Most of us know David Brooks as the balding goofball on “The Jim Lehrer News Hour” who shrugs his shoulders and giggles gleefully whenever he’s asked a question. He’s actually a political pundit whose far-right analysis of culture and politics appears regularly on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Like fellow-traveler Tom Friedman, Brooks loves to offer his sage advice to Muslims about how they can improve themselves in the eyes of westerners and, thus, limit the relentless bombing and massacres brought on by a belligerent American foreign policy.

Last week’s article “The Grand Delusion” is typical Brooks’ paternalistic claptrap. He sets out to scold those ‘backwards’ Arabs while discrediting the findings of the recently released National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) The NIE has caused a uproar in Washington by showing (conclusively) that the Iraq war is creating a new generation of terrorists and making the world considerably “less safe”. As one of America’s premier propagandists, Brooks’ job is to dispute these ugly facts and promote Bush’s absurd claim that terrorists simply “hate our freedoms”.

What Brooks calls the “Grand Delusion” is the belief “that if we just leave the extremists alone, they will leave us alone.” Brooks assures us that this is flawed reasoning even though it is corroborated by the 16 “preeminent” American intelligence agencies.
Brooks offers a different explanation: “Radical groups are driven by resentment towards the West, but also by internal competition for prestige and standing”.

Ah-ha!

Many of us unwisely believed that the root of terrorism was military occupation, stealing vital resources, propping up corrupt puppet regimes and training their brutal security forces. Brooks has seen right through that ruse! Terrorism is really an expression of a twisted competition between genocidal maniacs, each trying to out do the other.

At least that’s settled!

Brooks praises Bush for seeing that “the terror threat is fundamentally an ideological threat, a product of deep historical consciousness.” In other words, we, as westerners, can feel vindicated in bombing the living daylights out of the Arab world because their cultures are infected with a poisonous ideology.

Sounds like a prescription for mass slaughter to me.

Brooks ignores the “unanimous” findings of the NIE, which exposes Iraq as the breeding ground for terrorism. Clearly, the document is not compatible with his racist views of Islamo-fascism.

Brooks’ article depicts a world where peace or even a temporary accommodation is totally impossible.

Why? Because, according to Brooks, Islamic radicals have overtaken moderate Muslims and are continuing to “wage their competition for anti-Semitic glory all around.” (I swear I’m not making this up) In other words, Muslims are responsible for their own suffering. This is also called “blaming the victim”.

Someone should remind Brooks that the millions of pounds of ordnance that is dropped on Muslim countries every year is made in America, delivered in American planes, and dropped by American pilots. From start to finish, the Muslims are the blameless victims of American aggression.

Brooks is entitled to his opinion. He is not entitled to his own facts

Finishing his sketchy rebuttal of the NIE, Brooks pessimistically adds:

“Today’s extremists are not the product of short term historical circumstances, but of consciousness and culture. They are not the fault of the U.S., but have roots stretching back centuries. They will not suddenly ignore their foe—us—when their hatred of us is the core of their identity…..This war is forever.”

“Their hatred of us is the core of their identity”; think about that for a minute.

Have you ever heard a more racist statement intended to demonize another religion or ethnicity? Have you ever heard a more passionate plea for genocide?

Brooks’ comments are a justification for whatever carnage the Bush administration chooses to unleash. After all, we’re simply ridding this sick culture of a spreading cancer.

If this sounds like a chapter out of the “Bush Playbook”; it is. This is just the first of (what will certainly be) many attempts by America’s foremost propagandists to disprove the truths in the NIE. Bush will have to do everything in his power to refute the underlying facts, which are:

1 The NIE proves that the Bush administration is the real source of terror because (all 16 agencies agree that) the Iraq war is fueling Islamic radicalism.

2 The NIE proves that the Bush administration will be responsible for any future attacks on the American people since there is a straight line between Iraq and the increase in terrorist activity.

3 The NIE proves that the WAR ON TERROR IS A SHAM; a bogus public relations scheme intended to dupe the people into surrendering their “inalienable” rights while supporting a global resource war.

4 The NIE proves that terrorism is NOT an action but a “reaction” to a vicious and aggressive foreign policy.

No wonder Brooks is fighting so hard to discredit the NIE while pushing his “culture-wars” gibberish. It’s the last bit of duct-tape holding Bush’s fraudulent war on terror together.

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