Our Iraq Moment: This is the Donner Party!

David Brooks seems to think we'll be alright as soon as we get over our sissified squeamishness and get to work doing what must be done.

"The guides who aided and fleeced the pioneers who moved West were struck by how clueless many of them were about the wilderness they were entering. Their diaries show that many thought they could establish genteel New England-style villages in short order. They leapt before they looked, faced the shock of reality, adapted and cobbled together something unexpected."

And got used to the taste of human flesh in some cases.

Correction: In a recent post, I stated that a group of senior JAG officers visited the ACLU office in New York to ask for help in investigating charges that the DoD was systematically violating prisoners' rights in Iraq. That was incorrect. They visited the New York Bar Association's committee on international human rights.