"We Can Take It"

Yes, we can.

Wisdom from Peggy Noonan at OpinionJournal today:

.... The second Gulf War will not be quick. And one senses no one will doubt, when it was over, that every medal was earned.

But the long haul is going to mean and demonstrate more than that. A resentful world is about to see that America had to fight for it. They are about to see America could fight for it--that we had and have the stomach for a struggle. Our implacable foes and sometimes doubting friends will see that America's armed forces don't just shock and awe, we stay and fight.

The world will be reminded that America still knows how to suffer. In a county as in an individual, the ability to withstand pain--the ability to suffer--says a great deal about character. It speaks of maturity and courage, among other things. The world knew half a century ago that America will absorb pain to reach progress. It is not all bad that they are seeing it again.

Americans too may be heartened to see that we know how to absorb pain. Deep in the heart of many pro-invasion thinkers has been a question they do not ponder for it could only be answered in time. It was: Can we still take it? It won't be bad for us to see that the answer is yes.

Our armed forces, the professionals, are going to learn that they can do it. They've wondered too. They are also going to learn how to do their jobs better, because they're really going to have to do the job. They are not going to feel when they return that they got all dressed up and the party was canceled. They're going to know they put on 50 pounds of gear and then slogged through a sandstorm to take town after town. And no one is going to wonder if there was grade inflation in the medal giving.

If we're in a long-haul war there will be benefits that are not necessarily tangible, but real nonetheless....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 07:34:46 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

"Hear No Victory, See No Victory, Report No Victory"

Hugh Hewitt slams The Los Angeles Times today at The Weekly Standard:

.... The Los Angeles Times and other papers and media outlets have made conscious decisions to express opposition to the war in their editorial pages. That opposition is, less than two weeks in, seeping into the news coverage. It is a first for American media to turn against a war so quickly and abandon objectivity so thoroughly. Although Operation Iraqi Freedom is the farthest, fastest major advance of U.S. military forces in history, with the fewest casualties, and although the prospect is still in front of us of a decisive victory within three months, nevertheless the doomsayers on Spring Street are working overtime to create an alternative vision of the war. This vision evidently requires the front page to be kept clear of all reports of victory.

I am unsure what to brand this practice, but whatever it is, it sure isn't journalism. That would require objectivity concerning the advance of coalition forces, the casualties the coalition has suffered, and the damage down to civilians, all measured against history's ruler. Such reporting might end up sounding like a paper endorsing victory, if only implicitly....

See also LA Times Spouts Iraqi Propaganda as News.

(Thanks, Ryan.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 03:59:37 PM
Categorized as Media.

"War and the Eclipse of Moral Reasoning"

I highly recommend this remarkable paper by Dr. Philip Blosser, August 16, 2002, at the Ratzinger Fan Club:

.... The greatest challenge to the tradition of just war reasoning historically came from the side of Machiavellian realism, which views war as natural and subject to no moral constraints. In recent decades, however, the primary challenge has come from the other views -- on the secular front, from the view that war is abnormal and eradicable, and on the religious front (which we are focusing on here), the view that war is fallen and inherently sinful, and must be either renounced completely (the "absolute pacifist" view), or accepted some cases as the only responsible alternative, although unavoidably sinful (the "dirty hands" view). These views have made significant inroads among Catholic thinkers in recent decades, even though they represent a radical break with the mainstream of Catholic tradition. Here I will examine only the last two religious views, which have posed the most serious challenges to just war reasoning, especially the pacifist view....

(Thanks, Christopher.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 03:45:49 PM
Categorized as Religious.

Another Take on Embeddeds

Another look at, and from, embedded journalists, from Howard Kurtz in today's Washington Post:

John Roberts, the CBS newsman traveling with the 1st Marine Division, is fed up with "all this armchair quarterbacking from people who aren't here."

In an interview from Iraq, where he whispered because members of his unit were sleeping nearby, Roberts sounds exasperated with those who are ripping the Pentagon's embedding program for journalists.

"Let them try not showering for a week, sleeping out in the desert, living through sandstorms, being under fire -- I don't see these people out there. All they do is criticize."

The 600 embedded correspondents have clearly braved difficult conditions to bring viewers and readers the most vivid, compelling and instantaneous coverage in the history of war. But they are taking considerable flak for overly sympathetic reporting, dismissed by some as part of the military propaganda machine....

(Thanks, Peter.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 02:57:37 PM
Categorized as Media.

"What's Wrong with the Arab World?"

A thoughtful column by Jonah Goldberg at NRO today:

.... The Arab world is a basket case, economically and politically (morality we can debate another day). One handy statistic: If you subtract oil, the total exports of the Arab world — i.e., the 500 million people comprising all of North Africa and the Middle East, minus Israel — amount to less than those of Finland: a country with one hundredth the population. So convinced that some outside force — imperialists, Jews, oil companies, America, the CIA — is responsible for the failings of their once-great civilization, Arabs cannot handle any blow to their self-esteem. It's not so much dead Arabs which grates on their psyche but, the sting to their pride which comes when non-Muslim, non-Arabs do the killing. This is what makes smart people act stupid.

Indeed, this is hardly unique to Arabs. All over the world and throughout history national pride and cultural passions have driven nations to violence and folly. As Yale's Donald Kagan has written, "The common practice of calling such motives 'irrational' reveals how narrow the professional understanding of what matters to people has become in our day." He goes on: "The notion that only economic benefits, power and security are rational goals is a prejudice of our time, a product of the attempt to treat the world of human events as though it were the inanimate physical universe, susceptible to scientific analysis and free to ignore human feelings, motives, and will. Such an approach is no more adequate to explain current behavior than to explain the actions of human beings throughout history." (For more on this, see "Don't Kowtow Now.")

But if Arabs want to define their national interests in terms of pride and shame — as NR's David Pryce-Jones has argued so eloquently — that's fine; that's natural even. But that decision has serious costs. If the Iraqis side with pride and totalitarianism over realism and liberty; if the Arab propaganda machine and suicide-bomber networks decide that it would be better for Iraq to be a giant Lebanon free of Americans than to be an Arab Sweden with our help; if they decide that even one dead Iraqi at the hands of "infidels" is worse than 100,000 at the hands of Saddam; if they greet this rescue mission with bullets, then things will only worsen for the Arabs.

For that's what this is, a rescue mission. It may have been launched out of American self-interest, but that should make no difference to the Iraqis. And I still hope that the Iraqis will snap out of it and recognize we're there to help. Indeed, if they greet the U.S. with gratitude there really will be no end to American charity and assistance. We can point to Japan, South Korea, and Germany as evidence of the prosperity and decency we can help usher in. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, et al., can offer only Lebanon or some phantasmagorical Brigadoon plucked from the fantasies of jihadists. To those who can see clearly the interests of their children, this should not be a hard choice.

But it is a choice. If even after Saddam is gone, they shoot at the lifeboat and spit at its crew, America will simply confiscate the weapons we came for and leave. Many, many Americans will conclude that democracy cannot take root in Arab soil after all, and if they don't want our help we will say "to hell with them" — as we did to the Somalis. We will strike deals with murderers and thugs whenever profitable and contain those murderers when not. To borrow a phrase from Le Monde, we will declare "We Are All Frenchmen Now" and we will let Arabs kill Arabs (and yes, probably Israelis too) because it won't be our business — all because some desperate people are too proud to stop acting stupid.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 11:48:53 AM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

Spam

I have received 34 e-mail messages so far today. Every one of them spam.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 09:30:52 AM
Categorized as Other.

Fallen Warriors

The roll, at Defend America, of all the military personnel who have died in the War on Terrorism.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Psalm 90.

(Thanks, Forkum.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 07:50:26 AM
Categorized as War.