Thank God he’s back! Mark Steyn writes again
Bookworm on Mar 05 2011 at 9:30 am | Filed under: Leftist morality
Mark Steyn took a long break from writing, and I really missed him terribly. Why? Because he wrote things like this, as part of a larger essay about the Kosovan who killed to U.S. Airmen in Frankfurt, Germany:
Remember Kosovo? Me neither. But it was big at the time, launched by Bill Clinton in the wake of his Monica difficulties: Make war, not love, as the boomers advise. So Clinton did — and without any pesky U.N. resolutions, or even the pretense of seeking them. Instead, he and Tony Blair and even Jacques Chirac just cried “Bombs away!” and got on with it. And the Left didn’t mind at all — because, for a modern Western nation, war is only legitimate if you have no conceivable national interest in whatever war you’re waging. Unlike Iraq and all its supposed “blood for oil,” in Kosovo no one remembers why we went in, what the hell the point of it was, or which side were the good guys. (Answer: Neither.) The principal rationale advanced by Clinton and Blair was that there was no rationale. This was what they called “liberal interventionism,” which boils down to: The fact that we have no reason to get into it justifies our getting into it.
Not only beautifully written, but absolutely correct too. I’ve been saying the same thing since 2001, but without Steyn’s inimitable style and clarity.
Related posts:
- Oh, to write like Mark Steyn
- Trust Mark Steyn to sum up the political playing field perfectly
- Channeling Mark Steyn
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2 Responses to “Thank God he’s back! Mark Steyn writes again”
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A lot of people back during the Iraq War, kept talking about a broken army or one that was short on manpower.
The fact that they never brought up the reallocation of forces in Germany and South Korea, was all too clear a sign to me that they weren’t serious. Only playing political games.
I have no quarrel with our having troops in Germany, Korea, Okinawa and suchlike places, they’re handy to put out brushfires. My quarrel is the rules of engagement when we do go into such places. Somehow the kinder, gentler military of the 21st Century does little good when faced with 8th Century savages.
I’m not sure of the answer. I don’t know that our society would accept the Roman method of decimating unruly town, line up the men, count off every tenth man and stick a sword in him. Oh well, if we don’t have the will, the Chinese do. Maybe. Funny how the Chinese have gotten a free ride, thanks to the US Navy. I am curious as to how the Chinese aim to keep the raw material coming in and the manufactured goods going out with Obambi intent on gutting the Navy’s ability to control the sea lanes. China is years away from a real blue water Navy.