Reading notes

Richard’s feeling his Cheerios in the WaPo today —

A rereading of the “Meet the Press” transcript suggests that Bush’s most critical quality — certainty — has oozed from him like helium from a balloon. Here was a man who was continually trying to pump himself up. He used the word “dangerous” over and over again, applying it to Saddam Hussein without ever quite saying why. He repeatedly called the former dictator a “madman,” which is to say that he was capable of anything. In fact, though, he was capable of very little and in recent years had attempted almost nothing. …

The reason [Bush] cannot talk like Blair is because he doesn’t think like Blair. The British prime minister can acknowledge an awkward fact, even a mistake, and keep on going. Bush can only insist that he is right. It doesn’t matter that the facts have changed. …

The president does not do nuance — that we know. But the failure to come up with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is not a nuance. It is a massive reversal of fact, hot turned into cold, tall into short. Bush’s inability or refusal to come to grips with the new facts is not the product of a poor performance or an errant tongue, but of a troubling insistence that his beliefs cannot be wrong.

Unless you’re omniscient, your beliefs (or your understanding thereof) can always be wrong. We must always be prepared to learn, adjust, and grow as more of God and each other is revealed. To “always be right” is deadly to self and others.

The enemy is not radical Islam. The enemy is not Arab-looking persons. The enemy is radical, extremist, “I’m right and you’re going to hell” thinking — which can afflict any of us, from any nation, of any faith. We’ve done very little to defeat it. (Chief weapon against it: repentance.) Instead, we’ve given it aid and comfort by embracing it.

[via The Right Christians]