Month: June 2005

There are many disagreements I have with this column by Charles Krauthammer. But let me just point out one. Charles posits two forms of “imposition of values” on society. One is by secularists; and one by Christians. Here’s a quote that suggests the dichotomy as he sees it:

It seems perfectly O.K. for secularists to impose their secular views on America, such as, say, legalized abortion or gay marriage. But when someone takes the contrary view, all of a sudden he is trying to impose his view on you. And if that contrary view happens to be rooted in Scripture or some kind of religious belief system, the very public advocacy of that view becomes a violation of the U.S. constitutional order.

It seems to me that this is the wrong formulation, and already concedes something that should not be conceded. Christianism – politicized Christianity – argues for the imposition of one religion’s values over the entire society. So, in this context, it would forbid gay couples from getting civil marriages or unions and prevent pregnant women from seeking an abortion. Secularism is not the polar opposite. Secularism allows Christians, and any other religious faith, to affirm religious values, live exactly as they see fit, and avoid such moral outrages as abortion and gay civil unions in their own lives, if they so wish. All secularism does is say that as a political matter, there will be as much government neutrality as possible because the government should represent all citizens; that the Church and the state shall coexist, but independently of each other. Secularism is not only compatible with aggressive and proud Christian faith; in practice, secularism has fostered that faith. The polar opposite of Christianism, in contrast, would be a government that actively suppresses religious faith, discriminates against Christianity and forbids Christians from practising their way of life. No one is proposing that. I’m really concerned that secularism is slowly becoming tainted with the same brush as “liberalism.” But secularism is the great modern achievement of Christianity and of Western freedom. It is an honorable tradition, integral to the entire concept of Western liberty. The difference between secularism and Christianism, to put it bluntly, is that one side is happy to let people make their own moral choices; and one side isn’t. So who exactly is imposing on whom?

Two pieces of analysis to grapple with the seemingly growing insurgency in Iraq. I say “growing” because, as Steve Chapman points out,

Fatalities from car bombings and suicide bombings have soared five-fold since November. Attacks on U.S. forces have been running at 70 a day, double the rate in March and April.

Steve proposes reducing U.S. troop levels to undermine the political appeal of the insurgency. But wouldn’t that withdrawal merely empower the insurgency? It would certainly demoralize the Iraqi government, such as it is. A more persuasive case is made in the NYT, arguing for a more thorough re-training of Iraqi military commanders – by taking them for long periods to the U.S. I have to say that sounds more sensible to me. Even then, however, we need to be thinking in terms of around a decade of major commitment. Have we made that case to the American people? Have we prepared for it? To my mind, one measure of the administration’s seriousness is its plans for the military. We obviously need more manpower to deal with Iraq and any other serious crises. And yet Rumsfeld is opposed. I guess when you believe that the insurgency is in “its last throes,” you don’t need to reach for more radical solutions. What we have, I fear, is an administration in a cocoon of its own denial. That denial was intensified by the two elections last November and last January. I just hope it unravels soon.

The military desperately needs soldiers. It even more desperately needs good soldiers. But this wounded serviceman who won a Purple Heart in Iraq and was eager to return was discharged today. The reason? He’s gay. None of his fellow soldiers minded. But policy must be upheld. Only gay liars are allowed in the military. Even if you win a Purple Heart, honesty and integrity violate the military code.

“They will do everything they can to disrupt the process up to those elections in January because they know that once you’ve got a democratically elected government in place that has legitimacy in the eyes of the people of Iraq, they’re out of business. That will be the end of the insurgency.” – vice president Dick Cheney, October 28, 2004.

One analysis of the Dutch referendum result: They are the Knights that say “Nee!”

“With regard to your description of the mosque suicide bombing: Even though your horror and disgust over this and similar terrorist incidents is understandable, I think when you deny this act is a product of religious fanaticism and instead ascribe it to some kind of reified “evil”, you run the risk of relieving both individuals and religious and political institutions of responsibility. No, this is precisely religious fanaticism. Suicide bombings are hardly the first time that religious fanaticism has brought horror to the world. Look at history. Look at European history. Look at Catholic history. Look at Nazism and Communism, which denied religion but acted as religions. One could make a good case for the fact that fanaticism is the core problem of humanity, the outward symptom of our deepest psychological and spiritual dilemma. Calling it “pure, nihilist evil” lets us off too light, lets it get away and scuttle off into the darkness again. It is not pure, nihilist evil; it is precisely religious fanaticism, and precisely what we need to recognize and acknowledge as a universal human issue if we ever intend to take responsibility for it and grow beyond it. Don’t give it a place to hide by reifying it or blaming it on the perpetrator of the day. This shadow belongs to all of us. Drag it front and center and make us look at it.”

I take the point. My point, perhaps artlessly made, is that this is a kind of religion which does not do justice to the genuine article. No true Muslim can believe that suicide and mass murder in a religious place is religiously mandated or permissible. This distortion, this pride, is an evil that can occur under any totalist philosophy, including atheist totalitarianisms, as well as religions. But someone who truly struggles to understand God cannot arrive at the kind of moral certainty and extremism of al Qaeda. They have substituted man for God, as the Catholic church has done at various points in its history, and as other nominally Christian bigots have also done, in coopting the Bible to justify any number of hatreds and pathologies over the centuries. Where religion ends and evil begins is an interesting question, of course. How can something that does so much good be turned to so much evil? My own tentative view is that this moment arrives whenever human beings really do believe they have achieved certainty about the great unknowables. That certainty masks itself as revelation or authority but is in fact an abandonment of the humility that is the mark of genuine faith. You see that certainty in the Islamists and, to a far lesser extent, in the Christianists. And at some point such certainty becomes evil. With al Qaeda, that happened a long time ago.

“I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” – vice-president Dick Cheney. You’ll either be relieved or terrified by this statement by Mr Cheney. Relieved if you think he has a grip on the situation; terrified if you think it shows he has no idea what is going on in Iraq (or in the military’s own detention facilities, for that matter). But at least he has given us a clear marker for the future that we can hold him to.

It’s worth reminding ourselves that as we rightly subject religious intolerance or abuse within the U.S. military to scrutiny, the enemy is doing things far, far worse. It tells you a lot about the genuine blasphemy of the Islamo-fascists that they go apeshit every time a mortar falls faintly near a mosque (which are often fronts for paramilitary activity in Iraq), and yet they also commit atrocities like this. An al Qaeda suicide bomber kills up to 20 people at a funeral, wounding many more – in a sacred place. This is not religious faith; it isn’t even religious fanaticism. It is pure, nihilist evil.

There has been much sane commentary on the collapse of the EU constitution in France. I’m happy, because I am not a believer in a politically unified Europe, although I’m a strong supporter of free trade and free movement on the European continent. I’m happy also because it means that Britain will be less isolated and free from a deeper union. But a little realism is in order. The reason the French voted against the constitution is primarily because they fear an open market, a global economy and a free economy. Yes, this was a protest against the results of the current policies – economic stagnation. But it was also a vote to intensify the current policies, not reverse them. The vote makes economic reforms harder not easier; and will probably mean even worse times for the euro-area economy. This isn’t good for Europe, for the prospect of Angela Merkel’s reforms in Germany, and for the U.S. Chirac lost in part because he wasn’t anti-Anglo-American enough. Every day, I feel more amazed at what Margaret Thatcher achieved for Britain. Without her, Britain would be in the same state as France: deadlocked in decline with no one bold enough to shake the whole system up. She made all the difference.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FOR KERRY: Why is an ostensibly independent human rights group allowing its officials to contribute to political campaigns? Mike Petrelis has the details.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “We already have a perfect historical analog for your support of non-reciprocal Geneva adherence – the fact that the the US stuck to the Geneva rules in its treatment of Japanese POWs, despite the fact that Imperial Japan not only refused to reciprocate but treated our POWs in the vilest ways imaginable. There would, no doubt, have been widespread public support among the American people for reciprocal mistreatment of Japanese POWs – but the Roosevelt Administration refused to do so for one simple reason: we wanted Japan afterwards to be a peaceful, non-occupied nation, and mistreating their POWs was not the way to accomplish this. This factor is even more important in the War Against Megaterrorism — we can hardly occupy the entire Moslem world, even briefly — but the self-indulgent dimwits currently running the government refuse to see this, and we will all end up paying for it.”

GOD’S PHONE COMPANY: Some wonderful telemarketing tapes can be listened to here, with callers urging listeners to switch to “Christian” telephone companies, if they object to same-sex marriage. The religious right doesn’t sleep. If a company allows domestic partnerships, or if it supports the ACLU or gay rights groups, they need to be boycotted. Money quote: “Together, you and I will destroy the gays.” “Exactly.” Feel the love of Jesus.

A dialogue between two politically diverse brothers can be read here. But the transcript also contains the following priceless exchange:

Female audience member: Excuse me. I’m not usually awkward at all but I’m sitting here and we’re asked not to smoke. And I don’t like being in a room where smoking is going on.

CH (smoking heavily): Well you don’t have to stay darling, do you? I’m working here and I’m your guest, OK? And this is what I’m like; nobody has to like it.

Ian Katz (Facilitator): Would you just stub that one out?

CH: No. I cleared it with the festival a long time ago. They let me do it.

FAM: We should all be allowed to smoke then.

CH: Fair enough. I wouldn’t object. It might get pretty nasty though. I have a privileged position here, I’m not just one of the audience, so it would be horrible if everyone was like me. This is my last of five gigs, I’ve worked very hard for the festival. I’m going from here to Heathrow airport. If anyone doesn’t like it they can kiss my ass.

IK: Would anyone like to take up that challenge?

(Laughter. Woman walks out)

Love it. Reminds me of the AbFab episode where Patsy attends a play put on by Saffi. As she walks to her seat, she is asked to stop smoking. “Oh, don’t be so bloody stupid!” is the reply. I don’t know why I like this, except, of course, a fondness for people who don’t always conform. I hate cigarette smoke, but I often love the people who emit it.

“ABSURD”: Some of the rhetoric in Amnesty International’s report on U.S. detainment policies is indeed excessive. It is simply wrong on every level to equate the United States’ policy of detention, abuse, torture and rendition of terror suspects with the Soviet Union’s vast domestic prison system, designed to perpetuate an evil totalitarianism. But equally, it is now indisputable that a network of secret prisons exists to detain and interrogate terror suspects, that some of those imprisoned are “ghost detainees” with no proper records or accounting, that abuse and torture have occurred in hundreds of cases, that this president signed a memo defining torture into near-non-existence, that there is no secure method for determining the guilt or innocence of the prisoners, and that all of this has decimated America’s international reputation. It is equally indisputable that investigations into these incidents are simply not “fully investigated in a transparent way.” Even the most egregious cases of murder, as in Bagram, are sometimes dismissed at first for lack of evidence. Incidents of Koran abuse were deemed “not credible” for a week, until five incidents were confirmed. Many, many other accusations are deemed baseless because the only willing testimony comes from prisoners and no investigation takes place. Further, military critics of administration policy are often fired; and the message from the top is unmistakable. These are simply facts. To describe criticisms of this policy and record as “absurd” is itself absurd. It bespeaks either stunning cynicism, or equally stunning denial. And it suggests to me that there will be no resolution to this profound problem coming from the administration itself. They’re relying on the general public not to care, or to believe that the ends of preventing terror justify almost any means, including an end to America’s proud history of decency toward prisoners in wartime. That makes it all the more incumbent on the Congress, the media and the part of the public that does love this country’s reputation and humaneness to speak out and demand accountability. The odds are long, but we have no choice but to try.