“It Is That Simple”

Equivocators, dissemblers, Western self-loathers, self-styled sophisticates, David Warren writes very loudly for all to hear:

If the United States and allies cannot eliminate so obvious a malefactor as Saddam, the “war on terror” is over, and we lost. The future of state-sponsored terrorism is secure, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will accelerate, their use in blackmail becomes inevitable, the check on their actual use is relaxed, the annihilation of the people of Israel can be safely predicted, and the rest of us must learn to live our lives under the threat of smallpox, anthrax, nerve gas, Scuds, and radiation.

The reader may not think it can be that simple, and there would seem to be majorities in Canada and Europe who crave a more complicated view. But as Winston Churchill spent the later 1930s trying to explain to the smug, and the intellectually sophisticated, it IS that simple.

Wake up, smell the cat food. If the Bush administration has not sufficiently explained this stark reality, that is a real problem that must be rectified. But ultimately, it is the responsibility of every citizen to educate him- or herself, to dig down to that space inside themselves where the truth quietly speaks, and to realize that wishing and hoping will NEVER make this problem go away of its own accord.

Most people may be mostly good, but that leaves a lot of people mostly, dangerously bad, and refusing to pass judgment can be, HAS BEEN a massively fatal mistake, an indulgence we cannot afford.

What’s worse than war? Leaving for the future to deal with problems that will only get worse with time, that will inevitably cost far more through inaction in both absolute terms and by the diminution of quality of life for us all. It is that simple.

The Bush administration, regardless of its domestic and energy policy flaws, gets this, and this is what is MOST IMPORTANT. I haven’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate EVER, and I thought Bush a fumbling business pawn until September 11, 2001. But he has apprehended his life’s mission from the whisper in his ear in the Florida classroom:

What remains beyond doubt is the commitment of the Bush administration to root out the enemy that appeared from the skies in New York and Washington on Sept. 11th, 2001. And not to remove a part of this cancer, but the whole thing — no matter how long it takes, no matter what it costs. It would be a lot easier, faster and cheaper, with the unstinting help of all nominal allies, but the job will be done with or without them. The issue may indeed be perceived differently in other capitals, but in Washington it is life or death, and they’ve chosen life.