The Wall Street Journal decided to give Peggy Noonan's credibility a boost by reprinting this column of hers from 2003, which was picked up on the main page of Google News. It's so forward-looking, so analytically deft, so eerily prescient that I felt compelled to share it with you:
We are about to startle and reorder the world. We are going to win this thing, and in the winning of it we are going to reinspire civilized people across the globe. We're going to give the world a lift.
This is what the American victory in Iraq is going to mean:
It is going to mean, first, that something good happened. This sounds small but is huge. The West has been depressed since Sept. 11, 2001. It has been torn, riven. It has been a difficult time. The coming victory is going to be the biggest good thing that has happened in the world, the West and the United States since the twin towers fell. ...
The American president has, meanwhile, demonstrated to the entire world that he is neither a bombastic naïf nor a reckless cowboy but, in fact, another kind of American stereotype: the steely-eyed rocket man. Don't tread on him. It is good for the world that it see him as he is. ...
A victory in Iraq is about to enhance America's stature in the world. America deserves it. Because of all the powerful countries in the world, it is the most trustworthy, reliable and constructive.
Other Noonan predictions from 2003: Hummer sales will spike in five years thanks to a bustling economy and Iraqi oil imports that drive gas prices under a dollar a gallon; the "steely-eyed rocket man" will be swept to a third term after Americans, their hearts bursting with love and pride, repeal the 22nd Amendment; and resurgent interest in Beanie Babies will make millionaires out of everyone who hoarded them in the 90's.
But I've saved the best for last:
[America] has a lot to be proud of. (Being America it will soon be beating itself up again, but it should take some time over the next few weeks to feel the healthy pride it's earned.)
Yes, we just never stop beating ourselves up here, do we? And if the world sees us as a bunch of endlessly self-aggrandizing triumphalists in a country with a hyperinflated national ego, well, maybe they just aren't reading enough Peggy Noonan.
(Is it just another coincidence that you can't spell Noonan without Onan? I think not.)
Wow, she'd think the British are manic depressive, if she actually thinks that Americans beat themselves up.
Living here for over 5 years, I've had the wonderful experience of Brits constantly asking me why I would possibly want to move here and worse yet STAY here. I can't imagine any American ever doing that. You might get your passport revolked.
Posted by: InTheCity | Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 09:50 AM
GOOD entrry! Now that we're considered the bottom of the ashcan in the world, we can look back at the neocon apologists and laugh. Or cry.
Posted by: Rosemary Molloy | Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 09:52 AM
InTheCity, there's a thousand things I want to say to you.
Posted by: John Caruso | Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Say them to us? You have our email addresses.
Posted by: Save the Oocytes | Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 06:25 PM
Actually, 1) I always assume the email addresses are fake and 2) I take it you're not a big Jam fan.
Posted by: John Caruso | Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 07:22 PM
I always assume the email addresses are fake
That's why I always give my real email address.
Posted by: cemmcs | Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 05:35 PM
different posting names every few months, but real email
good posts this one and the one about greenspan and latimes.
Posted by: angryman@24:10 | Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 07:28 AM