"Fixing Iraq or Afghanistan ends up taking precedence over fixing Cleveland and Detroit. Purporting to support the troops in their crusade to free the world obviates any obligation to assess the implications of how Americans themselves choose to exercise freedom."
"In the wake of 9/11, this trend found its ultimate expression in the Bush Doctrine of preventive war.....When acting in the role of commander in chief, the president now claimed-and exercised-essentially unlimited entitlements. Anything he and his advisors judged necessary to "keep America safe" became legitimate. In the midst of the Watergate scandal that ultimately proved his undoing, President Richard Nixon had advanced the argument that "if the president does it, that means it's not illegal." Nixon's removal from office had seemingly discredited this claim; after 9/11, this perverse Nixon Doctrine returned to favor."
"War, after all, had become a spectacle, not a phenomenon that inflicted pain and suffering on citizens of the United States."
"Today, Americans evince little interest in cultivating virtue, preferring instead the frantic pursuit of happiness, defined more often than not in terms of wealth, celebrity, and personal license."
"...if Washington pursues ruinous military and fiscal policies, Americans have no one but themselves to blame."
"Self-awareness is a gift. The ability to see things as they are, without blinders, is an even greater one."
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