The Secret to the Neocons’ Success

In response to Robert Scheer’s Nov. 16 Commentary article, “The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup,” the question should be asked and an answer attempted, so we can get on with what might be done: Why did the neocons succeed, in spite of the exposure of their chicanery? They succeeded, I think, because of the desire of a majority of Americans to see themselves as “better” than others, one way or another, and therefore able to right the wrongs of the world simply by projecting force on “undesirable” factors, such as the desire by Arabs to keep their own oil and “modernize” at their own pace, or the desire by “rogue states” to develop nuclear weapons and attain greater status on the world stage -- in short, to manage their own affairs, undemocratic as they may be.

No one can say with a straight face that such desires are any more unreasonable than our own. It is their resemblance to ourselves, and ours to them, that we need to acknowledge and accept. Then self-gratifying myths could not so easily be sold, and some reason might prevail in foreign policies.

Jean Gerard

Los Osos

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Once again we have been subjected to Scheer’s childish hyperventilating. It is time that The Times starts using this space for meaningful articles and analysis. Loony lefties like Scheer should realize that they have become irrelevant. Neither President Bush nor the public cares about what they are saying.

Krishna Chandra

Irvine