Once upon a time, I believed...

As we're discussing "The Great War and Modern Memory" on the DMN Book Club blog, I was reflecting on Paul Fussell's stage-setting observation, namely that no one prior to World War I could have conceived of how many illusions it would shatter by the time it ended. Of course the Iraq War is nothing compared to the civilization-shattering phenomenon of the Great War. Still, I reflected on what things I believed at the onset of the war, that I no longer do as a result of the war. A short list:

1. Having been absolutely certain that the war was the right thing to have done, and that we would prevail easily, I am no longer confident that I can discern when emotion is affecting my judgment unduly.

2. I no longer implicitly trust governmental institutions, including the military -- neither in their honesty nor their competence.

3. I no longer believe the Republican Party is superior in foreign policy judgment to the Democrats.

4. I no longer have confidence in the ability of our military, or any military, to solve deep cultural and civilizational problems through force alone. I mean, I thought nothing could stand in the way of the strongest military fielded since the days of ancient Rome. No more.

5. I have a far greater appreciation for how rare and fragile liberal democracy is, and a corresponding revulsion at the American assumption that it's the natural state of mankind. Which is to say, the war has made me rethink my ideas about human nature, and I'm far more pessimistic now than I ever was.

Add your own personal list below.

UPDATE: Paleocon Daniel Larison's list is quite thought-provoking. Excerpt:

2) One of my other false beliefs connected to this was that most conservatives were conservatives first and GOP partisans second (if at all), and would therefore be just as outraged by GOP government activism and overreach as they had been in the 1990s. This was the worst sort of naivete on my part, and it was repeatedly shown to be false. ...

5) Yet another false belief was that most conservatives were not nationalists, when obviously the defining feature of most Americans who call themselves conservatives is that they are, in fact, nationalists. Had I been reading more Lukacs in my younger days, I would have already known this.

UPDATE.2: One of Andrew's readers fisks my comments. Below, with my response in bold:

2. I no longer implicitly trust governmental institutions, including the military -- neither in their honesty nor their competence.

Rod might add non government institutions on that list, such as the Catholic Church. Frankly, it is unhealthy to "implicitly trust" any man made institution (or a sure fired way to end up very disappointed).

I respond: Well, yeah, I pretty much did that re: the Catholic Church, which I left last year. I don't think I have it in me to trust any institution implicitly anymore.

3. I no longer believe the Republican Party is superior in foreign policy judgment to the Democrats.

I am ready to agree to this and then Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid open their mouths and destroy the illusion (and that takes real talent given the foriegn policy bungling of Cheney in Charge).
I respond: I said I no longer believed the GOP is superior; I didn't mean to imply that the Democrats are superior. The difference is that for my entire adult life -- I am 40, and came of age politically under Reagan -- I assumed that the Republicans were the only foreign-policy game in town. They were the grown-ups, the trustworthy party, the sound party. Not anymore.