Pressing "Reset"

In today's Times, David Brooks tells us that the advancement of U.S. interests around the world remains possible, but only if we "reboot":

We've got to reboot. We've got to come up with a global alliance of democracies to embody democratic ideals, harness U.S. military power and house a permanent nation-building apparatus, filled with people who actually possess expertise on how to do this job.

Brooks presents the peculiar caution that,

In this climate of self-doubt, the "realists" of right and left are bound to re-emerge. They're going to dwell on the limits of our power. They'll advise us to learn to tolerate the existence of terrorist groups, since we don't really have the means to take them on. They're going to tell us to lower our sights, to accept autocratic stability, since democratic revolution is too messy and utopian.

I am not sure that I would support continued governance by "unrealists" who believe we can ignore the limits of our power, act when we lack the means to properly take on our targets, and promote "democratic revolution" when we aren't prepared to pay the price associated with seeing it through. I certainly don't want to support the "surrealists" who advocate all of those positions while telling us that accomplishing our goals will be easy, and that people around the world will welcome us as liberators with cascading showers of candy and flowers.

But perhaps Brooks should also recognize that sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too - you just might have to moderate your portion. To the extent that the "realists" argued that reconstruction and democratization of Iraq would not be a cakewalk, they were right. To the extent that the "realists" argued that it would have been a good idea for the Bush Administration to entertain the thoughts of people they instead ignored - that is, everybody who had any expertise regarding the Arab world, and anybody who had any expertise on nation-building... and let's not forget the advice of military experts such as General Shinseki about what it would take to effect a successful occupation - and to go into Iraq with an appropriate plan for the post-war period, they again were right. Even if that would have meant modifying the Administration's plans, setting more realistic goals, or delaying the start of the war. In retrospect, there is a growing consensus that the cost of getting it right is dwarfed by the cost of getting it wrong.

Brooks intentionally conflates "realists" with a different set of people: those who (figuratively speaking) stand on streetcorners in dirty robes, ringing bells and crying "doom". That's understandable, given that Brooks was at best an "unrealist" and quite possilbly a "surrealist" in his pre-war cheerleading efforts. He diminishes the contribution of the "realists" because any alternative would force him to look in the mirror and be confronted by the ugly truth.

In any event, whatever Brooks means by his call for a "reboot", I think we should interpret it as follows: The system is up for a full check this November, at which time we can effect a system-wide "reboot" by voting Bush out of office.

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