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Monday, October 24, 2005
From today's Altercation: Right about the war, but um, “second–rate.”
Quote of the Day, I: “In those tense months, the mark of second-rate minds was absolute certainty one way or the other.” —George Packer, who supported the Bush/Cheney war in Iraq.
Quote of the Day, II: “It’s pretty interesting that all the generals see it the same way, and all the others who have never fired a shot, and are hot to go to war, see it another. … We are about to do something that will ignite a fuse in this region. [We] will rue the day we ever started.” —Major General Anthony Zinni, (ret.) former chief of US Central Command, October 2002, and a “Second Rate Mind,” according to Mr. Packer.
Let’s not make this personal. Off the top of my head, a collection of those deemed to have “second rate minds” by Mr. Packer would have to include: Alan Brinkley, Garry Wills, Stanley Hoffmann, Walter LaFeber, Jeffrey Sachs, Charles Peters, Robert Reich, Al Gore, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Thomas Powers, James Fallows, Todd Gitlin, Tom Geoghegan, Arianna Huffington, Eric Foner, Tony Kushner, Robert Kuttner, James Mann, Mike Tomasky, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Josh Marshall, Paul Krugman, Harold Meyerson, Michael Kazin and Barack Obama. Although I certainly have no place in the aforementioned illustrious group, I nevertheless would like to take credit for having the kind of "second rate mind" they possess.
posted by monocle at 7:54 PM
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