CAMILLE AGAINST THE WAR

Read the entire interview. She certainly cannot be dismissed as a Bush-hating anti-American. Her argument, I think, is that war could inflame the Middle East and spawn even more Islamic fundamentalist terror. I think she’s wrong. My own belief is that terror relies on Western passivity, and is galvanized by Western weakness. That’s what the 1990s showed. But of course, war is awful, unpredictable and deeply dangerous. Her preferred option – giving inspectors months more time in order to get a global consensus – strikes me as naive. It assumes the good will of countries like France and Russia. I don’t. And it assumes that we can somehow dampen Islamist extremism by inaction or soothing words. Sorry, but the 90s proved that strategy wrong. We ducked and weaved and appeased – and the threat merely grew. A climb-down now would do more to strengthen the Islamo-fascists than any war. In fact, it would unleash a wave of terror the like of which we have not yet seen.