Kevin Sullivan

Nattering Neo-Progressives of Negativism

Posted by Kevin Sullivan under Uncategorized

How can the far Left continue to turn Americans against the Iraq War?  Easy, just appeal to their illiberalism:

The broader point that needs to me made is not that Iraq specifically has prevented money from being funneled directly to your specific demographic group, but that excessive military spending in places like Iraq drains massive amounts of money from our nation as a whole. The Iraq war is our major national project right now, equivalent to the Apollo program or the New Deal. Do we want that as our national project? I don’t think many Americans would agree. Do we want a series of transactions to specific demographic groups and issues to be our national project? Even if is vastly preferable to making the Iraq war our national project, the truth is that isn’t very appealing either. We need a different framing around what we want our national project to be, and we need a Democratic leader who is willing to make that case to the country as a whole.

This discussion about the appropriate “national project” is kind of a curious one.  After all, the Apollo program–which was, obviously, the “Apollo program” of its time–wasn’t directly beneficial to the American people in a policy sense.  Of course, the program indirectly helped us make advancements in rocketry, avionics, medicine and computer technology, but those were otherwise secondary products of the stated goal–”landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”  That was it.  It was inspiring, exciting and a wonderful Cold War victory, but it didn’t produce the substantive results that a national “project” would presumably yield. 

The New Deal is a whole other matter, and shouldn’t even be compared to the Iraq War.  If something of that magnitude were attempted today–in real, post-inflation dollars–it would be seismic.  They’re not even in the same ballpark.

Secondly, I find it kind of ironic that the far Left sees strategic value in appealing to the isolationist and illiberal sentiment throughout the country.  Their basic assumption goes as follows: Americans supported invasion, but don’t want to build up a nation they don’t care about.  Promise them a direct financial benefit in the place of said nation building, and you can precipitate a more rapid withdrawal.  I suppose they’re right to think this, but that doesn’t necessarily make the policy right.  I, for one, think rebuilding and stabilizing a nation once terrorized by tyranny makes for a pretty good “national project.”  Making sure, at the very least, that our allies in Kurdistan and other parts of Iraq are safe and allowed to live free from such tyranny seems like a pretty Liberal ideal, but apparently this money could be put to better use elsewhere.