Sunday's Brooks column: Stop the Inanity!

I hate to flog the dead Trojan horse, but David Brooks's column in yesterday's Times includes three passages that cry out for mockery. Here they are, in order of appearance:

"The Bush folks, at least when it comes to Africa policy, have learned from centuries of conservative teaching--from Burke to Oakeshott to Hayek--to be skeptical of . . . grand plans. Conservatives emphasize that it is a fatal conceit to think we can understand complex societies, or rescue them from above with technocratic planning."

I'm sure that the Times editors made Brooks insert that clause, "at least when it comes to Africa policy." Because the Bush folks have not learned anything "from Burke to Oakeshott to Hayek" when it comes to our Iraq policy. There the "fatal conceit" is on grand display. And Burke et al. seem to have been on to something. (BTW, the thought of the president sitting down and reading Oakeshott (or Hayek) strikes me as profoundly funny. I know Brooks doesn't say that, but still frigging hilarious.)

[Discussing the administration's Millenium Challenge Accounts] "This program is built upon the assumption that aid works only where there is good governance and good governance exists only where the local folks originate and believe in the programs."

Like the Iraqis originated the U.S. rebuilding of their country . . . into a vibrant Middle Eastern beacon of democracy . . . or something.

"[I]f we pour aid into Africa [me: Iraq] without regard to local institutions, we will do little good, we will exhaust donors and we will discredit the aid enterprise for years to come."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

This column answers at least one question: Brooks is completely full of it.