Sunday, September 23, 2007

Re: The sun never sets...   [Mark Steyn]

Okay, I'll bite. Even if that's all Fred Thompson meant, I say nuts.

FDR didn't take America to war in 1941 with the "disinterested intention of liberating others". He took America to war not to end the Holocaust or free Belgium or build a democracy in Japan but for reasons of hard-headed national self-interest. All the rest was the happy consequence of victory. Likewise, America didn't topple the Taliban because it was suddenly overcome by a burning desire to see more women legislators in the Afghan parliament: That, too, was a happy consequence of a war waged for selfish reasons.

When a democracy goes to war, there ought to be a moral component to ultimate war aims, which is why the end of the first Gulf campaign was so shabby and unworthy of America. But Senator Thompson's line is a gross sentimentalization.

Furthermore, it's not just sentimental, it's only effective retrospectively - for the war you fought 60 years ago, not for the war you're fighting now. An awful lot of Americans see Iraqis waving purple fingers at the polls and shrug, "Nice. But not worth dead Americans." To sell this struggle to the electorate, you have to frame it in terms of the national interest. It has to be a war consistent with American ideals but fought for selfish reasons.

09/23 06:14 PMShare