Podhoretz’s filter

This is from my blog entry, “Podhoretz has learned nothing”:

[Norman] Podhoretz’s Opinion Journal piece is all about how the left in the war on terror is like the left in the Cold War. Since the left wants us to retreat from Iraq without honor, as it made us retreat from Vietnam without honor, what Podhoretz wants to do is fight on bravely at all costs. His policy is simply to be the opposite of the left. But since the left is insanely anti-American and surrender-minded, being conservative means being insanely pro-American and bellicose; since the left doesn’t want to fight any war on America’s behalf, the right must feverishly imagine that we are waging “World War IV”—a “war” that in reality consists of holding actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, warrantless surveillance, and an occasional terrorism trial. Of course, Podhoretz’s article is only an excerpt from his book, but there is nothing in it suggesting an interest in the Muslim problem separate from the left-right dynamics that form Podhoretz’s main paradigm for viewing the world.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 13, 2007 01:50 AM | Send