Mr. Cohen answers himself

Richard Cohen writes in his column today about "Blame America First".

Below the surface of this reasoning seethes a perplexing animosity toward the United States -- not the people but the government and the economic system. Possibly it has its roots in the Great Depression, when capitalism seemed kaput and socialism so promising, and the government an adjunct of moneyed interests. At the same time, of course, governments on all levels -- federal, state and local -- were unabashedly racist.

Almost none of that still applies -- although money still talks. Yet the impulse to blame America first lingers, an atavistic reflex that jerks the knees of too many on the left and has cost the Democratic Party plenty over the years. Jeane Kirkpatrick, a former Democrat, put her finger on it 19 years ago. It's about time the Democrats listened to what she had to say.

Here's a good response to this:

But we have an understanding in this country that a war will be waged only with the consent of the people and only after the people have been honestly told why. If, as now seems possible, this was not the case in Iraq, then the war may turn out to be a bad bargain. The democracy we want to bring to Iraq will have come at some cost to our own.

Who came up with this? Richard Cohen, in yesterday's column.

Problem here is that senior government officials have said they tweaked the facts, emphasizing the possibilities about chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, to get public approval of this war. Those of us who were listening, could tell they were flailing about, trying to find a message with traction, that would get the public behind the war. Connecting Saddam and 9/11 helped, even though it was not true. Nuclear materials from Niger helped, even though it wasn't true.

And Mr. Cohen thinks we're blaming America? No, we're not. We're blaming a government that has an agenda it wants to sell to the American people, and is willing to lie to sell it to us. And even if the goal is noble, it increases the distrust we have in our leaders.

UPDATE: Edited to replace special quotes and such. No content was harmed in this edit.