Although people don’t feel that their lives have been directly changed by the Iraq war, they do feel that it changed their perception of the government, and of America’s role in the world

Question: What were the surprises that came out of your Socrates experience?

Peter Beinart: I think it was striking to me the degree to which, although people didn’t feel that their lives have been personally changed by the Iraq war, they did felt that it changed their perception of their government, and of America’s role in the world; that those . . . that those changes . . . people felt those changes quite profoundly; that it . . . Even people who were mostly not involved in the political world professionally, that it had had a powerful impact on the way they see quite basic questions; not just American foreign policy in the Middle East, but more basic questions about what America should be doing in the world; what makes people in other societies tick; and how our own government operates.

Recorded on: 9/12/07