It's The Terror, Stupid -

It's The Terror, Stupid - Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the Spectator (via Sullivan), on the intellectual self-destruction of the Left after 9/11, over the only issue that really matters: Terror.

Remember - Wheatcroft's no dittohead:

"Two years later, the sorriest consequence of all this has become much clearer. Because the critics of the Bush administration and Blair government made themselves so ridiculous in the aftermath of 11th September, the proper case against the Iraq war was subsequently much weakened. Sane critics of Bush and Blair must have been embarrassed by the sheer emptiness of the Voices for Peace, one of the instant books which came out in autumn 2001, in which Mark Steel, Ronan Bennett, Annie Lennox ("I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it"), George Monbiot ("Let’s make this the era of collateral repair"), Anita Roddick ("We must shift from a private greed to a public good") and other usual or unusual suspects were rounded up, along with Adrian Mitchell (yes, also still with us), who rather lamely reprinted his old favourite "Tell me lies about Vietnam," which must have taken a few wrinklies back to the 1960s.

These unthinking "radicals" provoked more than just amusement mixed with irritation—they induced a sense of despair. They simply had nothing to say—as they showed when they were asked for more practical advice. If Alice Walker’s suggestion that Bin Laden should be reminded of all the good, nonviolent things he has done was one of the most remarkable entries in this whole sottisier, it wasn’t much different in kind from the fatuities on offer elsewhere. Paul Foot led the way by telling Bush, "first, cut off your aid to the state of Israel." This was like saying, first, conquer the law of gravity, or, first, fly to Venus.

Intellecual vacuity, of course, is far from international. One had only to watch any of the Twin Cities' left's pro-Hussein anti-war rallies to see that ofay symbolism has replaced rational thought with all too many on the left (and on too many issues, as you notice if you work on the Concealed Carry debate too long).

This is an interesting topic, one I'm planning on exploring more. If you ask the left (see Josh Marshall), the left is just about to hit its stride. And yet as the Dean candidacy unfolds, and General Clark's mendacity is exposed to daylight, it looks like the sort of stride you see in a Three Stooges episode, only better, because the slapstick humor is unintentional.

Posted by Mitch at September 3, 2003 09:46 AM