A Great Big Non-Sequitur

Brad DeLong points to this bit from a Washington Post article by Richard Cohen:

The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.

Let's test this statement. Replace "Israel" by "the US". Replace "Arab Muslims" by "American Indians". Here's what we get if we place ourself somewhere around 1870:

The greatest mistak the US could make at the moment is to forget that the US itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable (except maybe those radicals who gathered in Philadelphia in 1776_, but the idea of creating a nation of European religious dissidents and economic refugees in an area of American Indians (and some French and Spaniards) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. The US fights the Sioux in the north and the Apaches in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.

Yep... what a brilliant piece of reasoning, this is quod erat demonstrandum. How could any fool argue with Richard Cohen when his logic is so incisive?

And for this Richard Cohen collects a salary from the Washington Post? Give me a break!