Credit where Credit is Due

Credit where Credit is Due - Winston Churchill is one of my heroes. It's hyperbolic to say he saved western civilization - but only a little.

And yet, in 1942, with the Japanese advancing into Bengal (Bangladesh) from Burma, Churchill ordered food stocks in the region to be either moved or destroyed, to prevent their capture. The order caused an immense food panic, triggering vast hording and hyperinflation of food prices - so that even though there was plenty of food, a famine happened. 200,000 may have died.

Was Churchill any less a hero because of this? You can answer that within your own heart.

The point being that in wartime, decisions have to be made, fast. They may or may not be right.

Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft have had to make a lot of fast decisions in the last 11 months (especially in the first days after the attacks, and after our invasion of Afghanistan). Rumsfeld has the benefit of doing his voodoo overseas, among foreigners, many of whom want to kill us.

Ashcroft, on the other hand, has made his decisions in the face of a well-developed civil liberties lobby (of which I'm a proud, conservative member) and a media that is fairly roundly hostile to him. Criticism is forthright and immediate and never, ever muted in the least.

But on the balance - wrinkles and all, Ashcroft's record of doing his job can be called excellent.