Subject: A British View of the US Post-September 11
Andrew Sullivan in the London Times
No eloquence can match the impact of their evil. Americans' critical
weakness
in the past two decades has been their reluctance to shed blood for
their
goals. They believed they could construct a huge military and never
have it
fight real wars and suffer real casualties. They thought they could
alter
history and advance their interests from the air alone. With the exception
of
the Gulf War, which they hesitated to finish, they have shrunk from
the
fight.
When the current enemy struck again and again throughout the 1990s,
Bill
Clinton responded without real credibility, struck back without real
endurance, enraged the terrorists without truly hurting them. We are
now
living with the consequences of his appeasement, and of his refusal
to
challenge Americans beyond what the polls said they already wanted
to do.
Whoever launched this war on Americans has now accomplished the task
Clinton
didn't dare embark on.
America has been bloodied as it has never been bloodied before. I would
be a
fool to predict what happens next. But it isclear that Bush will not
do a
Clinton. This will not be a surgical strike. It will not be a gesture.
It may
not even begin in earnest soon. But it will be deadly serious. It is
clear
that there is no way that the United States can achieve its goals without
the
cooperation of many other states - an alliance as deep and as
broad as that
which won the Gulf War.
It is also clear that this cannot be done by airpower alone. As in 1941,
the
neglect of the military under Bill Clinton and the parsimony of its
financing
even under Bush must now not merely be ended but reversed. We may see
the
biggest defense build-up since the early 1980s - and not just in weaponry
but
in manpower. It is also quite clear that the U.S. military presence
in the
Middle East must be ramped up exponentially, its intelligence overhauled,
its
vigilance heightened exponentially. In some ways, Bush has already
assembled
the ideal team for such a task: Powell for the diplomatic dance, Rumsfeld
for
the deep reforms he will now have the opportunity to enact, Cheney
as his
most trusted aide in what has become to all intents and purposes a
war
cabinet.
The terrorists have done the rest. The middle part of the country -
the great
red zone that voted for Bush - is clearly ready for war. The decadent
Left in
its enclaves on the coasts is not dead - and may well mount what amounts
to a
fifth column. But by striking at the heart of New York City, the terrorists
ensured that at least one deep segment of the country ill-disposed
toward a
new president is now the most passionate in his defense. Anyone who
has ever
tried to get one over on a New Yorker knows what I mean. The demons
who
started this have no idea about the kind of people they have taken
on. But
what the terrorists are also counting on is that Americans will not
have the
stomach for the long haul. They clearly know that the coming retaliation
will
not be the end but the beginning. And when the terrorists strike back
again,
they have let us know that the results could make the assault on the
World
Trade Center look puny.
They are banking that Americans will then cave. They have seen a great
country quarrel to the edge of constitutional crisis over a razor-close
presidential election. They have seen it respond to real threats in
the last
few years with squeamish restraint or surgical strikes. They have seen
that,
as Israel has been pounded by the same murderous thugs, the United
States has
responded with equanimity. They have seen a great nation at the height
of its
power obsess for a whole summer over a missing intern and a randy
Congressman. They have good reason to believe that this country is
soft, that
it has no appetite for the war that has now begun. They have gambled
that in
response to an precedented terror, the Americans will abandon Israel
to the
barbarians who would annihilate every Jew on the planet, and trade
away their
freedom for a respite from terror in their own land.
We cannot foresee the future. But we know the past. And that past tells
us
that these people who destroyed the heart of New York City have made
a
terrible mistake. This country is at its heart a peaceful one. It has
done
more to help the world than any other actor in world history. It saved
the
world from the two greatest evils of the last century in Nazism and
Soviet
Communism. It responded to its victories in the last war by pouring
aid into
Europe and Japan. In the Middle East, America alone has ensured that
the last
hope of the Jewish people is not extinguished and has given more aid
to Egypt
than to any other country. It risked its own people to save the
Middle East
from the pseudo-Hitler in Baghdad. America need not have done any of
this.
Its world hegemony has been less violent and less imperial than any
other
comparable power in history. In the depths of its soul, it wants its
dream to
itself, to be left alone, to prosper among others, and to welcome them
to the
freedom America has helped secure. But whenever Americans have been
challenged, they have risen to the task.
In some awful way, these evil thugs may have done us a favor. America
may
have woken up for ever. The rage that will follow from this grief and
shock
may be deeper and greater than anyone now can imagine. Think of what
the
United States ultimately did to the enemy that bombed Pearl Harbor.
Now
recall that American power in the world is all but unchallenged by
any other
state. Recall that America has never been wealthier, and is at the
end of one
of the biggest booms in its history. And now consider the extent of
this
wound - the greatest civilian casualties since the Civil War, an assault
not
just on Americans but on the meaning of America itself.
When you take a step back, it is hard not to believe that we are now
in the
quiet moment before the whirlwind. Americans will recover their dead,
and
they will mourn them, and then they will get down to business. Their
sadness
will be mingled with an anger that will make the hatred of these evil
fanatics seem mild.
I am reminded of a great American poem written by Herman Melville after
the
death of Abraham Lincoln, the second founder of the country:
"There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand;
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand."