Bernard Lewis discredited?

To which Martin Kramer replies "Fie!" More?

Misreading Lewis. Newsweek senior editor Michael Hirsh has a silly piece on Bernard Lewis in the Washington Monthly, claiming Lewis fathered the idea of imposing democracy on Iraq. So read this reporter's summary of a Washington lecture Lewis delivered a few months before the war: Lewis "said flatly that the idea of third parties producing and applying modern institutions in the Arab Middle East is 'unrealistic'. If the initiative is viewed by Arabs as a 'forced change by an external force', Lewis said, it is doomed to backfire, particularly if the democratizing initiative is accompanied by a prolonged U.S. military presence. Lewis said that Israeli forces were initially warmly welcomed as liberators in South Lebanon, but before long, the perfumed rice and flowers that were thrown at them turned into rockets and bombs." Hirsh missed that because he relied exclusively on Lewis's critics, who read Lewis selectively and with malice.
Tue, Nov 9 2004 5:36 pm

Our Memorials

Rightfully thinking of honoring our fallen soldiers, Hugh Hewitt proposed the other day that we encourage Congress to build a memorial in Shanksville, PA, in the field of the first American resistance. Then I read Jonathan Last's response. Evidently, he has visited Shanksville (written up here), and he says that that would be a horrible thing. It seems that Americans (and non Americans) have, spontaneously, been building a memorial, have been making a sort of pilgrimage and leaving behind signs and symbols of gratitude and memory. The local folks maintain and monitor the site. A big, planned memorial would ruin what has sprung up there. (I wish we had pictures!)

There's more. Tonight, Powerline pointed out a website, Fallen Heroes Memorial, dedicated to listing each of our fallen soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq--with circumstances of death, home, and a place for comments for each soldier individually or a bulletin board for all. It is moving, especially comments of friends or comrades of the fallen. Much, if not all, is hard to read. It is gratifying though to see the graditude and good faith of non-Americans' (again) and many of our American youth.

UPDATE: Jonathan Last has kindly left links to photos in the Comments section.