I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and Doggone it...

Most of you guys probably saw this but I wanted to post it here just in case. John kind of bungles the interview but I think the kid makes a few really interesting points. I particularly like when he talks about patriotism and being more informed about your country, and he makes you think a little when he floats that idea of reconciliation.

What does it mean "to reconcile"? By that definition it could mean several different things. This is a word which has been thrown around alot lately, and nobody seems to be sure exactly what it means. It could mean to solve a dispute, or to settle your debts, or it could even have a religious context as in catholic reconciliation and penance. Which of these reconciliations are we seeking, and which do we need?

I suppose I started thinking about it around the time that I got here, to Hanoi. In this context it's not really clear either. Suppossedly, America and Vietnam have reconciled. 33 years after the end of the war and they definitely don't hate Americans here. It's strange actually, but they really seem to genuinely like Americans, and if any of you have been traveling recently you know that that feeling isn't very common these days. It's more than just the Harley Davidson, Coca Cola, Brad and Angelina stuff that most of the world love-hates. And it's more than just a reluctant tolerance of Americans that you feel when you travel sometimes. It's an actual thing. They really like us.

Maybe we've been saying our daily affirmations loud enough for Vietnam to hear. What's not to like about that guy? Or maybe they just like us because we only had one war with them. By the same token that the Vietnamese like Americans, they seem to genuinely hate the Chinese. They had to fight those guys for years, many different times and hate them as a result. Would we feel it was unjustified if they hated us?

So, this idea of reconciliation is elusive. Back to that definition, maybe we need all of the above in Iraq. We need to solve the conflict, settle our debts, and pay our penance. Put in the Iraqi context can those three things ever happen in Iraq among themselves, much less with America? And even if it were to happen, Can we ever really expect them ever to genuinely like America? I mean, we gave them the gift of democracy, right?

I asked one of my American buddies what it meant to reconcile and he said "Typically I don't take things seriously enough to require reconciliation. And generally I think it's better just to forget about things like that. Focusing on it as part of the "healing" process just rekindles old hatreds and impedes progress." As a side note, he also asked that I only identify him as an anonymous highly placed source. But his answer is an honest one and interesting because maybe that's what Vietnam has done with their American war. They've just blown it off. In the grand scheme of Vietnamese history, it's a blip on the time line. Forgive and forget, right? Those Chinese, though... they were the real problem.

Is that what's going to happen with Iraq? Someday we'll all look back on this and have a belly laugh. Or, you'll thank me someday. Is that what American is hoping for? Is that what Iraq forsees in their future? When, where, how and with whom is this reconciliation going to take place? We're not even sure how it happened in Vietnam and it's been thirty years. How about this guys, maybe this time we should actually try to learn something?