"The blame of those ye better"

Remember when James Lileks gave an obscene, definitively chickenhawkish (“from my home in suburban Minnesota, I feel comfortable lecturing you for your unwillingness to engage in a suicidal revolutionary mission after you had already been sold out by the Americans once”) response to an Iraqi blogger who was once lionized by Bush’s blogospheric lickspittles but was quickly thrown under the bus when he was no longer uncritically supportive of the botched occupation? Well, we can see the same thing happening again, as the protest babes and Cedar Revolution seem to have lost their luster now that the narrative has become a bit more complicated. A number of commenters did not take kindly to Michael Totten’s point that the indiscriminate bombing of moderate regions of Lebanon might not actually advance the strategic goal of attacking Hezbollah, and an email from a friend who was forced to flee to Syria. Among the first to abandon ship is Trainwreck Media founder and serious foreign policy scholar Roger L. “thanks to 9/11, I’m outraged by Chappaquiddick” Simon, who three comments down politely hopes that Totten’s newly displaced friend will “grow up,” advice rather easily dispensed from a well-appointed house in sunny California. (Simon, of course, was also a big fan of Lileks’ middle finger to people insufficiently grateful for their “liberation.”) Frankly, this development is not without its merits; I prefer contemptuous imperialism served undiluted rather than behind a paper-thin mask of liberal pieties.

For further unintentional comedy, check out this guy, who seems to think that building state capacity is just a simple matter of will. I know it would be expecting too much to think that these hacks might read some Weber, but perhaps the current situation in Iraq might suggest that things are just a touch more complicated?