Totally Logical, But Still Incredibly Stupid

This is why people think that modifying one's assumptions about the world in response to evidence is a good thing. Not that I expect it to happen, especially any time soon.

Anyway, can you believe this shit? Someone has been smoking from the free market pipe a bit too much:

Brinkley said early economic planners had made the understandable mistake of assuming that a free market would rapidly emerge to replace what he described as Saddam's "kleptocracy", and create full employment.

Um, right. The most charitable thing I can say about that is this: It's only understandable if all you know about the world is what you learned at the feet of Thomas Friedman, or maybe from FOX news. A broader view - hell, any view - of history would have suggested that no, "free markets" do not just spring forth whole from armed conflict. That is a badly mistaken idea that neoliberals have convinced themselves of the truth of rather effectively in the last 20 years. The sad thing is that they show no signs of recognizing their ideological error, but seem to be desperately clinging to the idea that the implementation of Iraq was a mistaken, not the premise.

The least charitable thing I can says is that holy shit, those people are fucking idiots. No wonder things are such a clusterfuck.

Via Eschaton.