News at Eleven: As for his politics, [W.B.] Yeats

was hardly a democrat, and he did not care much for "progress"--which makes him an odd choice for people who hope to turn Iraq into a vibrant democracy. Yeats was attracted to fascism, and he rebelled as a youth against the adults' talk of progress by embracing its opposite. "I took satisfaction in certain public disasters, felt sort of ecstasy at the contemplation of ruin," he once wrote.

from The New York Times: What W. B. Yeats's 'Second Coming' Really Says About the Iraq War

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