Andrew Sullivan understands the Ba'athist strategy to defeat the confidence of America's homefront well. Unfamiliarity with both the need to democratize the Near East and the psychological schemes adopted by totalitarians who wish to prevent this are the greatest threat to civilization's triumph.
My suggestion? Find a grumbler or a doubter - or even someone who isn't quite sure about the whole thing. Talk reason to him, and see if you can't revive their determination. An old childhood acquaintance - great guy, by the way - actually sought me out yesterday; he had misgivings, and wanted to hear my side, so I politely explained as much as I know and believe about the war. At one point he thanked me, saying my lecture "really made a lot of sense," and adding that he felt he hadn't heard the same message from the White House. Granted, he's a college student - college students and current events don't usually mix - and his primary news sources include CNN (I suggested he give Fox News at least a try). But I'm slowly turning to Armed Liberal's side of the argument on what Bush should explain to the public about the war on terror; at a time where war opponents are taking advantage of uncertainty these past weeks, the president needs to bolster confidence while dispelling the illusion that Iraq is a one-off.
Speaking of war opponents playing footsie with memes and outright distortion, my neighbor mentioned a Sunday op-ed by Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Dick Feagler. A liberal buddy once referred to Feagler as "the most bitter man in Cleveland." Before September 11th, Feagler was a Back in My Day sort of elder. His authorship was somewhat humorless, if harmless. Over the last two years, however, his columns have become shrill and factually baseless; a combination of isolationist rhetoric, veteran's bigotry against civilians and leftist hearsay.
Against my better judgment I read the column. It was far worse than I'd imagined. Though Feagler doesn't seem to be a Buchanan anti-Semite, he's not above appropriating Rosa Parks' plight for an outrageous, racially charged sneer:
The guy with credibility is Colin Powell, who has pretty much been shoved to the back of the bus.
Come again? Public voices like Feagler help illustrate how opponents of action have lost the capacity to argue rationally. The rest of his column was nonsense; the same man who claimed last year that no debate had taken place - in fact one did, only he'd lost - is now complaining that the mission in Iraq is unclear.
Dick Feagler doesn't know what the war on terror is about? Two years after September 11th, two years of contrasting the brutality of authoritarians against the enthusiasm of liberated peoples, we must conclude that he simply hasn't been paying attention. The only cops in Dick's "cop war" are police states in the Near East, heart of Islamist terrorism. How can he lament bringing secular and religious thugs under the same umbrella when their fundamental motives and methods - domination through the strength of fear - are identical? Extremism springs from oppressive, closed societies; terrorism is the modern candidate. This is not about intelligence. This is about culture.
I do not expect Dick to accept what is. He calls the WMD case "murky," a case where the plaintiffs included President Bush, his father, Bill Clinton, and scores of countries in the U.N.; the defendant was Saddam Hussein. Dick Feagler disqualified his argument the moment he put pen to paper.
Why are we in Iraq? Set aside Saddam's many contacts with al Qaeda:
Baghdad visits by Ayman al-Zawahiri in 1992 and 1998; George Tenet's 2002 testimonial regarding "safe haven and reciprocal non-aggression" and chemical weapon training in Iraq; contacts in the Philippines between Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda affiliate, Abu Sayyaf; safe haven in Iraq for another al Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al-Islam. Ba'athist Iraq was the most militarily dangerous state, yet is also one of the most potentially modern in the region. Democratizing the Near East and depriving terrorism of desperate, angry young men and women is the victory we seek. Where Dick sees a troubled part of the world he'd rather not hear about, others see an obligation for Americans and all of free humanity. This is a war for freedom, and we will defeat today's great evil by securing for others the liberties that define us.
