American Hegemony

I got books for Christmas, lot's of books, and after reading a few chapters of each I'm reminded once again that we can't blame the Ills of the world on a lack of knowledge. It's all there for the taking and clearly many of the serious miscalculations of today could be avoided by studying the past. No, we don't repeat mistakes because the necessary information to avoid them is unavailable, we repeat mistakes because we're lazy, deceitful or incompetent. How many times must we hear some version of Santayana's "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," before we'll learn?
President Gerald Ford's unfortunate passing provided some focus on the Vietnam War and Watergate era once again. Seeing Donald Rumsfeld and his sidekick, a 34 year old Dick Cheney at the heart of the Ford Administration was surreal. How do a couple of young guy's like this get to be Secretary of Defense and Chief of Staff? I think these selections are as insightful as the pardon of President Nixon into the mind of President Ford.
It doesn't matter now, they got the jobs and the rest is history, but it is incomprehensible that they were the guy's who supposedly had a large role in fixing the country after "our long national nightmare."
So, we have historical information in abundance, we have continuity with actual players from the previous period and guess what, we're right back where we were then except for the embarrassing conclusion.
There are theories galore and the spirit of the times, sort of "perfect storm," wielded notable influence along with a bungled con job that should make the keystone cops feel proud but, in my humble opinion, what drove the decision to invade Iraq was no more than good old fashion American hegemony. From here it masquerades as a hard to shake subtle sense of superiority arrived at by observing your immediate surroundings and believing that it is the highest level attainable. When you become this certain that your ideology is the right one and therefore the answer to the many problems that face all of the human race, you get giddy with the desire to share it with the world. Once they see how brilliant you and your ideas are, they will gladly accept their subordinate role and you will have strengthened America in the process, right? Wrong!
Isn't it strange how the psychology of those who wish to rule and those who resist being ruled is so similar yet neither ever seem to consider it. A clear eyed view always seems to come too late and this is no exception. It actually makes some sense that Cheney and Rumsfeld would wind up in such a predicament. As it turns out their true abilities were concentrated in their political skills. And the incompatibility of good judgement and political skill becomes clearer over time. I wonder if history will record that Cheney and Rumsfeld returned us to our "long national nightmare."Only if the historians are intelligent enough to wring hegemony out of the truth.