Noted military expert (years of role-playing, anyway) and one-time war-letter corresponder Steven Den Beste of the USS clueless has an interesting post today about how we aught to go about rebuilding the Iraqi army. It all sounds pretty solid actually, but this line struck me as a little out of place:

There are also major cultural problems. We have to break them of their unwillingness to fail, or to admit failure; we have to instill in them an American attitude towards admitting mistakes so that they can be corrected.

Ah yes, that vaunted American attitude towards admitting mistakes, so brilliantly on display by the current administration amid the WMD scandal. Though I've long sense concluded that Den Beste is somewhat delusional or at least irrationally emotional wrt patriotism and love of country, he does implicitly make a valid point. Democratic leaders admit their mistakes. Trueman said "the buck stops here." Kennedy owned up to the Bay of Pigs. Humility and a willingness to be open and honest with the public are hallmarks of great democratic leaders. It seems clear that the crowd we have in office will never admit to doing anything wrong. I don't know if it's born-again self-righteousness, simple myopia or a truly sinister willingness to manipulate and deceive, but whatever it is, it's one more reason these people have got to go.