'Bumbling' in Iraq (2 Letters)
Published: December 30, 2003
ARTICLE TOOLS
TIMES NEWS TRACKER
Topics
Alerts
Iraq
Oakeshott, Michael
o the Editor:
In "Arguing With Oakeshott" (column, Dec. 27), David Brooks asserts that our government's inability to "come up with a plan for postwar Iraq" is a reflection of America's epistemological modesty, and a good thing. Just "muddling through" and "learning through bumbling experience" is how we Americans succeed.
But our government did not try to produce a plan for pacifying postwar Iraq and fail because "we stink at social engineering," as Mr. Brooks suggests. We simply thought we wouldn't need one. After all, we knew that the Iraqis would welcome their liberators with open arms.
That attitude reflects not modesty, and certainly not the humble foreign policy President Bush promised during his campaign, but a stunning arrogance. And that's never a good thing.
GREG BELCAMINO
New York, Dec. 27, 2003
To the Editor:
We will never know how Michael Oakeshott, the philosopher who died in 1990, would have responded to David Brooks's "discussion" (column, Dec. 27). How convenient for Mr. Brooks. And how unlikely that most people of good conscience would place our invasion of Iraq into the category of "adventuring out into the world, by playfully confronting the surprises and unpredictability of it all."
Mr. Brooks overlooks the difference between citizens' choosing to build a free society and a people's having a government forced upon them through use of "shock and awe."
SUSAN BURKLUND
New York, Dec. 27, 2003 |
