Bernard Lewis is Back. (But He Was Never Gone.) There is a long interview with Bernard Lewis in the WSJ. I can't cite the link, as you know, because WSJ is a pay site. But it is interesting only because he is trying so hard to absolve himself from political responsibly and preparing a defense for himself against academic and historical judgment. What is most revealing is that when he talks about current events in the Middle East, he does not sound like a specialist. He sounds like a politician, nay a propagandist; like you typical ill-informed politician who is reduced to spouting cliches, generalizations, and slogans. He speaks in words that fill the speeches of Bush and company. Bernard Lewis has nothing to offer the new, i.e. modern or contemporary, Middle East by way of analysis. He remains, to quote a sentence in Maxime Rodinson's la fascination de l'islam, imprisoned in the arrogant self-confidence of classical Orientalists. Instead of evidence derived from modern realities or from empirical research or from public opinion surveys in the region (the existence of which Lewis is unaware), Lewis is stuck in wild generalizations. His generalizations serves as the ideological underpinning of Bush's doctrine in the Middle East. In the past, we complained about Bernard Lewis and his method. We were angry at his biases and his inaccuracies and his superficial analysis of the Modern Middle East. Today, we have more, much more, serious complaints. Today, we complain about Bernard Lewis and his ideas because they have contributed--I would not say led--to a devastating war that brought more destruction and more brutality to the Middle East. All those of us who were warning of the implications of Bernard Lewis' ideas, have been vindicated. I fear that we will be more vindicated in years to come. This is from the WSJ: "Although Mr. Lewis insists he was never a "formal" consultant, people familiar with the matter say he recently met with President Bush and is particularly close to Vice President Cheney. Several other U.S. officials have called upon his counsel. His impact on the administration's thinking on the Mideast has been compared to that of George Kennan's "containment," doctrine during the Cold War." (thanks John)