The Past vs. the Present
The Democratic leaders demand George W. Bush must never mention “9/11" when he speaks about the War in Iraq. This is said to reflect their concern that the president will shelter an “unjust and illegal war” in the star-spangled mantle of the broadly popular Great War on Islamist Terror.
But at the same time the Demos must know this is a tactic that can pay. If they can prise Iraq away from 9/11 in the American mind, they can have a field day tearing up the management of the war, past and present, and pretend this does no real damage to America.
So how do you decide whether the Iraq experiment is a campaign in this fluid new type of cross-cultural war America finds itself in — the equivalent, perhaps, of the 1942 North Africa invasion or Sherman’s March — or some entirely unrelated and fatal distraction — the equivalent of Athens’ Sicilian expedition or Napoleon’s march on Moscow?
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But at the same time the Demos must know this is a tactic that can pay. If they can prise Iraq away from 9/11 in the American mind, they can have a field day tearing up the management of the war, past and present, and pretend this does no real damage to America.
So how do you decide whether the Iraq experiment is a campaign in this fluid new type of cross-cultural war America finds itself in — the equivalent, perhaps, of the 1942 North Africa invasion or Sherman’s March — or some entirely unrelated and fatal distraction — the equivalent of Athens’ Sicilian expedition or Napoleon’s march on Moscow?
... more
