"...For every reason, from the humanitarian to the geopolitical to the military, Iraq is a war that America must win in the hegemonic, even colonial, sense. It is a test of our civilization's commitment to the good against the alluring notion of menace-as-power that has gripped so much of the Muslim world. Today America is a danger to the world in its own right, not because we are a powerful bully but because we don't fully accept who we are. We rush to war as a superpower protecting the world from menace, then leave the battle before winning as a show of what, humility? We confuse our enemies, discouraging them one minute and encouraging them the next.
"....Could it be that our enemies are really paper tigers made formidable by our unceasing ambivalence? And could it be that the greater good is in both the idea and the reality of American victory?
In a just world this could be posted in its entirety. It is absolutely the most carefully thought out analysis of group psychology as it applies to contemporary America. Thank you, Shelby Steele.
Steele is one of the most original thinker around. We are expecting the Iraqi Army to do the job, but I fear that it will only work as a colonial force, which is what ROK was for many years, what the Indian Army was under the British Raj.