The Long War
EDITORIAL The Long War Demagogues to the right of them, appeasers to the left of them, media in front of them, volleying and thundering. Can the Bush administration continue to charge ahead? Does...
...From Copenhagen to Samara, the radical Islamists are on the offensive...
...As Marshall Wittmann of the Democratic Leadership Council observed last week, "We are in the midst of a jihadist offensive...
...The Bush administration leads the West...
...It would be nice to wait until we were certain conditions were ripe before we had to act, a world in which the obstacles are trivial and the enemies fold up...
...To govern is to choose, and to accept responsibility for one's choices...
...William Kristol...
...Stand with Denmark, and moderate Muslims, against the radical mob...
...Our bravest are on the front lines in this war...
...It would be nice to enjoy the comfortable complacency of a historical determinism that suggests—as Fukuyama has it—that what we most need to do is to embrace a "good governance agenda" on behalf of a long-term process of "democracy promotion" that "has to await the gradual ripening of political and economic conditions to be effective...
...Insist on going ahead with the ports deal so that Arab governments who have stood with us in the war on terror are not told to get lost when one of their companies acquires port management contracts in the United States...
...From Moscow to Beijing, the enemies of liberal democracy are working to weaken the United States...
...Does that make Bush-supporting, liberal-democracy-promoting, Iraq-war-defending neoconservative "Leninists," as Francis Fukuyama has recently charged...
...Remember: The United States of America and its allies—regimes that seek to embody, or at least to move towards, the principles of decent, civilized, liberal democracy—did not seek this war...
...From the cartoon jihad to the Hamas victory to the Iranian effort to obtain nuclear weapons to the attempt by al Qaeda to foment an Iraqi civil war—our enemy is taking the initiative...
...And the West is on its heels...
...But we are at war, and we could lose it...
...But at the end of the day, we should recognize that we are all Americans and part of the West that is under assault by a truly evil foe...
...To govern is not fatalistically to watch a clash of civilizations from the sidelines...
...Indeed, it would be nice if we lived in a world in which we didn't have to take the enemies of liberal democracy seriously—a world without jihadists who want to kill and clerics who want to intimidate and tyrants who want to terrorize...
...Does it mean that history does not automatically move in the right direction, that justice does not necessarily or easily prevail...
...Does it mean we believe—as Fukuyama defines Leninism —that "history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will...
...The fact that the left is utterly irresponsible, and some of the right is silly, is no excuse...
...Make a real effort to destabilize Ahmadinejad in Iran...
...Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in...
...Across the world, the forces of terror and tyranny are fighting back...
...Do what it takes to defeat Zarqawi and secure Iraq...
...In response to an apparent clash of civilizations, they would retrench, hunker down, and let large parts of the world go to hell in a hand basket, hoping that the hand basket won't blow up in our faces...
...If the West seems to be on its heels, it is because the administration seems to be on its heels...
...Are we up to the challenge...
...To govern is not wishfully to await the end of history...
...Victory is not inevitable...
...From Tehran to Damascus, the dictators are trying to regain the upper hand in the Middle East...
...The least we can do at home is to demonstrate some moral seriousness that the moment demands...
...Does it have the will—and the competence—to lead the nation for the next three years toward victory in the long war against radical Islamism...
...Parts of the conservative movement now seem to be losing their nerve as well...
...This is no time for dishonorable retreat...
...It's not clear that we are...
...After all, it would be most unfortunate if the administration summoned its nerve and charged ahead—only to meet the fate of Tennyson's Light Brigade...
...It would be nice to believe, as Fukuyama does, that "a long-term process of social evolution" is under way that will inevitably produce liberal democracy...
...Wittmann continued, "Many mistakes have been made since 9/11...
...Many liberals, here and in Europe, long ago lost the nerve to wage war—or even to defend themselves—against illiberalism...
...Moral seriousness in this case means political seriousness...
...The bombing of [Iraq's] Askariya Shiite Shrine is another indication of the world-wide jihadist offensive against the West...
...It is time for resolve—and competence...
Vol. 11 • March 2006 • No. 24
