Atrios' word for the day is the "a" word. It is both compelling and, as anger-filled short-hand, highly appropriate. I think, however, at least in the case of Roger Cohen we have less an asshole than we do a narcissist. As Duncan is also prone to point out to those who, like Cohen, believe that the moral agony they put on display is somehow indicative of their own depth and seriousness, the Iraq war isn't about them. It's about the lying, the manipulation not just of the American people but all the accouterments of our civil life - the various branches of government, including the military and the intelligence services, the media - and, of course, the death and devastation of a entire country meant us no harm. These people cannot help themselves, however.
If you read the criticism of Cohen's piece here, it is quite clear that Cohen does not care about the destruction of Iraq, or the devastation of our national civil life and Constitution. Trying to impress . . . someone . . . with his seriousness, he tosses about historical analogies without any sense of proportion or even relevance (Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, oh my!). Rather than deal with the moral cock-up he continues to support, he imputes moral viciousness and historical ignorance to his enemies (displaying his own ignorance and moral myopia in the process) continuing to see the entire mess in Iraq as a referendum on his judgment.
It might be pointless to point out that, rather than dredge up bad analogies from the past, it would be better to deal with the specifics of the case in point, the multiple failures and abuses with which we continue to live, and Cohen's on-going role in pushing the mess we're in, and all the death in its wake. For a narcissist like Cohen, however, the realities of the outside world are irrelevant except insofar as they can be used to justify his own pathetic excuse for an existence.
It isn't about him. It's about pretty much everything else but him. You can't argue with a narcissist, though, because they always manage to turn the tables and make the issue be them.
I'm with Duncan. Why in the world does anyone publish this kind of tripe?
