In case there's still any doubt, smart is good

This past Friday, I had an absorbing and enjoyable lunch with Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan and illustrious blogger at Informed Comment. His blog is, quite simply, the best internet resource for Iraq analysis. My knowledge of the region and its history pales in comparison to his, and it was a pleasure to be able to pick his brain. I occasionally disagree with Juan, of course, but his analysis is always logical, incisive, and worth reading.

Not to get too meta, but what Professor Cole does in the blogosphere is highly unusual for academia, a world that rewards long-form and long-term scholarship far more than input to the issues of the day. But these kinds of individuals, these intellectual resources, are tremendously valuable analysts, especially when political and policy issues intersect with their fields of study.

Many Americans have something of a love/hate relationship with expertise. For a variety of reasons, it is in vogue, especially among conservatives, to denounce and disapprove of intellectualism and knowledge. Something like, if you’re not going with your gut, you’re not to be trusted – thinkers are bad and scary and wrong. I don’t want to try to explain that orientation, but I will say that learning from others is a great thing, so I’m always happy to stumble across people who make complicated issues understandable and accessible. Over the years, I’ve learned a ton from Juan, who is an invaluable resource due to his particular combination of knowledge and courage, especially in a time when there’s a dearth of people who understand the policy and political forces we’re dealing with in the Middle East.

Things aren’t getting any better in Iraq, with the government trying to navigate minefields (now literal as well as figurative), often unsuccessfully. Maliki’s cabinet is falling apart, protests are rampant, and somehow we’ve gone from a surge of limited duration for the purpose of creating political space to compromise . . . to, instead, an escalation of unlimited duration with the impossible goal of killing/capturing all the bad guys in a country of 25 million people. We need all the experts we can get.