Belmont Club Saves

Wretchard the Cat is still the deepest thinker and best writer on the Web. You should read every post. He is too far to the west on the political spectrum for my taste, but he keeps it in check by appealing to the raw power of reason. I learned of him from Steven Den Beste, who is similar in many ways. Neither of them waste their time preaching to the choir. Their positions are never tactical. Both are extremely fair-minded. Den Beste may be the more technically knowledgeable. Wretchard is probably more aware of history and the lure of elegant prose. Both of them are excellent teachers.

Wretchard's comments section is also intellectually elevated compared to most, but politically less balanced than his posts.

His recent series, the Prism of War and Prism of War 2, shows us views of Iraq and of war itself that we would not see elsewhere. If you are worried about the outcome in Iraq, Wretchard can show you the light. He is not uniformly optimistic. It's just that his focus is broader. We need to win World War IV, in which Iraq is merely one advantageous battle ground. He does not underestimate the true enemy.

Hindsight would lead us to take different actions that we actually do. In hindsight we would be brave enough to make the hard choices. Lenin would have shot Stalin when he had the chance. The British and French would have attacked Germany as soon as Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland. The US would have begun preparing for war when the Japanese invaded Manchuria. Jimmy Carter would have bombed the Mullahs. We knew, or should have known, what was coming. The Enemy had revealed its nature, but we chose to wish it away.

Mr. Bush, for all his faults, has done no such thing. He identified the Axis of Evil quite correctly. It's like having Churchill before you need him. The nuclear threat and the WMDs are very real in at least one regard. The enemy will not stop trying until they obtain them, and they will not be deterred from using them. Wretchard believes that this will be the worst outcome conceivable for Islam.

This kind of clear thought is necessary to save the species.

5/6/2005 12:54 PM