Wednesday, March 12, 2003

...Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born...

The paradox of American beauty is to re-birth a fragile yet fierce democratic polity where polar points of view, as Sullivan and Dowd, continue to be heard under fire. This will take wild grace under pressure. MG+


I'm a little chastened by that criticism. Some on the far left and right are indeed appeasing, or even sympathizing with the enemy. Others on the near left are putting partisanship before strategic clarity. (Others on the left are fully clear-sighted about what is at stake.) But some criticism of our Iraq policy is well-intentioned and based not on denial but mere prudential disagreement. On balance, I think war against Saddam now is essential...There really is a connection between 9/11 and Iraq - at the deepest and most meaningful level imaginable. We may endure more such days before we summon the will to do what we have to. Or we may have the luck and the leadership to prevent it. I'm praying for the latter. Andrew Sullivan

Now we've managed to alienate our last best friend. We are making the rest of the world recoil. But that may be part of the Bush hawks' master plan. Maybe they have really always wanted to go it alone.

Maybe it has been their strategy all along to sideline the U.N., deflate Colin Powell and cut the restraining cords of traditional coalitions. Their decision last summer to get rid of Saddam was driven by their desire to display raw, naked American power. This time, they don't want Colin Powell or pesky allies counseling restraint in Baghdad...

"These guys at the Pentagon — Wolfowitz, Perle, Doug Feith — when they lie in bed at night, they imagine a new book written by one of them or about them called, `Present at the Recreation,' " an American diplomat said. "They want to banish the wimpy Europeanist traditional balance of power, and use the Iraq seedbed of democracy to impose America's will on the world." Maureen Dowd

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