At the behest of Joe, I read this article by Francis Fukuyama in the Times. The article begins by posing the question: To what extent has policy flowed from the wellspring of American politics and culture, and to what extent has it flowed from the particularities of this president and this administration? The answer to this question, according to Fukuyama, will tell us how American foreign policy has been organized since 9/11.
Before even getting to the answer, we can already see a bias in the question. It is ultimately this bias that leads the author to diverge from his topic into a dervish of a tale, which only serendipitously leads to a near-answer. Fukuyama assumes that there is obviously a rift between the “wellspring of American politics and culture” and the “president and this administration.” Because everyone already knows that this rift exists, there really is no need to answer the question. Instead, one can just editorialize the various disconnects with the American people and failures of leadership the president has won since 9/11. There is no “extent to which policy has flowed from the president,” but merely how has it flowed from the president.
Fukuyama concludes “our whole foreign policy seems destined to rise or fall on the outcome of a war only marginally related to the source of what befell us on that day [9/11].” It is the war that is the loadstar of American foreign policy, not American politics and culture or the president and his administration. Only because we know that it was the president who brought this travesty upon us, can we give any credit to Fukuyama for answering his own question.
Boob.
