The Washington Post has a good editorial today on the dangers of president Bush diverting his attention to the economy. Yes, it’s okay for him to blast Tom Daschle for wanting to raise taxes (and not having the guts to say so); but there is still a war on. Bin Laden may still be at large. The next terrorist strike is surely only a matter of time. A massive shipment of arms was just uncovered being smuggled to the PLO; the State Department is being persnickety about funding the Iraqi opposition; there is al Qaeda re-grouping in Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan. I’m with Michael Ledeen on this one. No let-up!
ABROAD AT HOME: In that context, I’m not sure whether to be relieved or worried by Paul Wolfowitz’s interview with the Times today. If Wolfowitz is downplaying Iraq, who’s focusing on it? Still, Wolfowitz’s thoughts about extending the war to Somalia, the Philippines, Indonesia and the Yemen are reassuring. They certainly indicate the enormous task ahead of the administration, one which it needs to devote almost all its energies to. Besides, Bush’s concentration on the economy seems to me to be a misreading of his father’s record. The September 11 War is not the Gulf War. It has affected Americans far more directly and they are far more willing to cut the government some slack for being preoccupied with it. The economy will recover anyway. It needs a stimulus like Dick Cheney needs a hair-piece. More important, Bush needs to make the argument that Tony Blair has been making: our economic well-being is directly connected to our international security. A set-back in the war on terrorism will be far more damaging to the economy than the failure of a pork-ridden stimulus package. So stay the course, Frodo. No wobbles, please. As the Post urges, let’s hear those sentences again that we heard on September 20: “I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.”
LETTERS: The great Lord of the Rings analogy-fest. Guess who’s Gollum.
IT’S A SAD WORLD I: I guess I shouldn’t feel moved by this story of a troubled teen who killed himself in Tampa by flying his plane into a building. But this story of an isolated, desperate early adolescence is heart-wrenching stuff. Yes, I know he seemed to have sympathy for bin Laden. But he was 15 years old. Can we also have sympathy for him?
IT’S A SAD WORLD II: Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, holds his 10-day old premature baby as she dies in his arms.
The Dish 