

t) we have democratically elected a dictatorial machine (Cheney via Bush)

u) communist countries (China, Vietnam) are doing quite well economically, thank you

v) more restricted societies (Singapore, Malaysia) have progressed much faster than us

w) materially poor Cubans enjoy better healthcare service, cultural and educational system

x) we have almost 50 million people who can not afford to be sick

y) we have million others in major cities with no place to sleep

z) at the international level, our students do not compete anymore: 17th out of 22 countries

Mr. Brooks, how can you justify a future American hegemony ? Your own children will probably write about “The Rise and Fall of the American Regime”. We are not the democratic society we used to be. And, what happened to the values we were so well recognized, and admired for?
The world is not the same. We are not the same. Mr. Brooks, did you change?

It seems that you are as disconnected with reality as your idols.
You, and most of your colleagues, so far, did a good job in protecting the President. Not sure if the next generation will appreciate it?
The Facilitator