In policy disputes culture – however ambiguously defined – trumps most other characteristics including money, enthusiasm, even courage. By culture I'm referring to the habits of mind that are cultivated by the institutions in a given society.
If one relies on a Tocquevillian interpretation of national character, the U.S. he observed was a nation that encouraged liberty and individualism, but it also fostered associations and communal ties. More recently, David Putman argued that Americans have been so seduced by television viewing they are accustomed to watching alone and "bowling alone". The venerated historian David Potter maintained that affluence permitted the expression of liberty. Obviously America means different things to different people.
One condition however, is increasingly apparent in the national profile: impatience. This is a cultural trait borne of affluence and enhanced by freedom. The ability to move quickly from place to place and the exchange of ideas from one side of the globe to the other in real time have given Americans the sense that if it isn't happening instantly, it isn't happening at all.
There simply is not time for reflection. Americans are on the move literally and figuratively. Channel surfing is a national sport; a television producer must capture an audience in the first ten seconds. A newspaper story must grab the reader in the first paragraph.
If you deliver information on a computer, impatience is what you cater to. But even hackers grow impatient if broadband and speedy DSL aren't available. Computer users demand speed; the faster, the better.
Yet there is a downside to impatience. Americans may have lost staying power. Although President Bush made it clear after 9/11 that the war on terrorism would take years, after several months the American people are starting to stir.
The relatively rapid success in the Iraq war led inexorably to a belief in a relatively rapid peaceful withdrawal. Democratic presidential candidates have engaged in a continual drumbeat for the departure of American troops. And, as one might guess, the American people are jumping to the beat.
Since the economy is growing at a rate faster than most analysts predicted, Iraq is the only issue Democratic hopefuls have left. They also realize that implicit appeals to impatience may pay off. Clearly the president's popularity is waning and most of this decline is related to his handling of events in Iraq.
If one were to consider conditions dispassionately, what is most needed at the moment is patience, an awareness that staying the course is necessary. Terrorists in Iraq are counting on American impatience. They assume that casualties and bombing will weaken American resolve. They assume as well that political considerations militate against sustained commitment.
In fact, there is now a test of wills. President Bush contends U.S. forces will not be forced to leave Iraq. Conversely, several Democratic candidates have called for immediate withdrawal and others have come close to suggesting this as well.
Should impatience prevail, the consequences would be disastrous for American interests. The terrorists would be emboldened; the U.S. would be seen as "a paper tiger: - a claim often used by the terrorists. Clearly the advocates for withdrawal are playing with fire. But do they realize a condition the president overlooks?
Perhaps Americans cannot stay the course. Perhaps the culture of affluence has produced an impatience for anything but immediate success.
I would hope that these suppositions are wrong, but I wonder. Already the vision of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon has faded from the national memory. I hear students asking why we have detained suspected terrorists in Guantanano so long. The New York Times, a bell weather of liberal opinion, editorializes about the need for Iraqi withdrawal.
There appears to be a nexus between impatience and the demands on America foreign policy. With luck, the U.S. may be able to withdraw and seamlessly transfer authority to a stable Iraqi government. After all, one should hope for the best.
Realism, however, dictates consideration of another scenario in which cultural imperatives insist on premature departure. I earnestly hope I am wrong; yet there is a nagging suspicion that a nation accustomed to instant coffee, quick acting drugs, immediate gratification may not be ready for a long drawn out war. Patience is a virtue, but impatience may now be an overarching national characteristic.
Herbert London is president of the Hudson Institute and John M. Olin professor of humanities of the New York University, publisher of American Outlook and author of "Decade of Denial," recently published by Lexington Books. He's reachable through www.benadorassociates.com.
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