Courtney Martin writes about new opportunities in a new year:
As I read coverage of the unpublished 513-page account of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq, a wave of sad recognition washed over me. The narrative thread of how a $100 billion effort to "save" Iraq became a giant save-your-own-ass bureaucracy was one that I had seen repeatedly in the news recently. A depressingly familiar story.I'm not just talking about the story of botched humanitarian intervention. I'm talking about the story of hubris on a grand, immoral scale. It begins with some characteristic acts of a swollen ego -- inflated numbers and quick-draw decision-making. The story builds tension as the protagonists lose perspective, a sense of responsibility to others, and a commitment to the truth. And then it ends -- sometimes in a government bailout deus ex machina, sometimes in a collective shrug by the embarrassed American people, and all too often in the suffering of innocent people.It's time for a return to integrity.
--The Editors
