MAUREEN DOWD VS. CIVILIZATION:

Lemon Fizzes on the Banks of the Euphrates (MAUREEN DOWD, September 18, 2002, NY Times)

[W]hy should former C.E.O.'s Cheney and Rummy settle for mere Jack Welch-style perks when they can have the perks of empire?

They can restore civilization to the cradle of civilization. Lemon fizzes, cribbage and cricket by the Tower of Babel. A 36-hole golf course on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. ArabDisney in the hanging gardens of Babylon. Oil on tap at the Baghdad Hilton. Huge contracts for buddies in the defense and oil industries. Halliburton's Brown & Root construction company building a six-lane highway from Baghdad to Tel Aviv.

How long can it be before the empire strikes back?

So are we to take it from her column that Ms Dowd opposes the restoration of civilization in Iraq? Does she imagine that the good people of Iraq wouldn't be ecstatic if their country were to be made safe and stable and free enough that it would be a fit place for Disney and Hilton and tourists and golfers? Will the world not be a better place on the day that a superhighway connects Tel Aviv and Baghdad?
Posted by Orrin Judd at September 17, 2002 11:32 PM