OK, Cute Title, But...

While I find the title (Dances With Wolfowitz) of Dowd's column amusing, the argument within the text really misses the boat, as least on two counts:

• First, like many critics of the war/the administration, she engages in static analysis, which looks only at the death and destruction since March 19th, without taking into consideration the death and destruction that will now be avoided because Saddam and his Baathist thugs are no longer in power.

• Second, she seems to think that Wolfowitz, Cheney, and company think war is great just for the sake of breaking things and looking tough. Not so. The point of the Hanson quote she sites, and the analysis of James Woolsey she refers to, is not that war is something we go instead of persuason because at times we just feel like it. No, the point is that we engage in war because sometimes persuasion and diplomacy won't work and that to maintain national secuirty, force must be applied.

I would remind Ms. Dowd and all other who decry the evils of warfare--we didn't start this. The Islamoterrorists have been attacking US interests with impunity for over a decade (the Twin Towers twice, the Cole, the Khobar Towers, the embassies in Africa, etc.)--we did not first declare war on them, but they on us.

Posted by Steven Taylor at April 9, 2025 06:55 AM | TrackBack