Who's wrong and what's right?

Peter Wehner Flashback (Feb. 3, 2011):

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he’s fed up and wants to resign, but he “cannot for fear of the country falling into chaos.”

Now, who do you suppose is responsible for that? Perhaps the same person who is responsible for eliminating democratic opposition in Egypt and who has insisted, for 30 years now, that the choice the United States faces is either supporting the dictator Mubarak or the ascension to power of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

It turns out Mubarak was pretty much right, and Wehner was pretty much wrong to dismiss him out of hand ("Saying No to Pharaoh").

So then yesterday, back on this side of the world, Wehner was wrong again: "Trayvon Martin not only didn’t deserve to die; he was innocent of any wrongdoing."

Given that life is hard enough just having to wake up every day in an ObamaNation, why do I torture myself further by reading Wehner, and then dragging you through my predictable disappointment, to boot?

* * *

Better we should spend our time reading Mark Helprin in today's Wall Street Journal:

Though history may never repeat itself exactly, it does have affection for certain themes. One of these is that of a nation suicidally disarming because it rests upon the laurels of the past, or believes in the satisfying delusion that by intellectual formulation it can safely predict the future intentions and capabilities of rivals and enemies.

Israel Is Letting Its Guard Down

 

I hope it is Helprin who's wrong this time, but chances are good that he's not.

 

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

Yael, I flat-out stopped reading Wehner months ago -- and it's done wonders for my blood-pressure, my disposition, and the spring in my step. The guy's prim-and-prissy prose drove me to the edge of distraction -- and his loony lucubrations on the subject of Sarah Palin drove me over the edge. My recommendation: Every time you see his by-line, just say "No" and read something else instead. It's one therapy that really works.

[Elan]

The common thread between Wehner and the unnamed Israeli strategists is their belief in what Helprin calls "satisfying delusions." The deluded ideas are professed with a self-satisfying assurance that implies that only an advanced thinker could have thought of them. People congratulate themselves on "peace in our time," or on endorsing a "peace of the brave," ignoring the insights of lesser beings that such self-congratulatory ideas produce the opposite of what they promise, even though they sound so good, so satisfying.