The Virtue of a Straight Line

Reading the National Review online today--lots of good articles, but two in particular stood out. One by Victor Davis Hanson, prosaicly named, "We Mustn't Forget Why We are Fighting this War.," and a second by Rod Dreher, entitled "A Mighty Fortress is our God."

Hanson writes;

"Lest we forget why we have been fighting the al Qaeda terrorists and are now ready to invade Iraq, we should remember some basic facts about the present war.

What is its immediate cause?

About a year and a half ago, Middle Eastern terrorists — at a time of peace and without provocation — simply murdered 3,000 Americans."

Dreher writes;

"Here we are 12 years later, another Christmas upon us, another war with Iraq looming. This time, the peril is graver. Saddam Hussein has had 12 years to build more weapons of mass destruction — and he knows now that we are coming to kill him. The world is not allied against the dictator as it once was. Our cities — my city — now know what terrorists fighting in the name of Islam, Christendom's ancient foe, are capable of doing to us, without warning.

There was nothing abstract about September 11."

Before making my main point, let me comment on Dreher's argument. Saddam has not had 12 years to build more weapons of mass destruction. He's had constant inspections and bombings. He's suffered (or to be more clear, his people have suffered) under U.N. sanctions. I know it's fashionable for Commentators to assume that American's can't remember what happened six months ago, but I like to think they can. I also am encouraged by the description of Islam as Christendom's ancient foe. And here I thought the enemy of Christianity was Satan. In fact, I'm so theologically backwords, I can't help thinking that an enduring religious war between Christianity and Islam would bring the devil much joy.

But to my main point--would someone please draw a line between the over three thousand dead in the tragedies of September 11 and Saddam Hussein's Iraq? Is it merely that the hijackers came from the middle east (as Hanson points out), and Iraq is in the very same region? Do you think that's merely a coincidence?

Do Hanson and Dreher really believe in an America where on the vaguest of proofs (or even in the absense of proof) of malfience, we wage war on another nation? Apparently they do.

But I don't.

For a more rational appraisel of the Iraq invasion, check out Dilip Hiro's article, "The Post-Saddam Problem."