Rodent Regatta

WHAT’S MISSING IS WORLD ORDER

Without world order people and businesses get into ruts. We have a low tolerance for risk and we fixate on trying to protect what we have when living in uncertain days. Prosperity cannot return until the natural tension between the economic drivers of fear and greed begins to shift.
World order is tough to guage when we have such heightened media coverage of what would otherwise be regional stories. Fires, child abductions and the West Nile virus have dominated news coverage while public debates about Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan continue as ”noise in the background.”
Since 9/11 we have been paralyzed (i.e. traumatized) and fearful of the next shoe to drop. No one is taking much risk economically. Markets are bouncing. Even the Cold War years were marked by periods of relative calm and some certainty about the ultimate outcome. Today it’s difficult to identify our heroes. Who should we listen to?
On one hand we find pundits of a traditionally liberal ilk hawking a war with Iraq. We find members of an avowed conservative administration urging caution about identifying our enemies. Order isn’t what we have, but we worry that we might not recognize order if and when it returns!

SCOWCROFT AWARD NOMINEE: Readers may remember how last October and November, large numbers of pundits, analysts and experts both opposed the war in Afghanistan and confidently predicted its failure. Undeterred by their failures last time around, some of the same people are now opposing a war against Iraq. It seems to me a public service to remind readers of some of these people’s records. Brent Scowcroft, one recalls, opposed the war in Afghanistan and was a loyal fan of murderous tyrants in Moscow and Bosnia and Beijing throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Yet few major media outlets cited these failures of judgment in anointing Scowcroft as a serious commentator on our current predicament.
WHY NOT IRAN? You may have noticed from Maureen Dowd’s recent column that one of the latest flimsy excuses for doing nothing about Iraq is that we should expedite regime change in Saudi Arabia as well. After all, they’re a terrorist-sponsoring, Islamist-funding, barbaric autocracy as well. Amen, MoDo. But first things first. Let’s get Iraq’s and Russia’s oil supplies up and running first, can we? But the really interesting thing about the belated liberal fixation on the evil of Saudi Arabia (with which I concur) is the strange absence in their argument of any mention of Iran. Why isn’t the New York Times on the warpath there? Well, the obvious reason is that it might mean some support for president Bush, which is unthinkable. But the second reason is that it might reveal that the assertion that Iran is already some kind of democracy would collapse. Michael Ledeen has another astute piece on National Review, showing the Times’ blind eye to the evil regime in Tehran. Don’t miss it. (And if you want a real guide to the context of our war on terror, don’t miss his book, ”The War Against the Terror-Masters,” which is our book club selection this month. You won’t find a more concise and informative primer on why we are at war, and how we can win.)

IS BUSH READING SUN TZU? Okay, it’s a long shot. But Bush’s long silence, the contradictory messages from his administration, and mysterious arms buildups around the world leads one reader to wonder whether the president has been boning up on the art of war. Two maxims stand out: ”When near, make it appear that you are far away, when far away that you are near.” And: ”Offer the enemy a bait to lure him; feign disorder and strike him.” Wishful thinking no doubt. But then this president is often under-estimated. [Andrew Sullivan]

Amid all of these discussions are people who are completely caught up in our nationalistic ways. Again, order isn’t clear.
Now is the time for a great resurgence in this country. Against the backdrop of turmoil are those willing to step forward and distinguish themselves and this country for the new millenium. We may have to redefine what it means to live in an era of threats from enemies who are cowards. We may have to learn to live with loss as Israel has. What we cannot do is freeze in place.