January 25th, 2005 by zen

A DIFFERENT KIND OF REVIEW FOR PNM

Noted liberal blogger Kevin Drum had a less than evanescent review of The Pentagon’s New Map the other day that I found fairly disappointing. Not that Kevin disagreed so much as that he didn’t seem to have really grasped Dr. Barnett’s argument well enough to spark an intelligent discussion in the comments section. There was some thoughtful criticism near the end plus Critt and TM Lutas put in an appearance but in the main Kevin’s audience, few of whom actually read the book, seemed to be firmly convinced that PNM was an imperialist, neoconservative, plot.

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  1. Dan tdaxp:

    January 25th, 2005 at 7:23 pm

    Thanks for the link. I didn’t find the review so bad, but the comments reveal what the review lacks. Post after post after post either compares Barnett to the John Birch society, or criticizes him from ignorance (Barnett should support the ICC, etc). It is depressing.

    I am thankful that in the book, he devouts as much as he does to “reproducibility.” It shows that he recognizes problems of communication and tries to deal with them.

  2. Dave Schuler:

    January 26th, 2005 at 2:54 am

    It does cast some doubt on the likelihood of the Democratic Party embracing the PNM as an organizing principle for a new liberal foreign policy, doesn’t it?

  3. mark:

    January 26th, 2005 at 5:12 am

    It was depressing.

    And the liberals are going to be hopeless until they get a consensus amongst themselves to break with the America-hating wingnuts to their far-left like those who seem to dominate Kevin’s comment boards. A few resolute souls have started to do so but it is going to take some time.

  4. Stuart Berman:

    January 26th, 2005 at 4:53 pm

    Good link. Also appreciate your comments on that post, you seem to have turned the conversation from the pathetic babble to a reasoned discussion about PNM.

    I think the beauty of Barnett’s work is that it appeals to a wide spectrum of people regardless of political view – the extremists (of any side) reveal themselves pretty quickly when responding to these discussions. Maybe this will help the liberals see the extremism on their side and help break from that folly. I think this country would be well served by a strong and reasonable liberal voice (e.g. Joe Lieberman or Zell Miller) as the Boxer/Kennedy tactics are destructive to the nation.

  5. mark:

    January 26th, 2005 at 6:06 pm

    Hi Stuart

    Thank you very much. The quality of Kevin’s board has gone way, way, down from his Calpundit days. There used to be a fairly large number of very bright commenters there who constructed respectable, well-informed, arguments. Since I was one of the folks who urged Kevin to read PNM I felt it was incumbent upon me to jump into the fray.

    Good point on the extremists. The Paleocons don’t like PNM much either, but they have been much more oblique in their denunciations ( American Conservative, Arnaud de Borchgrave )- mostly veiled criticisms.