Sweet licorice jelly beans.... the propaganda just never stops.
Other wars have had lots of bloodshed and disaster before victory, so by golly we ought not give up on this war. Oh pooh yi. Pooh-frakkin'-yi. Oh yeah, this is just like World War II, and if we just hang in there, we will save humanity from a fate worse than death. It is as if world history started at the bombing of Pearl Harbor and so World War II and Vietnam are the only two wars anyone can think to compare to the current conflict in Iraq. [Must resist urge to find banging head against brick wall more productive...]
And what the forlorn flim-flam is this complaining about diversity? Mr. Sowell says, "That word has become a sacred mantra, endlessly repeated for years on end, without a speck of evidence being asked for or given to verify the wonderful benefits it is assumed to produce." No evidence given? Is the man blind and deaf? Evidence? America. America is the evidence. This country is blessed by a wonderful diversity that has contributed greatly to America's strength and prosperity. A person, or at least an American, would have to be willfully blind to not see it.
But what does Mr. Sowell say? "Despite much gushing about how we should 'celebrate diversity,' America's great achievement has not been in having diversity but in taming its dangers that have run amok in many other countries. Americans have by no means escaped diversity's oppressions and violence, but we have reined them in." Diversity's oppressions? What does that even mean? What are the oppressions of diversity? Is it oppressive to have Jews and Christians and Pagans and atheists living in the same neighborhoods and cities? Is it oppressive to have Germans and Italians and Chinese and Indians living here? What in the name of Jim Thorpe is oppressive about diversity? And for the record, we should be ashamed of the extent to which we seek to rein in diversity. America is supposed to be the land of the free. Apparently Mr. Sowell thinks America is the land of the reined in.
Mr. Sowell then almost starts making sense when he starts talking about nation building. He even, gasp, recalls the end of World War I. But then he looses it again and starts trying to tie it all back to the supposed evils of diversity. Nation building is not wrong because someone might try to push diversity. Nation building is wrong because the government of the U.S. or of any other nation, has no business telling other countries what to do.
And then Mr. Sowell insists we must remain in Iraq because to do otherwise is to grant victory to the terrorists and because other nations might think twice about being our allies. Here is a clue: a whole heap of other nations are already thinking twice about being our allies.
The problem in Iraq is not diversity. The problem in Iraq is people not getting along with those who are different. This is a problem that needs more diversity, not less. But beyond that, America needs to stop believing we can make other people get along. Particularly people with centuries old divisions. We cannot make them hurry up and put aside their differences and sing some Arabic version of Kumbaya. We have got to start letting people live their own lives regardless of whether or not it fits the Western ideal of togetherness and love. And frankly, America needs to clean house here regarding the freedom of individuals before we start trying to tell other people how to get along. We are still afraid of Mexicans "flooding" across the border, think that institutionalizing racial divisions is the way to deal with racism, and want to deny homosexuals the ability to enter into a legal agreement and call it 'marriage'.
