America, we need to talk - seriously

With the end of the Iraq war, no more serious talk, right?

Au contraire. Elemental questions remain - of who we are and where we're going; questions that our "victory" in Iraq only heightens, especially as we presume to rebuild that country and reshape the world.

Who are we? In diplomacy, the world sees us as cowboys; in business, bare-knuckled capitalists; in culture, creators of cartoons and "cool" who'd naturally secure the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad but not the National Museum (whose destruction our Defense Secretary dismissed with "stuff happens").

And where are we going? As the "hyper-power," do we appropriately assert our might and ideas globally, as the Bush administration assumes? In fighting terrorism, will our policy of pre-emptive strike reduce or actually increase attacks? How many more civil liberties will we yield without debate?

And with the administration mulling regime change in Iran, Syria, North Korea, these questions are urgent - we may be heading for a long season of war.

We need to talk - seriously.

Yet talk is not happening, not at the civic level. As with Sept. 11, so with the Iraq war: We fix on the big event, then when it's "finished," we return to business and fun, so relieved. Suggest the big event is not finished, and you get generic responses - or non-responses - with much nervous laughter:

"Hey, we won, what's the problem?" "Nothing serious goes on in this household, thank you." "Deep thought's not my thing, I'm too busy." "I think about these things, but what can I do?" And, most disturbing, "I'm past caring, I can't take more negativity."

Talk does occur, but it's narrowcast between like minds. Talk between unlike minds often ends in disputes over patriotism. For a verbal people who glory in freedom of expression, we're uncommonly mute now. So are the media and politicians: Few are asking where we're going.

Moreover, if a citizen turns to the administration, what does he get? Shifting rationales and fudged intelligence on Iraq, loyalty checks (the France-bashing continues), and photo ops of the president profiled at Mount Rushmore and zooming onto an aircraft carrier. In short, nonengagement and stagecraft.

Quoted recently in The New York Times, the White House director of communications (emphasis intended), premising that "Americans are leading busy lives," concluded: "If they can have an instant understanding of what the president is talking about by seeing 60 seconds of television, you accomplish your goals as communicators."

Communicators to whom? Children?

Message to White House (and this will take two seconds): "We're not dummies."

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