CONFIRMING WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW

A recent study funded by New York University and published in Nature Neuroscience reveals some interesting differences between liberals and conservatives, primarily that conservatives tend to view matters in more simpler terms and are generally more comfortable with sticking with the same approach even when there are signs that that approach should change whereas liberals are "more responsive to informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty." The study goes on to sugges that liberals possess a "greater neurocognitive sensitivity to cues for altering a habitual response pattern."

While conservatives are certain to put in their fair share of dissent with regards to the findings of the study, I don't see how this study reveals anything new.

The war in Iraq is a classic example of why I think is absolutely, positively and unequivocably true about the fundamental difference between conservatives and progressives. Conservatives stick to the same flawed strategy despite overwhelming evidence that it is not working and they mask their recalcitrance in the name of "not flip-flopping", "not wavering in the face of public opinion polls", "sticking to one's true beliefs" or any other nonsensical reason that might be the soundbite-du jour at any given time.

On the flip side, liberals view the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism as complicated matters with no easy solutions. They see that the challenges that this country faces demand dynamic solutions that go beyond "you're either with us or against us." Liberals know that a strategy built on killing and jailing all our enemies, however desirable that is, is not practically feasible and almost impossible to execute. Lastly, liberals are acutely aware that the huge sacrifices made by the men and women of the US military demand equally brilliant solutions from the folks in Washington, not morally-bankrupt rhetoric like "the insurgency is in its last throes".

Unfortunately, the recent David Petraeus dog and pony show in front of Congress is an indication that the Republicans are still stuck in the stone age when it comes to managing the war in Iraq. While I certainly do not embrace immediate and total withdrawal of troops, it is obvious to anyone with anything more than an IQ of a carrot that the Iraqi government has neither the will nor the competence to deliver a concrete political solution that will go a long way to ending the civil war. This country and the world deserves a far better solution than Petraeus' stay-the-course strategy but sadly, it looks like January 2009 is the earliest that anyone can expect anything different.