The really sad thing is this mess was predicted during the first Gulf war by US conservative's and was their stated reason why they didn't invade Iraq then. As with most things American it's easy to point and laugh but the reality is the average US man on the street is no more or less ignorant of other cultures then Aussies. However they seem to have a much greater aversion to intellectuals then we do, So ignorance is not seen as a obstacle to high office.

I saw an episode of the West Wing (the white house soapie) recently.
In it some people from a newly independant country were at the White House
talking to people about their new constitution they were writing.
One of the White House characters reccomended that they do not use the
US constitution as a model as it was a too dangerously flawed document.

Now that program does tend to preach on different subjects sometimes
but that was the last comment I expected to hear. A parliamentary
system was reccomended.
Hmmmm

The United States has always been a culturally insular country. Pride appears to be confused with patriotism. The U.S has three distinct cultures. On the top it has a political culture that is made up of such wealth that it is as divorced and disconnected from the American people. I think in this way the U.S has developed a political culture not unlike the Roman emporer, the Tsars of Russia and the the courts of the Louis dynasty of France.

Stuck in the middle is the every day American who has a large and varying degree of wealth and education , who are just like most of the world are just trying to get by or do their own thing. These people also have a varying degree of understanding of the outside world just like anywhere else.

At the bottom , the people who the top mobilise and who's so called patriotism is exploited are the peasants. American peasants are an extremely superstitious and uneducated people and I dont mean this as a slur but do wear their ignorance (of just about everything) on their sleeve. This is the people that claim to be the moral majority , the righteous , this is the hypocritical mass , the Christian column. The people that for many now days have become the schema for what is American. Ironically ideologically no different than their terrorist Moslem enemies.

I would argue that in a way Australia is moving in the same direction and who can be blamed but the media for pushing an English skin head skunk music ID call of " oi , oi , oi " as some how a patriotic Australian jingo. Certainly not a natural distribution by Australian language.

Dibb's current government funded academic position makes him less critical of Australia's "policy" on Iraq than he could have been. The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (at the Australian National University) needs constant access to the policy areas of the Australian government. Frank and fearless comments would endanger his Centre.

Dibb repeats what is now widely accepted conventional wisdom on the US. He does not want America to pull out of Iraq but he provides no alternative strategies for the US.

He fails to see that the failings of perception he identifies in the American foreign and defence establishment have been equally present in Australia's government and academic bodies (like his own). Australia has constantly supported US actions and broad views at every turn since the US, Australia and others jointly invaded Iraq in 2003. Our troops are still occupying Iraq now according to US doctrine - with no end for our support in sight.

If Dibb put up an argument that the US and Australia wish to sit tight in Iraq (partly) because of the oil then the pieces may start to fall into place - but that is dangerous ground for a serious academic leader.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com

West,

I agree with your pithy outline and with your final sentence in particular. Well said.

I agree the US has run out of good Iraq options. The follow on effects are properly outlined in this article.

With a change in the US presidency, I suggest it may be easier for Iranian moderates (like Khatami) to return to power; end it's isolation and loosen the authoritarian shackles. This view is based on the idea that the external US threat (from the Iranian viewpoint) has empowered hardliners and than Iran would otherwise feel neither theatened or be a threat to its neighbours. I admit this seems optomistic view, but Iran is not a dictatorship as Iraq was.

But I do not believe the US misunderstands the world, at least in terms of its diplomatic and military leadership

In my view, the problem US cannot decide its own place in the world. Is it a country like any other, or a supernation? Is it the "leader of the free world"? Is it the world's sheriff? Are China, India and the EU threats or opportunities?