Steve Gilliard deconstructs the Beltway Kool Kids Klub’s support for the war against Iraq:
[…] But in DC, the shootings scared people beyond reason. People like Dowd and Russert were waiting for an issue to say how American they were. Their Irish Catholic upbringing made them not only moral scolds, but eager to revert to the patriotism of their childhood. Hippie politics and the questioning, challenging education promoted by New York’s Jewish intllectuals (and reflected in public school education) never sat well with them. They liked the time when they only had to believe in certain verities, like priests were good and everyone loved the USA.
The shootings, not, 9/11 made them receptive to Bush’s cowboy movie nationalism. The French, instead of providing wise counsel, were to be ridiculed. The Germans, who took a far more absolute stand, were ignored. The fact that the Blair government has never really recovered from the ramp up to war, also ignored.