March 25, 2003
WILL NO ONE RID US...:
Weaknesses and moral inconsistency led us to war: International alliances must be rebuilt so the world does not fragment again (Rowan Williams, March 25, 2003 , Times of London)The decision to embark on military operations in Iraq last week produced something unfamiliar in our politics: the sense of the genuinely tragic — by which I mean not the sad or the catastrophic, but the awareness of desperately constrained choices, profound moral risk, the knowledge of the cost of what we do, even when we do it from conviction.
I heard an excellent line tonight, though I didn't hear who it's credited to: when good and evil oppose one another it's merely melodrama; when good opposes good then it's tragedy. The great flaw of the Left (which sadly includes the Churches) as regards their arguments on the war is that they do view it as a tragedy. This is because they--and it's particularly odd for the Church--no longer have access to the idea of evil. In every conflict they see only opposing goods, though some of the parties may be misunderstood or may be behaving badly at the moment. In America, evangelical churches and other conservative denominations are displacing the older liberal mainline churches in large part because of this demoralization. This has much of the character of a Third Great Awakening, reinvigorating American society with a religious moralism that many thought would never be seen again after the '70s and which is thoroughly moribend in the rest of the West. From this phenomenon derives the vast and growing split between America and Europe on issues like war, abortion, capital punishment, homosexuality, adultery, welfare, and a host of other political/social issues. It also makes it extremely improbable that America and Europe can be reconciled in the long run. The very bases of our societies are becoming too different. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 25, 2003 11:15 PM
I cannot altogether share your optimism, Orrin. It may be that America is just a generation or two behind Europe on the trajectory of demoralization.
Posted by: Paul Cella at March 26, 2003 2:21 AMPossibly, but not necessarily.
Might one hope that this campaign will force many to return to their senses. To even if grudgingly admit that America, though not without faults (and this can be admitted without fear or shame, seeing as there is a viable socio-political mechanism to correct them), is, when one compares her to others, a force that not only promotes life and freedom but is willing to defend them.
Or is that too much to hope for?
Paul:
I share those fears but hope that privatization of social programs--both through individual accounts for things like Social Security, education, unemployment, etc. and through Faith Based delivery of services--and continued immigration, to renew our blood, will avoid that dire fate.
Barry:
Unfortunately, the history of democracy suggests that the people will instead demand retrenchment before we've even secured this victory.
One wonders then if Saddam will be able to "save" us from ourselves.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at March 26, 2003 9:12 AMBarry:
Also unfortunately, the cost of prolonged war is that the Right concedes to the Left its demands for social programs in exchange for their "support" of the war.
Williams is hewing to the line held by all
Archbishops of Canterbury since 1930.
I find this -- written for Orrin before he
was even born, perhaps -- in Roskill's "Man of
Secrets," Vol. 3, page 654:
"Finally, it may be left to future philosophers
to ponder and explain the undoubted fact
that it has been atheistic Soviet Russia
which has revived St. Augustine's concept
of 'a just war'; while the western
democracies move ever further towards
acceptance of the concept that no war can
ever be justifiable."