SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE:Words and Deeds:A Response to Norman Podhoretz
Codevilla, Angelo M.
Words and Deeds: A Response to Norman Podhoretz S P E C I A L C O R R E S P O N D E N C E ORMAN PODHORETZ, on whom President George W. Bush had bestowed the nation’s highest civilian...
...Too easily, he dismisses the fact that Bush embraced such a huge goal, late in life, merely by endorsing a speechwriter’s language...
...But I recall Podhoretz’s 1980 reflections on Jimmy Carter’s remark that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had taught him more about Communism than he had ever known: Having known so little, said Podhoretz, it was doubtful Carter could have learned much...
...Words and Deeds: A Response to Norman Podhoretz S P E C I A L C O R R E S P O N D E N C E ORMAN PODHORETZ, on whom President George W. Bush had bestowed the nation’s highest civilian award, tried in these pages to show how “the Ideals That Made America Great Provide a Model for the World” by arguing that Bush’s 2005 Second Inaugural was just such a model (“A Masterpiece of American Oratory,” TAS, November 2006...
...But instead of questioning how much or little was behind President Bush’s initialing of his speech drafts, Podhoretz’s “growing awe” led him to confuse Bush’s words with reality...
...Freedom from one’s enemies is often confused as well with safety, or independence...
...VINCE FLYNN, New York Times bestselling author of Consent to Kill 0-765-31542-4 | Hardcover www.karnabodman.com ANGELO M. CODEVILLA...
...In reality, while the Declaration bolsters our common Judeo-Christian sense that tyranny is wrong, nothing commands or authorizes us to remake others into what we wish we were...
...W t s Clar well as in the ted in these pag no HAT COURSE...
...Well worth the read...
...Few people outside America understand such things, and ever fewer in America do...
...We highly recommend that you discuss with your lawyer how best to address your desires to provide for your loved ones and the causes you value...
...But the Sunni minority was making war to seize control, the Shi’a majority would not accept it, the Kurds simply set up a separate country, and Bush did not dream of forcing them to do otherwise...
...look at those exchanges...
...Roosevelt spoke well of Stalin, and of liberty, at the same time...
...Nor does anything permit us to neglect the relationship between ends and means...
...As I have emont es as rationalizations shifted...
...Podhoretz found Bush’s words about the fire of 9/11 so “dazzling” that he imagined that “by our efforts we have lit a fire as well—a fire in the minds of men… and one day this fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of the world” really meant that Bush had “turned this fire back” and was leading us Americans in burning those who had burned us...
...AKES THRILLER...
...He even misunderstood America’s Model...
...The very notion that Iraq should be democratic and united is oxymoronic, and abstracts from a host of concrete choices...
...Podhoretz notes that Bush “embraced in the wake of 9/11” “the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world...
...They barely allowed “we must disarm Saddam of Weapons of Mass Destruction...
...The argument is circular, because since the Bush Doctrine, at least in speech, is the negation of an alleged “pact with Arab tyranny,” that negation is coterminous with it...
...Podhoretz writes that global reform “grows out ofthe moral and spiritual imperatives of the American past” (emphasis mine...
...Killing such enemies, unlike subjecting them to therapy, does not “grow out of” our common sense...
...Prudent means are those that actually lead to the best possible success...
...By contrast, Kennedy could have won in Vietnam, had he been willing to destroy, at least, the North’s Communist regime as well as Castro’s, which the American people would have done with alacrity...
...Yes, alliance with Stalin was a practical necessity in 1941...
...J. William Middendorf II —WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR...
...Yet from the beginning, when Bush responded to an attack on America by Arabs on behalf of causes espoused by every Arab government while Arab opinion celebrated our mourning, by attacking a meaningless regime on the Indian subcontinent, it was clear that, words aside, he would change his relationship with the Arab world as little as possible...
...Something in him sensed that Iraq was somehow responsible...
...Thereby he managed so to strengthen the Soviet Union that it almost killed us...
...He knew that his CIA, relying largely on information from Arab regimes’ intelligence services, assured him that although all Arab regimes had infiltrated all the terrorist groups, none had any responsibility for them...
...He did not argue against them...
...At the last minute, Bush stuck in “Iraqi freedom...
...And when, the Taliban toppled, he chose to “nation-build” Afghanistan though he had spoken harshly of “nation building,” he showed how little words meant to him, and how much he would follow his bureaucracies’ paths of least resistance...
...But for the words to be other than what he calls “rodo6 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 by Angelo M. Codevilla in speeches they hardly understood...
...But the similarities are inglorious...
...There is nothing worse for a good cause than bad advocacy...
...Yet prudence is synonymous neither with retreat nor with advance...
...To desire such freedoms, men need know nothing but their urges...
...Defense wanted to install its favorite exiles and leave them to annihilate the regime’s (huge) remnants...
...the Ba’ath party has made itself the paladin of anti-Americanism, and is perhaps the biggest supporter of terrorism...
...Norman Podhoretz replies: VER SINCE 9/11,my indefatigable old friend Angelo Codevilla and I have been tangling over the Bush Doctrine, and I must confess that I see no point in going over the same ground that we have already covered in exchanges in the Claremont Review and Commentary...
...Yet Podhoretz wants us to “stay the course...
...critically situated...
...But these self-evident truths, like those of mathematics, are self evident only to those who understand them correctly...
...MAKING A BEQUEST to The American Spectator Foundation, you will be giving one of the most powerful gifts one can give—helping to ensure the future of pen, and no matter how many cautious hesitations and tactical detours or retreats may be dictated by prudential judgment… so long as the Bush Doctrine is in force, there will be no renewal of the old ‘pact with Arab tyranny.’” But the argument is empty of substance...
...Their leaders toy with us...
...The Declaration of Independence claims it is “self-evident” that “all men” are endowed with the inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” because they are “created equal...
...But Podhoretz must know that for most people, freedom means the power to do what one wants—for example, killing one’s enemies...
...Then, having let Iran and Syria win a war with dire implications, Bush tried to build an international Arab Sunni coalition for any kind of help against Iran...
...By no means could really a success: “The Middle Wilson have built his promised East has been ‘unfrozen’… and “community of power” out of peo- whatever may or may not hapBarry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement —JOHN MCCAIN “The account by Bill Middendorf of the Goldwater enterprise is very good history, wonderfully revealing, S by someone who was there and Get back to the roots of the movement...
...Basic Books www.basicbooks.com F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 7 The American Spectator for the next generation of conservative readers...
...It is common sense...
...But Podhoretz is all too correct that “it is hard to see in what way Bush is any more ambitious and universalist than any of his major 20th century predecessors…” Indeed...
...Yes, most 20th-century presidents have spoken too grandly, too easily, emanation of their penumbras...
...GRIPPING AND AUTHENTIC...
...troops in Iraq...
...Herein I argue that Podhoretz misunderstood the relationship between words and deeds, as well as how the world works...
...T e s s G e r r i t s e n , T e s s G e r r i t s e n , New York Times New York Times b e s t s e l l i n g a u t h o r o f b e s t s e l l i n g a u t h o r o f T h e M e p h i s t o C l u b T h e M e p h i s t o C l u b When an American scientist develops a breakthrough technology for missile defense, she and an NSC official are drawn into terrorist maneuvering at the highest levels—plots that could lead two countries to the brink of war...
...In doing so, they are making a tremendous difference to the world today and the one they will leave behind...
...I wish...
...They wanted a “unified” Iraq in which the Sunni minority and its Ba’ath party would be almost as powerful as under Saddam...
...ples whose hopes and dreams were mutually exclusive...
...Deals with the devil are pruAS T one would expect...
...How much would Bush pay for the privilege of fighting the Muslim world’s Sunni majority’s battles against its Shi’a minority...
...You can help The American Spectator by including the following in your will: I give, devise, and bequeath $__________________________ to The American Spectator Foundation (IRS Tax ID #237002632), presently located at 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 901, Arlington, Virginia 22209 for the purposes of publishing The American Spectator...
...Least of all does prudence excuse calling defeat by any other name...
...While nothing Roosevelt might have done could have realized the global co-dominium with the Soviet Union that his words promised, those words fed a subculture of anti-Americanism in America...
...Does he mean that Christianity, Judaism, and the Declaration of Independence impel us to reform the world...
...His bureaucracies would no So why go to Iraq at all...
...Is no deserve credit for just talkt can have his curiosity s wer his lates ho UTDON’TBUSHand Podhoretz An w I would ans y reader who wishes to kno atisfied by a t blas w t the word itself good and powerful...
...Bush’ tand for s Review and in my books since 9/11, the Bush team’s course has resulted mostly from choosing several contradictory courses at the same time...
...It is not good to make foreign policy as if such distinctions did not exist, or to praise it...
...Even trying would have entailed imperial ventures that Wilson did not contemplate and that would have struck the American people as nuts...
...Words cannot change that...
...Podhoretz dismisses sticks disproportionately smaller than words as “prudential” measures, and likens Bush’s deference to tyrants in Russia, China, Egypt, Syria, et al...
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...He has more of a point than he may imagine...
...And his Vietnam war ended up legitimizing a revolution at home...
...L e e C h i l d , L e e C h i l d , New York Times New York Times b e s t s e l l i n g a u t h o r o f b e s t s e l l i n g a u t h o r o f The Hard Way The Hard Way “A WHITE HOUSE INSIDER INJECTS HIGH TENSION “A WHITE HOUSE INSIDER INJECTS HIGH TENSION I N T O T H I S H I G H - S T I N T O T H I S H I G H - S TAKES THRILLER...
...The argument is nonfalsifiable, because Podhoretz posits its success, and redefines failures as caution, detour, and prudence...
...Professor of International Relations Boston University F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 9 “Authentic, up-to-the minute, and gripping...
...The Saudis, Syrians, et al...
...It is the opposite of bluffing and backing down...
...But after ousting 8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 S P E C I A L C O R R E S P O N D E N C E Saddam, then what...
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...Karna Small Bodman’s] years of firsthand White House experience shine through on every page of this fine debut international thriller...
...Podhoretz, and maybe Bush, seems to believe that all men want freedom...
...The speechwriter may well have been, as Podhoretz says, “absolutely faithful to his own inner demands...
...But, having declared war, he had to do something not to appear ridiculous...
...idents’ words have been, versalist” the several pres- ter of the deal...
...Podhoretz’s main point is that with authority, as DISASTER HE POINT IS NOT how “uni- dent—provided one gets the bet- Middendorf writes GLORIOUS but how yawning, necessarily, has Bush’s words were not empty at been the gap between such words all, and that the Bush Doctrine is and actions...
...But, in Vietnam as in Cuba, he was all bark, and half bite...
...John F. Kennedy vowed to “meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe…” for the success of liberty abroad...
...attempts to square this circle that only delayed and bloodied the three major populations’ inevitable separation...
...Our donors come from all walks of life and are leaving charitable gifts in their wills...
...Yet the enemies that Podhoretz identifies, correctly, “the Middle Eastern regimes by which [terrorists] are bred, sheltered, financed, and armed,” are not burning...
...Iraq’s sad history since the late summer of 2003 flowed from U.S...
...Or that, although they do not, the imperative to do it is an S P E C I A L C O R R E S P O N D E N C E montade” (cheap substitutes for reality), America’s real enemies really would have to burn...
...And so, in 2006 he encouraged Israel to go out on a Lebanese limb that he sawed off under Arab pressure...
...This confusion extends to history...
...Bing about freedom...
...As he decided to make war on Saddam, both agencies made war on him...
...actions that would support them against their enemies...
...JOHN LESCROART, New York Times bestselling author of The Hunt Club “A fantastic first novel by a woman who knows the intricacies of Washington...
...His State Department assured him that if only he could get more concessions from Israel, and sponsor a Palestinian state, these regimes would fight terrorism, not use it...
...to Roosevelt’s alliance with Stalin...
...But for one to understand why he has the right to life, never mind the rest, he has to realize why all other men have the same rights...
...From an author who served in President Reagan’s White House, the political thriller of the season “FANT “FANTA S T I C . ” A S T I C . ” V i n c e F l y n n , V i n c e F l y n n , New York Times New York Times b e s t s e l l i n g a u t h o r o f b e s t s e l l i n g a u t h o r o f A c t o f T r e a s o n A c t o f T r e a s o n “GRIPPING AND AUTHENTIC...
...Alas, those enemies —Syrian, Egyptian, Saudi, and Russian dictators—plus democratically elected terrorists in Teheran and Gaza and Beirut, with a megaphone in Qatar, get their way by acting in the old-fashioned way: People who stand in their way wind up dead...
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...Thus all good things would spiral downward...
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...Instead of evidence to support his argument, Podhoretz gives us testimonials from Middle Eastern leaders, such as Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon’s durable Druze, that are pleas for some kind of U.S...
...But, the more Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran have burned us, the warmer Bush has been to them at the expense of Lebanon, Israel, and the U.S...
...Worse for America, Bush’s failure to fulfill a mission his own definition of which he seemed not to understand, weakened his already limp resistance to pressure from the Arab world...
...Whether “unfreezing” the Middle East has happened, and whether the thaw’s results are better than the frost, is by no means certain...
...were asking payment at the expense of Lebanon, Israel, and of the Iraqi Shi’ites...
...Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement J. WILLIAM MIDDENDORF II “Barry Goldwater was a great pioneer in the conservative cause—and Bill Middendorf tells so well the obstacles faced in Barry’s 1964 campaign for the presidency...
...He absolved Arab regimes of responsibility, and counted them as allies...
...State and CIA added their weight to Saudi and Syrian objections that this would lead to the country’s de facto partition...
...But only belief in absurd words dictated pursuing it blindly two years later...
...Woodrow Wilson promised the end of war and tyranny, and spawned troubles (Fascism, the Polish Corridor, Yugoslavia, Iraq) that plagued subsequent generations...
...Franklin Roosevelt told us that the Nations were United to destroy “ancient evils, ancient ills...
...Bush agreed...
Vol. 40 • February 2007 • No. 1
