Argument Without End. . .

The late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., just before he died last winter, wrote that history is an argument without end. I now realize endless argument about history is a subplot of my blog.

LA Times editor Nicholas Goldberg [pictured] knew Danny Pearl, the subject of “A Mighty Heart,” the movie about Pearl’s murder by Pakistani terrorists. Goldberg looks back to ten years ago when he and Pearl used the same interpreter while covering Tehran, and spent several evenings together, two Jewish American correspondents in deep conversation about Israel and the Middle East. By contrast, Goldberg says:

What's clear. . .is that extremism has more sway now than it ever had in the 1990s, thanks not only to the successes of Al Qaeda but to American policies that have radicalized and inflamed the Muslim public. What moral standing we had in the region after 9/11 was squandered in the prison cells of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

There are many bright lines separating American liberals and conservatives. Goldberg points to one of the clearest. Conservatives believe the world changed on 9.11, when terrorists taught us they meant business. Liberals blame the U.S. for the extremists' post-9.11 successes.

Incredible. Yes, the U.S. has found it impossible to fight a mistake-free war. Still, it seems clear to me that extremists are largely responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Muslim men, women, and children, while America seeks peace and a better life for young Muslims, free from terror and with jobs plentiful. And furthermore, I believe Americans who insist on bringing down other Americans harm our ability to achieve these noble goals.

“Argument without end?” I hope not.