Wild, Wild Wes
The fact that retired Gen. Wesley Clark is considering a presidential run confirms yet again that we've hit a wrinkle in the space-time continuum and are now back in the 19th century -- or, rather, its globalized, high-tech reincarnation. Instead of the untamed West, we have the Balkans and Iraq, complete with brigands, speculators, gaming and prostitution, Most Wanted posters, and intermittent raids by savages (or, to be just a tad more up-to-date, "evildoers").
In the waning days of the Iraq war -- I mean the official, swiftly-won war, not the downer-of-the-day affair that's currently in progress -- a professor named Melani McAlister wrote a piece comparing the Jessica Lynch abuction/rescue to an old-style captivity narrative, one of those familiar, morally uplifting tales in which an innocent white person, typically female, confronts terrible dangers while never losing her faith, surviving to become a symbol of American righteousness and virtue. And now here comes another antique paradigm: the war hero, successfully returned from conquering the hinterlands, takes his valiant self over to Washington, there to battle corrupt insiders.
From a simple "can we win this election" point of view, I like the idea of a Clark candidacy. One way or another, the main theme of the 2004 campaign's going to be Security -- less as a political issue per se than as a psychological need. The GOP will try to surround the Democratic candidate with an aura of uncertainty, banking that voters will respond instinctually rather than logically -- in other words, overlook Bush's laughable military credentials and go for the Top Gun shtick, which he does reasonably well provided he's not caught off guard.
That strategy might not work so well against Clark. I'm bothered, though, by some of what the old soldier's been saying. For instance:
Instead of spending money on the development of Iraqi infrastructure, I would rather see it go into U.S. infrastructure. Helping Iraqi schoolchildren get back into the classroom is a good thing to do, but I would like to see American children achieve more in the classroom.
A "good thing to do?" I'm all for improving our schools (and our power grid), but this sounds exactly like the kind of dopey, parochial attitude which is one of the things I most dislike about the right. In the lead-up to the war, it was widely agreed that the U.S. would have an obligation to follow through on the promises used to justify military action. We've invaded the country and destroyed the infrastructure, so yes, we do have a responsibility to build schools for Iraqi children, dammit!
Clark's comment struck me as evidence of a disturbing trend-in-the-making -- the worse the war looks, and the shakier the grounds for starting it in the first place, the more pressure will build to cobble together some half-assed, low-cost solution and get the hell out of Dodge.
10:06:33 AM 
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