Our fatal flaw
I've been reading about the Vietnam War in James T. Patterson's Grand Expectations, a great survey of American history between 1945 and1974, which only seems appropriate considering every thing else that's been happening in my life. A description of a conversation between President Johnson and Robert McNamara in December 1965 really struck a chord. When McNamara told Johnson that he doubted the public would support the war for the long time that would be required, Johnson asked, "Then, no matter what we do in the military field there is no sure victory?" McNamara replied, "That's right. We have been too optimistic." This got me thinking about our endeavors in Iraq and whether this may be another instance where our optimism has gotten us into trouble. As good as our intentions may be, it seems we are always stepping in it when confronted with a culture that doesn't share our optimistic, can-do spirit. Maybe it's time we tempered our never-ending optimism with a more existential approach.
posted by BayonneMike at 9:32 AM
2 Comments:
Personally, I think "optimism" is too kind a word when describing the cause of our current troubles. More like arrogance, ignorance, incompetence and denial. I don't know if the can-do spirit really exists in America anymore either, except when it comes to inventing new iGadgets (you can probably tell I'm not optimistic these days).
Good point, Chris. All of those ingredients were obviously part of the mix.
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