This struck me as a particularly sharp George Will column.
A LILEKS CLASSIC: Forgive me for not linking sooner. Money quote:
[Michael Moore]: Are you proud that the rest of the world, which poured out its heart to us after Sept. 11, now looks at us with disdain and disgust?
[Lileks]: Let me see if I can find the right way to put this:
No.
Again, the high-school-level thinking: “the rest of the world.” It’s simplistic to identify Iran, Iraq and North Korea as evil. It’s simplistic to state in the immediate wake of 9/11 that nations are either with the terrorists, or the United States. But it’s a sign of complex nuanced thinking to say that “the rest of the world . . . looks at us with disdain and disgust.” Yes, the world poured out its heart; it cost them nothing. Hearts are easily tipped and just as easily refilled. When the French newspaper said “We are all Americans now” it sounded nice, and I suppose it was, but in retrospect it looks as if there was an undercurrent of appeasement and surrender: we are all Americans because we are all victims in a sense, non? We ceased to earn the precious coin of French approval when we fired the chief procurer for their favorite customer, Iraq. C’est dommage. We can live with it.
Wait until France gets a hard shot in the nose. Wait until France reacts with some nasty work. They’ll get a golf-clap from the chattering class over here and a you-go-girl from Red America. France could nuke an Algerian terrorist camp and the rest of the world would tut-tut for a day, then ask if the missiles France used were for sale. And of course the answer would be oui.
Damn, I love James in a temper.
BLACK AND WHITE: I’ve been getting mor emails than usual complaining about the color scheme of the blog. I know it’s hard on some eyes. But that’s why we have a little button at the top of the Dish titled “Black and White.” Click on it if you want to change the color scheme, m-kay?
The Dish 