Wall Street Journal Discovers New, More Complex Way To Froth At Mouth

Lots of people—including Glenn Greenwald and Billmon—have taken note of a new Wall Street Journal op-ed on Iraq by Shelby Steele.

Of course, it's filled with the standard frothing at the mouth. And it's the fact of this frothing on which Greenwald, Billmon, etc. focus. But it wouldn't be a Wall Street Journal op-ed without frothing—that's part of the contract every Journal contributor signs. What's interesting to me is that the froth is of a slightly different texture than normal.

What's different about it is that Steele (who's half-black) acknowledges the reality of colonialism. He refers to its "sins" and the "evil of the Western past." He even halfway compares the actions of "the white West" to Nazi Germany.

Of course, Steele then goes on to reassure Journal readers that that's all in the past. After a "remarkable moral transformation," the only thing that remains from those days of yore is an unfortunate "white guilt." And it turns out it's only this white guilt which is preventing us from waging war in Iraq with "enough ferocity to win."

But that's standard. As I say, every Wall Street Journal contributor is legally required to advocate blowing the shit out of at least one country. Seriously, they take you to court if you don't.

Grappling openly with colonialism, though—that's something new. Usually the Journal is too busy talking about the generosity with which King Leopold brought civilization to the Congo's savages.

So, I look at this like a German neo-Nazi newspaper acknowledging that the holocaust occurred. It's a step forward, even if afterward they say Germany needs to get over its guilty feelings and go ahead and kill millions of Jews—since this time they really ARE trying to destroy the master race.

(Remember, Shelby's the one who made the Nazi comparison.)

ALSO: Here's the precise moment where Steele leaves earth and embarks on the long journey to Wall Street Journal Planet:

Because dissociation from the racist and imperialist stigma is so tied to legitimacy in this age of white guilt, America's act of going to war can have legitimacy only if it seems to be an act of social work--something that uplifts and transforms the poor brown nation (thus dissociating us from the white exploitations of old). So our war effort in Iraq is shrouded in a new language of social work in which democracy is cast as an instrument of social transformation, bringing new institutions, new relations between men and women, new ideas of individual autonomy, new and more open forms of education, new ways of overcoming poverty...

In fact, what's remarkable about the language used regarding Iraq is not that it's new, but that it's SO OLD. Can Shelby Steele really be unaware that colonialism was always, everywhere justified with exactly this language of moral uplift for the heathens? I guess he can.