Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Needs to learn more history?

In a recent interview, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton was apparently quoted as suggesting that President Obama needs to learn more history before he conducts foreign policy--saying in effect that his dangerous naivete results from a lack of knowledge.

Sorry, but I cannot believe that the son of a Ph.D. with two Ivy League degrees of his own (married to a woman with two more Ivy League sheepskins) suffers from a lack of knowledge of history. Rather I'd have to suggest that he knows, but just doesn't care about the consequences, because it's him eating the wagyu beef in the White House. Let's not forget for a minute that the man has been driving through Chicago's South Side for two decades without figuring out that all that government "help" isn't exactly helping the recipients.

He's simply bringing that willful blindness to a far greater arena, and we can only pray that he wakes up to the consequences before it's too late for too many Americans--and the rest of the world as well.

3 comments:

Elspeth said...

Well said, Bike Bubba.

pentamom said...

How about both? There's extremely little relationship between advanced degrees and genuine knowledge of history in this day and age and place. A modern Ivy League degree probably actually acts as an endumbification about history, not a marker of education.

So I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Bolton's actual statement that Obama needs to learn more history is correct (nearly every one does, and people in positions of international power are not always the exceptions), but it is quite likely true that Bolton's implied conclusion that if he did, it would matter, is wrong. You and Bolton are both correct -- he needs to learn more history, but he also needs a serious worldview adjustment.

Bike Bubba said...

Now there's some encouragement; not only does he not know, he doesn't care.

Sigh. I think you've got a point, though I still would have to suggest that anyone reading the papers ought to come to a more mature understanding of the issues.