HILZOY ON OUR MEDIOCRE PUNDITS

Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings has an analysis of the apologias of two war whore pundits, Rod Dreher and Michael Ignatieff. I've dealt a little with Ignatieff below and I see that Hilzoy has the same observation I did, "It's odd that he doesn't identify either group of people." 40-year old Dreher sounds simply naive and ignorant:

I had a heretical thought for a conservative - that I’ve got to teach my kids that they must never ever take presidents and generals at their word. That their government will send them to kill and die for noble sounding rot, that they have to question authority.

It's as if Vietnam and Watergate never happened and the FBI and CIA never illegally spied on American citizens. Hilzoy puts it better: "the fact that that lesson -- not to take Presidents and generals at their word, to question authority -- is one that any adult should have mastered." The problem we face is that political children such as Dreher are still considered to have opinions worth listening to. Hilzoy makes a similar charge against half-wit Ignatieff: "The very idea that someone is only learning this lesson after advocating a war -- or, for that matter, after the onset of puberty -- is truly dumbfounding." (Hilzoy also points us to a devastating critique of Ignatz by David Rees. Sample zinger: "Can the hero be wrong about everything, survive, and still convince people he's smarter than everyone in Moveon.org?")