Do We Want An Ignoramus for President?

From Hillary Clinton to Dennis Kucinich, all we hear from the Democratic candidates are petulant and childish complaints of impatience with the progress being made in Iraq. They seem to show no understanding of what is going on in Iraq or of our own history.

One of the many reasons we went into Iraq was to plant and nurture a seed of democracy and modernity into the geographic center of a world that exists in the seventh century, where disagreements are settled by cutting off heads and where little progress in science, medicine or human rights has taken place for a thousand years. This action was based on a selfish rationale, as well as a noble one, - that a modern and democratic Iraq would be a model and a magnet for the spread of cultural values that provided positive outlets for the yearnings of Arab peoples and would therefore substantially reduce their terrorist and warlike impulses. Democracies don’t usually start wars. Even with the known and also unforeseen difficulties that achieving this goal has presented, much progress has been made, and the goal is still worthwhile and achievable.

All kinds of signs and symbols of modernity are popping up in Iraq – from the succession of democratic elections to the cell phones, women’s groups, internet sites, newspaper offices and beauty contests that we see. But do any of the Democratic contenders show any signs of understanding the process that is taking place or any understanding of our own history, where it took a long time, and the putdown of many armed rebellions, to go from the War of Independence in 1775 to a united country after the Civil War ended in 1865?

The Iraqis are battling over oil and religious and ethnic differences. We battled over slavery and issues of federalism and states rights.

Why should Americans elect ignoramuses to the highest office in our land – ignoramuses who show no understanding of our own history and no ability to translate it into an understanding of the struggles facing us and the Iraqis today?

Of course, this presumes that the obstructionism taking place is due to ignorance; it may only just be a never-ending drive for political advantage at any cost - even of the good of the country. It may only be a continuation of the Bush Derangement Syndrome that has paralyzed liberal reasoning since the election of 2000. The Democrats may be well aware that a significant American military presence will be needed in Iraq for a decade.