George F. Will has an interesting essay on Time for Bush to See The Realities of Iraq at the Washington Post. He notes that the Bush Administration needs to clearly define their role and reasons for being in Iraq. He suggests that the administration needs to re-examine what it means to be conservative and perhaps drop some of the neoconservative dogma that is just leading them further into hot water.

One bit of interest is that Bush recently had this to say in regard to his administration’s agenda:

There’s a lot of people in the world who don’t believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren’t necessarily — are a different color than white can self-govern.

Will takes issue with some of the implied racism in the comment but stops short of a complete indictment.

The implication of racial factors demonstrates the groupthink of Bushthought. The idea that “our” skin color is different from others . . . and that default assumption from Bush is that Americans are White . . . is silly. It ignores the premise of the melting pot and cultural plurality of American life. Most Americans are not White – the White majority fell some time ago into becoming the largest of a collection of minorities – and many of those who by default think of themselves or are considered “White” are actually of a cultural or ethinic mix and even if there was no melting pot, the leaders of the nation must be more sensitive to the plurality of our culture.

Of course, Bush probably didn’t mean to come off as an insensitive superior racist dork . . . he didn’t really mean skin color when he was talking about democracy and culture . . . but that’s what he said, demonstrating that to him these issues do go hand in hand.

Is it our function to change the cultures of the world or to ensure peaceful coexistence with other cultures and countries? The idea that we somehow have a manifest destiny to transform the rest of the world into something that is the same as we is silly . . . in my opinion. The Will essay is well worth reading as he makes some clear and persuasive points . . . certainly his premise that the conservative agenda is superior to the liberal one may not fly with most folks who read this blog, it certainly doesn’t float my boat . . . but his critique does have fair points for both sides of the aisle.