The Dish

We now know that, barring a miracle, there will be no second U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. We know that European public opinion has hardened against any such military action, and that large sections of world opinion regard the United States as more morally abhorrent and internationally dangerous than the genocidal murderer in Baghdad. We know in other words that we will have to wage this war with an international coalition that is not synonymous with the U.N. The U.N. route has been a failure. But it was still worth trying, even if only to give it one last chance. The U.S. and the U.K. have shown amazing patience in trying to force the U.N. to live up to its own resolutions. That very effort gives the lie to those who argue that the Anglosphere nations have no interest in mulitlateralism. But those resolutions – specifically Resolution 1441, demanding immediate Iraqi compliance with disarmament – have been revealed as meaningless, in as much as those countries that signed on to them have no intention whatsoever of enforcing them. The notion that inspections are working is simply ludicrous on its face. The fact that that position was warmly applauded at the Security Council today is a signal that it has decided to engage in unreality.

LEAVING THEM BEHIND: The lesson from this is a simple one: we have to abandon the U.N. as an instrument in world affairs. I’m not saying complete U.S. withdrawal, although I’m beginning to think that now makes a lot of sense. I mean temporary U.S. disengagement. The body is now a joke of immense proportions. If it cannot enforce a resolution it passed only a couple of months ago, it cannot enforce anything. If it cannot read the plain meaning of its own words, it is an absurdist theater piece, not a genuine international body. It isn’t in danger of becoming the League of Nations. It now is the League of Nations. The difference is that this time, after 9/11, U.S. isolationism is not an option. So U.S. non-U.N. multilateralism is the only option for any future threats to world order. God knows we cannot rely on Europe to keep the peace. The Old Europeans will regret this deeply in the years to come. They have just told us in no uncertain terms to ignore them. We should. We will. And in the post-Saddam settlement, we must actively shut out the French and Germans from any slice of the economic action and tear up whatever contracts they had with Saddam. They have told us how highly they value the lives of American citizens. We can now tell them how highly we value their export markets.

I keep hearing from people who insist we should try “containment” of Iraq instead of war. They don’t seem to have observed that we are where we are precisely because of twelve years of “containment”. But, leaving that aside for a moment, what can containment mean now? One thing it surely does mean is maintaining sanctions. As Tony Blair just noted, “The moral choice in relation to this is a moral choice that has to weigh up the moral consequences of war. But the alternative is to carry on with a sanctions regime which, because of the way Saddam Hussein implements it, leads to thousands of people dying needlessly in Iraq every year.” Exactly. How odd that those who have long accused the West of murdering thousands of Iraqi babies because of sanctions now want to continue those sanctions indefinitely. Of course, some don’t. As soon as the pressure is off, they’ll get back to lobbying for an end to such sanctions and liberating Saddam to even further horrors. But it seems to me that those who sincerely want to maintain the inspections farce and the sanctions tragedy need to be more honest in confronting the moral cost of this policy: not merely doing nothing credible to deter the threat to the West of weapons of mass destruction; not merely the signal to every terrorist and nuke-hungry dictator that the West is too weak to deal with them; not merely perpetuating and reinforcing one of the most hideous police states on the planet; not merely fatally undermining the credibility of the U.N.; but also maintaining the cruelty of famine for the next generation of Iraqi children. This is what the Pope apparently wants. This is what legions of allegedly Christian clerics want. No-one should treat lightly the moral responsibility of waging war. But no-one should discount the moral burden of the alternative either.

A JUST WAR: This war is a just one. We didn’t start it. Saddam did – over twelve years ago. We responded at the time with a restraint and patience and deliberation that would have made Aquinas proud. After victory, we acted with a magnanimity utterly unreciprocated by the dictator we routed – even to the extent of leaving Saddam in power, even to the point of betraying in grotesque fashion the millions who dreamed of freedom – only to see slavery instead. (If only to right that horrifying wrong, we have a moral responsibility to finish the job.) We made a truce with the tyrant, with conditions that the entire world has witnessed him routinely violate. Our enemy, moreover, has no moral compunction whatsoever – he has violated every maxim of a just war imaginable. He has murdered opponents; he has gassed innocent and defenseless civilians; he preaches genocidal hatred and practises torture; he has laid waste to the environment; and made a mockery of religion. He has refused to disarm; and lies through his teeth. When fanatical murderers from that region developed a terrorist network and massacred thousands of Western civilians, we realized that Saddam’s weapons couldn’t be contained in his lair with any guarantee of security. So we made a belated attempt to live up to the truce of 1991, to finish the unfinished job. We could have destroyed him and his regime at any point. We didn’t. We waited; we sent in inspectors; we were forced into sanctions. We went to the U.N. again to beg for help and support. The U.N. complied, provided a clear resolution, with the burden of proof finally on Saddam. Just as clearly, Saddam has violated it, and continues to violate it.

A VERY LAST RESORT: By any rational, objective standard, we have done everything we possibly can to settle this war peacefully. To say that we are in a rush to war is an obscene fabrication, a statement of wilful amnesia, a simple denial of history. To retreat now, to concede that this monster has a better case than we do in the final prosecution of this war is a travesty of any concept of just war theory. In fact, it is to engage in positive pro-active injustice. Yes, we must do all we possibly can to keep casualties in this war as low as possible. We must do more than we can imagine to help rebuild that poor country and bring hope and democracy to its terrorized and brutalized people. And those objectives are absolutely essential for the justice of this war to be maintained. But equally, we would fail in any conception of Christian duty if we failed to act after all this time, if we let evil succeed, if we lost confidence in our capacity to do what is morally right. I’m tired of our moral defensiveness in this matter. It bears saying once and many times again: those advocating war as the last resort after twelve years of broken promises, butchery, evasion and threat on the part of Saddam are morally in the right. And, however good their intentions, the thousands of protestors who will throng the streets of Western cities this weekend are the purveyors and celebrants of a rank and palpable injustice.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation large or small. We no longer live in a world where the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation’s security to constitute maximum peril.” – President John F. Kennedy, Oct. 21, 1962.

APOSTASY WATCH: Two years ago, when I was still allowed to write for the New York Times, I wrote this screed against romantic love. And now? Happy Valentine’s Day. I miss you.

A protestor against disarming Saddam gets his names muddled up.

UPDATE: Many helpful Internet users have provided input on the afore-mentioned protestor’s placard. I say no more. But here’s the link.

“In light of the current crisis with Iraq, I thought it might be interesting to read again Frederick Forsyth’s wonderful novel on the Gulf War, The Fist of God, published in 1994. Take note of this gem I discovered on page 351:

‘He (Saddam Hussein) thinks the United Nations peacemongers could pull the rug. He’s gambling that time is on his side, that if he can keep spinning things out the resolve of the UN will ebb away. He could be right.’
‘The man doesn’t make sense,’ snapped Laing. ‘He has the deadline. January 16, not twenty days away. He’s going to be crushed.’
‘Unless,’ suggested Paxman, ‘one of the Permanent Members of the Security Council comes up with a last-minute peace plan to put the dealine on hold.’
Laing looked gloomy.
‘Paris or Moscow, or both,’ he predicted.

So why are we surprised now?” More insight from some of the web’s smartest readers on the Letters Page.

THE TORY TEMPTATION: Tony Blair’s brave stand in favor of disarming Iraq has managed to bring the Tories to almost even standing in the polls with Labour – for the first time in years. Many of those Tories don’t much like Tony Blair, don’t trust him, and believe he’s too invested in spin. So they’re tempted to march against war. They kind of like the idea of having inspectors spend months and months and months doing nothing in particular in Iraq. It’s called “muddling through,” an ancient English past-time. They don’t want to face what seems like imminent apocalypse. They feel uncomfortable with American brashness. And the Tory leadership, such as it is, cannot resist occasional cheap shots at the government. This is why, alas, the Conservative Party, led by the truly awful Iain Duncan-Smith, whose only selling point is that he’s not his chief rival, the pro-Euro, anti-American, Ken Clarke, is no longer a credible governing party in Britain.

THE GAY LEFT RESPONDS: Here’s the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s defense against my recent piece in the Advocate magazine. They don’t rebut the claims of my piece. They don’t deny that they have a far-left agenda; they don’t rebut my question as to how they can claim to be opposed to sexism while selecting women for their last seven executive director positions; they don’t deny that their recent conference wasn’t devoted to gay rights but to combating racism among gay people. But they do manage a few bloopers. They allege I am opposed to “abortion rights” and “civil rights.” Huh? I am reluctantly in favor of legal first trimester abortions; I have written tirelessly about my support for civil rights. In the last couple of months, I have campaigned against Trent Lott and written glowingly of Bayard Rustin. My record in support of marriage rights eclipses NGLTF’s. To say I oppose civil rights is simply a smear. I just don’t support affirmative action, and have had libertarian qualms about employment discrimination law (although I support gay inclusion in such laws, if they exist). They also cite my “privileged economic class,” as a way of saying that my views in favor of welfare reform are somehow illegitimate. I won’t address the ad hominem. Meanwhile, my basic point is ignored: if a gay group wants to win maximum support for its cause, why does it seek to alienate two-thirds of the electorate on an issue utterly unrelated to gay rights?

POOR GORE: His new book on the family is now ranked 606,000 on Amazon.com.

Suddenly, September 10 again. Friends calling from New York City, asking if I have a spare room. Nervous glances up at the TV screens in the gym. Greta van Susteren declaring a specific cyanide alert in New York City, where none existed. Duct tape jokes. Tanks at Heathrow. It is a war, isn’t it? It reminds me that the anti-war protestors are not in fact trying to prevent a war. They cannot – because one has already broken out. They merely want to give up on one critical front. The trouble is: our enemies won’t.

THE SMOKING MISSILE: The issue is not whether we have discovered an illegal piece of weaponry in Iraq. The question is whether Saddam will allow these missiles to be destroyed. Blix should demand it. Then see what the French say.

PARIS TO THE RESCUE: Could the French swing Middle Britain behind the war? Boris Johnson thinks so:

Just as everyone was laying into the Number 10 spin machine, the French did something so disgusting, so selfish, and so French, that the British media have had no choice. The press has dropped Alastair Campbell’s dodgy dossier, in favour of that time-honoured staple of the British journalist – the orgy of frog-bashing. Confronted by French treachery, previously fence-sitting newspapers such as the Daily Mail have suddenly seen the merit of the war, and the downmarket tabloids have gone gallistic. You know the kind of articles: they involve references to Vichy, tanks with reverse gears, garlic-guzzling peasants, women of loose morals cosying up to the Boche, and they traditionally end with the cry: “And they eat our children’s ponies!”

And just in time!

My bet is that he’ll back the U.S. in the end, maybe the very end. Great analysis in the New York times today:

Mr. Putin must consider the extent to which a snub of either European doves or American hawks will set back his own agenda to bind Russia more tightly to the West. On that question, there is little doubt, said Alexander G. Rahr, a longtime Russia scholar at the Körber-Foundation and German Council on Foreign Relations, who talked with Kremlin officials during Mr. Putin’s Berlin stopover last weekend. “They said, `If we play the European card, we play on a very small field – in Europe,’ ” Mr. Rahr said. By contrast, both Russia and the United States need each other in the Far East, where the Korean nuclear crisis is heating up on Russia’s border; in South Asia, where India and Pakistan flirt with war; in the Middle East, where the Americans and Russians both have important stakes; and in the Caucasus, where both are fighting terrorism. Not only has Europe no significant stakes or influence in those areas, Mr. Rahr said, but also the debate over Iraq has left in shambles Europe’s own supposedly growing unity on the most basic matters of foreign policy and defense.

Exactly. We’ll soon find out if President Bush’s very careful cultivation of Putin has paid off.

SUGGESTED SLOGANS: A friend just got an email from some of the anti-war protestors about to descend this weekend. It’s a list of suggested slogans on posters or t-shirts for the protests. Here they are:

A Village In Texas Has Lost Its Idiot
All Humanity Is Downwind
Beat The Bushes For Peace
Bombing For Peace Is Like Fcking For Chastity
Books Not Bombs
Born To Kill, Born To Drill
Brains Not Bombs
Bush Is A Moron Don’t Let Him Get His War On
Bush Is A Servant Of Sauron. We Hates Him!
Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld: Axis Of Weasel
Draft The Bush Twins
Drop Bush, Not Bombs
Drop Names, Not Bombs
Evolve! Work For A Non-violent Future
George Bush Couldn’t Run A Laundromat
George Dubya: Weapon Of Mass Distraction
Go Solar, Not Ballistic
God Does Not Bless Only America
Has Anyone Seen Our Constitution Lately?
Honk Your SUV If You’re A Terrorist
How Did Our Oil Get Under Their Soil?
How Many Lives Per Gallon?
If War Is The Answer We’re Asking The Wrong Question
If You Are Not Outraged You Are Not Paying Attention
Justice Or Just Us?
Killing Innocent People Is The Problem, Not The Solution
Let’s Try Preemptive Peace
Make Alternative Energy Not War
Make Love, Not W
More MPGs, Less MIAs (MPG =miles per gallon, MIA= missing in action)
My President Is A Psychopath
Nonviolence, Not Nonexistence
Our Grief Is Not A Cry For War
Peaceful Solution Not Daddy’s Retribution
Pretzel – It Does A Country Good
Real Patriots Drive Hybrids
Relax, George
Rich Man’s War Poor Man’s Blood
Save America, Spare Iraq, Make Texas Take Him Back
Smart Bombs Don’t Justify Dumb Leaders
Sorry Dubya – Have A Pretzel Instead
Stop Mad Cowboy Disease
Tame The Tyrant In The Mirror, Then The One In Iraq
There Is No Path To Peace – Peace IS The Path
War Is A Dick Thing, Peace Is A Heart Thing
War Is SO 20th century
We Have Guided Missiles And Misguided Men
Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Look Under The Bushes
What If God Blesses Iraq?
When Bush Comes To Shove
Who Would Jesus Bomb?
Who’s The Unelected Tyrant With The Bomb?

Notice that only one addresses anything to do with the threat from Saddam. Notice also the constant harping on the tired old notion that Bush is an idiot – “Brains Not Bombs,” “Bush Is a Moron,” “Smart Bombs Don’t Justify Dumb Leaders.” Notice the personal attacks – “Draft the Bush Twins,” “Sorry, Dubya, Have a Pretzel Instead.” Notice the idiotic moral equivalence: “Who’s The Unelected Tyrant With The Bomb?” It’s hard not to feel demoralized by a culture that can throw up such things as genuine pieces of protest. It’s as if an entire generation or more has forgotten what an argument is.

From Dennis MIller on Donahue: the New York Times will decide to support a war as soon as they find out Saddam has opened an all-male golfing club in Tikrit.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “The Sermon on the Mounts is the last word in Christian ethics. Everyone respects the Quakers. Still, it is not on these terms that Ministers assume their responsibilities of guiding states. Their duty is first so to deal with other nations as to avoid strife and war and to eschew aggression in all its forms, whether for nationalistic or ideological objects. But the safety of the State, the lives and freedom of their own fellow countrymen, to whom they owe their position, make it right and imperative in the last resort, or when a final and definite conviction has been reached, that the use of force should not be excluded. If the circumstances are such as to warrant it, force may be used. And if this be so, it should be used under the conditions which are most favourable. There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if, when it comes, it is a far worse war or one much harder to win. These are the tormenting dilemmas upon which mankind has throughout its history been so frequently impaled. Final judgment upon them can only be recorded by history in relation to the facts of the case as known to the parties at the time, and also as subsequently proved.” – Winston Churchill, “The Gathering Storm.”

More shameless anti-U.S. and anti-Blair propaganda from the BBC.

IN DEFENSE OF ORWELL: Leon Wieseltier dismembers pomo anti-Orwell critic (and former Wieseltier colleague) Louis Menand.

IN DEFENSE OF THE FRENCH: Not as bad as the Germans.

THE LEFT VERSUS TERRORISM: They’re getting serious at last.

A NEW BLOG: From two feisty writers and editors, Ross Douthat and Steven Menashi. It’s called “The American Scene.” Welcome, guys.

SONTAG AWARD NOMINEE: This from the Ottawa Citizen, from our old friend, Lewis Lapham, railing once again at the evils of capitalism, the imperialism of Bush, and the “gang of utopian anarchists” in the White House:

“I think the Bush administration equates the American spirit with power, not liberty,” said Lewis Lapham. “And I think the U.S. is in danger of losing its spirit of liberty.” “American politics, at this point in time, is trembling in the balance of losing its soul,” he said. He described a country run by a “gang of utopian anarchists” whose main objective in waging war is to boost military spending, and build an empire – considered the pinnacle of Republican doctrine first outlined a decade ago. “War is the health of the state,” said Mr. Lapham. The same agenda, he argued, is responsible for a steady erosion of personal freedoms, which denies the average citizen the right to dissent.

Denies the average citizen the right to dissent? Where? How? Or are these questions beneath the concern of Lapham?

My boyfriend spent the night last night in Normal, Illinois. That’s it. I’ve just always wanted to write that sentence.

WHY BLOGS MATTER IN THE U.S.: “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that blogs have been strongest in the US, where the dozy monodailies are so excruciatingly boring and where incredibly dull columnists seem able to hold down prime op-ed real estate for decade after decade. America’s torpid j-school culture is killing American newspapers, both in style and content. Why, for example, does no print columnist have the curiosity to do what Charles Johnson does and make a specialty of finding out what the Muslim world is saying about the west?” – the irrepressible Mark Steyn in a great little interview.

NOT JUST CHOMSKY: The BBC is actually running some pieces that aren’t saturated in anti-Americanism. Here’s one.

I learn three things from the latest morsel of half-crazed religious rhetoric from Osama bin Laden. The first is that he is perfectly willing to ally himself with Saddam. The critical section is as follow:

And it doesn’t harm in these conditions the interest of Muslims to agree with those of the socialists in fighting against the crusaders, even though we believe the socialists are infidels. For the socialists and the rulers have lost their legitimacy a long time ago, and the socialists are infidels regardless of where they are, whether in Baghdad or in Aden. And this fighting about to take place resembles the fight with the Romans earlier and the collusion of interest doesn’t harm, for the Muslims’ fight against the Romans was due to the collusion of the interests with the Persians.

This isn’t exactly a Hitler-Stalin pact. It’s more like the German-Japan axis of the last world war. OBL is the ideological purist; but Saddam is a critical ally of the Islamofascists against the West, against any notion of Western freedom in that part of the world. More important, Iraq provides a base – and far more lethal weapons – for the continuing war. The enemy of Osama’s enemy is his friend. Only experts in the Middle East could have missed that one.

OBL’S MISCALCULATION: The second thing I learn is that Osama still under-estimates American military power. He writes that America’s fundamental weakness are

fear and cowardice and absence of the fighting spirit among American soldiers. Those soldiers are completely convinced about the injustice of their government and its lies, and they lack a fair cause to fight for. And they are rather fighting for the capitalist and interest hoarders, and weapons and oil merchants, including the criminal gang at the White House, which harbors crusader hatreds and personal hatreds from Bush the father.

If I were Tommy Franks, I would post that statement in every barracks I could find, alongside a picture of the World Trade Center. If that doesn’t mobilize the troops, nothing will. But lastly, Osama is getting desperate. He senses, I think, a huge blow to his cause in the Middle East if Baghdad is liberated and Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction are taken off the table. Hence the somewhat pathetic military tips, the pep-talk, the prayers for victory, and so on. For all these reasons, this message is a timely one for the world. Some Europeans will argue that this means we should avoid war even more carefully, ignore Saddam’s arms, keep the inspection charade for a few more months, and so on. Others will recognize the voice of a lethal and determined enemy, in league with the regime they are so desperately trying to keep in power. Sooner or later, they will realize that they are at war too. And that we’re risking lives to defend their freedom as well as ours’.