Correlli Barnett has dismissed the entire ‘war on terror’ as a fraud on the grounds that one cannot wage war against a phenomenon. As it happens, the Royal Navy has quite a track record of waging war against phenomena — slavery and piracy. One can certainly make the case that that’s what the Bush administration is doing — after all, from Colombia to Sri Lanka, various longstanding terrorist campaigns seem to have mysteriously quietened down since 9/11.
Or course, slavery and piracy were (despicable) human activities, as is terrorism, but terror is an emotion.
But, in the broader sense, Barnett might be right — that the very name of the war was its first polite evasion, the product of a culture which has banished the very concept of ‘the enemy’. From grade school up we’re taught that there are no enemies, just friends whose grievances we haven’t yet accommodated. One sympathises with Bush’s difficulties: in the early days, every time he tried to name an enemy, he got undercut. When he denounced the Taleban, Colin Powell said, au contraire, we’re very interested in reaching out to moderate Taleban. So Bush switched to the more general term ‘evildoers’, and crossed his fingers that Powell wouldn’t go on Meet the Press and claim the administration was interested in reaching out to moderate evildoers.
Good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read that.
The point of Steyn's piece is that Bush isn't selling himself and his policies, "He could use some Reaganesque clarity and toughness, plus a little more lyricism in the patriotic uplift. But one of the problems with the Bush Administration is that they think they’re so good at walking the walk they don’t have to bother talking the talk. Wrong. Last week conservatives were reminded of everything they’ve missed these last ten years."
It's easy for Steyn to wish GW was more like him, and we hear that a lot, though mostly as ridicule from those who find public speaking easy. It seems God is requiring us to judge wisely.
No comments:
Post a Comment