Secretary of State John Kerry writes in his hometown paper, the Boston Globe, about how with U.S. leadership, “the world” will defeat the Islamic terrorist group ISIS. Kerry, who voted for the Iraq War in 2003 and later withdrew his support,tries to draw a distinction between the military actions of his current boss, Barack Obama, and those of Obama’s predecessor by appealing to a conservative authority:
It’s nice to have a liberal like Kerry quoting Burke. In fact, we’d encourage the secretary to consider some more words of wisdom from Burke, quoted by the distinguished historian Gertrude Himmelfarb in a recent issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
“There is a courageous wisdom,” Burke wrote in his “Letters on a Regicide Peace,” but “there is also a false reptile prudence, the result not of caution but of fear. Under misfortunes it often happens that the nerves of the understanding are so relaxed, the pressing peril of the hour so completely confounds all the faculties, that no future danger can be properly provided for, can be justly estimated, can be so much as fully seen.”
And there’s more:
Here’s Himmelfarb’s comment:
Given Kerry’s newfound appreciation for Burke, we’d encourage him to read Himmelfarb’s entire article, “From Robespierre to ISIS.”
