A kind reader, John Van Laer, wants to know why he shouldn’t think that I’m an idiot. He says:
Fun to read, but you sell yourself short.
Evidently, no matter which issue concerns
the public, you don’t give a rat’s ass.
Your important concerns are purely personal.
As I’m sure you know, that’s what the Athenians
meant by “idiot.” Why do I think you’re better
than that?
Just asking.
Thanks for asking, John. I may be an idiot, but the “issues” that I don’t give a rat’s ass about, when they’re not totally bogus, are just not a threat to western civilization, whereas the assault by the jihadists is. I personally am in favor of western civilization (Thank you, Athenians!), so I’m a one issue guy.
The jihadists are not a military threat, even if they do get their hands on a nuke. If we want to win this war, we will. But they have shown a talent for preying on the psychological weakness of comfortable, content, free people. My concern is that we have become as soft and complacent and out of touch with reality as Osama Bin Laden has said we are (although he hasn’t said anything for a few years now). I see evidence of that in the corruption and anti-Americanism of old Europe, and in the hysterical Bush-hatred and blame America first sickness of much of the Democratic Party. I see evidence of it in the contention that because brave American soldiers and Iraqis have died and are dying, and innocent civilians are being beheaded on videotape, this necessarily means that we are in the wrong war, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, or that the war is being terribly “mismanaged”, that Iraq is a “mess”.
I don’t really know how competently the war is being managed. I don’t think Andrew Sullivan knows either. But the fact that there are elements in Iraq, and elements that have come into Iraq, who don’t want elections to happen, is not at all shocking to me. The proof is in the pudding. Will the “insurgents” in Fallujah be defeated as they were in Najaf and Samarra and other places? Will valid elections be held, as they have been in Afghanistan? Will a democratic government be elected? Will the Iraqi military and police forces gradually assume responsibility for security? It all remains to be seen, and I think we should remain to see it.