Category: The Dish

A reader writes:

I am not a political conservative, but I am a passionate environmentalist, and your article startled me into the realization that the source of my own environmental commitment is essentially conservative: a love for the natural world as we have received it and an intense determination that it not be lost forever. I am certain that I am not alone, and your insight is likely to alert other liberals/progressives to an unsuspected wellspring of conservatism within themselves. Is it possible that there are far more true conservatives among us than we have been able to acknowledge?

Better yet, you’ve made the case that conservatives have at least a good a claim on ‚Äî and obligation to ‚Äî policies to protect the environment as those on the left. Case closed, I think ‚Äî and in ten years, let us hope, people will marvel that it was ever open in the first place. The goal of environmental protection is fundamentally beyond politics, uniting those all across the political spectrum. We should go from disputing this to a lively debate about means: conservative vs. progressive, private initiatives vs. government actions, incentives to industry vs. regulatory requirements. Let the debate begin, and let no possible solution ‚Äî including, absolutely, no conservative solution ‚Äî go unexplored or unadvocated. And if the conservative solutions prove to be more effective than those espoused by the left, what a victory for the planet ‚Äî and for conservatism ‚Äî that would be!

So to conservatives who share your insight, I say: you have no idea how much we environmentalists of other persuasions have needed you, missed you, and been baffled by your absence. Welcome home.

Crowley thinks the latest polls ‚Äî more bullish on Joe ‚Äî are significant. Beinart makes the case. Classic Marty kvetch here. It’s almost like being back in the office.

Good news for her — and the blogosphere.

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Boone, North Carolina, noon.

Here’s a full translation of Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder’s call for the obliteration of the state of Israel in the leading Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten. Gaarder is an establishment literary figure in Europe. His anti-Semitism is far more widely held than most understand. Another money-quote:

There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the Serbs’ ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history.

We do not believe in the notion of God’s chosen people. We laugh at this people’s fancies and weep at its misdeeds. To act as God’s chosen people is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity. We call it racism…

We acknowledge and pay heed to Europe’s deep responsibility for the plight of the Jews, for the disgraceful harassment, the pogroms, and the Holocaust. It was historically and morally necessary for Jews to get their own home. However, the state of Israel, with its unscrupulous art of war and its disgusting weapons, has massacred its own legitimacy. It has systematically flaunted International Law, international conventions, and countless UN resolutions, and it can no longer expect protection from same. It has carpet bombed the recognition of the world. But fear not! The time of trouble shall soon be over. The state of Israel has seen its Soweto.

We are now at the watershed. There is no turning back. The state of Israel has raped the recognition of the world and shall have no peace until it lays down its arms.

Surrender, Jews. I have a feeling they have heard those words before and know what they presage.

"Make no mistake, there’s a jury that’s out. In half the world, the verdict is not yet in. The commitment to accept the Western idea of democracy has not yet been made, and they are waiting for you to make the case … Our best security, our only security, is in the world of ideas, and I sense a slight foreboding…  Americans must understand that if the rules of law have meaning, such as hope and inspiration for the rest of the world, it must be coupled with the opportunity to improve human existence." ‚ÄîSupreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in my view the most truly conservative of the current Justices.

Kennedy’s point reaffirms the danger of the temptation to suspend the rule of law, to grant the executive extra-legal powers, to condone torture and ignore treaties and laws, in order to fight terrorism. By abandoning these constitutional and moral standards without a fight, for whatever motives, we muddy the bright future line between civilization and barbarism. We must keep that line clear if we are to win this long war ‚Äî which is why the sooner this presidency is over, the better.

No, it’s not an oxymoron. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. My case for a central place for environmentalism within the conservative tradition ‚Äî a case I first made for Margaret Thatcher’s think tank 21 years ago ‚Äî can be read here.

Gays are being dragged out and murdered; women are under new Islamist scrutiny; the government itself is fast becoming a Hezbollah-like entity. From the Riverbend blog:

Residents of Baghdad are systematically being pushed out of the city. Some families are waking up to find a Klashnikov bullet and a letter in an envelope with the words "Leave your area or else." The culprits behind these attacks and threats are Sadr‚Äôs followers ‚Äî Mahdi Army. It’s general knowledge, although no one dares say it out loud. In the last month we’ve had two different families staying with us in our house, after having to leave their neighborhoods due to death threats and attacks. It‚Äôs not just Sunnis ‚Äî it’s Shia, Arabs, Kurds ‚Äî most of the middle-class areas are being targeted by militias.

Other areas are being overrun by armed Islamists. The Americans have absolutely no control in these areas. Or maybe they simply don’t want to control the areas because when there’s a clash between Sadr‚Äôs militia and another militia in a residential neighborhood, they surround the area and watch things happen.

Since the beginning of July, the men in our area have been patrolling the streets. Some of them patrol the rooftops and others sit quietly by the homemade road blocks we have on the major roads leading into the area. You cannot in any way rely on Americans or the government. You can only hope your family and friends will remain alive — not safe, not secure — just alive. That’s good enough.

For me, June marked the first month I don‚Äô’t dare leave the house without a hijab, or headscarf. I don’t wear a hijab usually, but it’s no longer possible to drive around Baghdad without one. It‚Äôs just not a good idea. (Take note that when I say ‘drive’ I actually mean ‘sit in the back seat of the car’ ‚Äî I haven’t driven for the longest time.) Going around bare-headed in a car or in the street also puts the family members with you in danger. You risk hearing something you don‚Äôt want to hear and then the father or the brother or cousin or uncle can’t just sit by and let it happen. I haven’t driven for the longest time. If you’re a female, you risk being attacked.

This is the face of "liberation." Stuff happens, I guess.

(Photo: Kareem Raheem/Reuters.)

"They count their dead in dozens. We count ours in hundreds." —a civilian Iraqi talking about the civil war now raging in his country, compared with the relative skirmishes in Lebanon and Israel.

The current war in Iraq is far deadlier than in Lebanon and Israel. And the United States is ultimately responsible for its security. A brutal first-person account of the hell that is now much of Iraq can be read here.

(Photo: Franco Pagetti for Time.)