A Good Standard

A number of good articles in the Weekly Standard at the moment.

Gerard Baker reflects on the cravenness of Michael Howard in attacking Blair over Iraq. He calls it worthy of John Kerry- and he's right. Neither of these two men have realised that the present time is one of those times when a Government of national unity is what the public really want. The public think they're sure there is a challenge to rise to, and they're concerned to see their politicians rise to it (and events seem to confirm this view). To do that it's necessary to recognise some baseline rules, including the one that a real leader must disavow short term gains in the interests of solidarity against gathering threats.

Kerry's attempts to treat national security as a matter of presentation- in his case of presenting his Vietnam credentials hopelessly one-sidedly- and Howard's attempts to play poll-chasing with Blair's justifications for the Iraq war, both trivialise the nature of the debate, and leave people angry.

Both Kerry and Howard want to freeze public opinion in a mode of scepticism about the Iraq war, but the Islamic threat which emanates from the Middle East keeps on morphing. Fortunately its ability to morph from that region is limited by our presence on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the aggravation this involves people are finding it comforting to have our foot poised beside the umbilical cords of terrorism. So Kerry and Howard need to change tack- are morally obliged to change tack- but they are mesmerised by the 'silver bullet' of Stop the War populism.

David Gelernter makes a bold assertion of Bush's place in history. In a skilfully crafted article (i.e. special post-convention delivery) he makes a powerful case that Bush has grasped the force of change that's making history today. [slightly edited]

It was Bismarck who said

"A statesman...must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment."

Gelernter says this about the President's opponents:

'Reactionary liberals want everything to stay just the same. All trends must continue just as they have been. (Judges must continue to subvert democracy; Congress must continue to create new entitlements.) We must treat the new totalitarians just the same as we once were forced to treat the Soviets--gingerly. Our goal must be not to liberate their victims, not to defeat and disarm their military machines, but to arrange détente with their dictators--just as we once did. (Détente with Saddam was French and Russian policy until we screwed things up.) Our antiquated pre-cell phone, pre-microchip laws and regulations must stay just the same (kill the Patriot Act!), and we must sit still and wait politely for the next terrorist outrage, just as we always have.'