Bush continues to surprise. The $300 million food drop into Afghanistan gives a whole new meaning to compassionate conservatism. I must say I’m cautiously impressed. If this stage in the campaign is designed to foster as broad a coalition for the destruction of al Qaeda and the Taliban, so far so good. If these actions are designed to minimize domestic and foreign opposition while preparing for a major and relentless attack on terrorism, so much the better. If Bush is handing over our foreign policy to Colin Powell now for the important task of diplomacy prior to a systematic campaign to wipe out terrorism and the states that still sponsor it, better still. But there’s a chance that something else is happening. There’s a chance that Bush is simply taking a minimalist approach to this war, after a rhetorical fusillade. If all this amounts to is a few commando raids against bin Laden, if Saddam is allowed to stay and prepare yet another counter-attack, if Hamas and Hezbollah are left intact, if the Saudis are allowed to continue their policy of fostering extreme Islamo-fundamentalism, then this policy is worse than nothing at all. Anything less than a full-frontal assault on terrorism and terrorist-sponsoring states would be sending a clear signal to bin Laden and his ilk. That signal would be that, for all our bluster, we are not serious, that we can absorb and accept an act of war upon us with mere minor retaliation as a consequence. The terrorists will understand from this that they can strike again with relative impunity, and next time, make it even bigger. I worry every time I hear president Bush tell us to get back to normal. Normal is the last thing we should feel. What happened on September 11 was a brutal invasion of this country. There is no normality after it. The only thing that follows should be an extermination of the enemy in all its forms – relentlessly, constantly, insistently. No, I’m not for rushing into an unfocused action. I’m not for alienating any friendly state we can find. But everything – everything – must be subordinate to the ultimate goal of extinguishing the terrorism that threatens the United States and the West. I still believe this is what president Bush is aiming for. But there are some signs that he is going wobbly. I’m hoping and praying that those signs disappear soon. Whatever the dangers of action, the dangers of inaction are now far, far greater. I pray to God the president understands this – and doesn’t let this unique opportunity slip between his fingers.
IF CLINTON IS CALIGULA…: Doesn’t that make B-b-b-Bush C-c-c-c-Claudius?
THE ENEMY WITHIN: The notion that there might be the chance among some enclaves of the decadent left for a fifth column during this war was roundly condemned when I mentioned it in an aside in a recent piece. Anthony Lewis called my suggestion a “disgusting diatribe.” Tim Noah called on me to retract it. Having attended the protests in Washington last weekend in which it was quite clear that many of these nihilists openly want a defeat of the West, I beg to differ. These people may not be many; they may be obscure; they may even be unhinged. But they exist – just as there existed, now beyond historical dispute, a cadre of Americans who worked actively for Moscow during the Cold War. Anyway, I hope Lewis and Noah take a moment to look at the following website, run by a group called the United Peoples. Among the contentions of this group is that the massacre was actually perpetrated by the U.S. government, that 4,000 Jews were given advance warning and stayed away from the WTC on September 11, that the U.S. military trained the terrorists, and that this whole event was orchestrated to foment new defense spending and a crackdown on the “anti-globalization” movement of which these people are an integral part. I quote: “[T]hese terror actions were precisely what Sharon and Bush at this particular moment needed to get out of their deadlocks, and ? hardly any other move could have brought about the present favorable situation for their genocidal policies. A very high percentage of probability therefore speaks in favour of the assumption that more than 6,000 working class people (NOT CEOs: they together with 4000 Jews had been warned beforehand!) of many different nationalities were killed by their host country in order to produce the present situation.” Yes, of course these people are cracked, and there are very few of them. But they exist, and they are Americans. If they do not constitute a fifth column, then maybe Messrs Noah and Lewis could tell me what does.
The Dish 