WE ARE NOW just weeks away from going to war to disarm and depose Saddam Hussein’s regime, and beginning the difficult but necessary task of bringing the fresh breezes of self-government into the authoritarian hothouses of the Arab world. The arguments of the antiwar protestors–to the extent they even bother making arguments more sophisticated than placards reading “Bush = Hitler”–are refuted easily enough, and fortunately they’ve only strengthened the resolve of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, as this terrific response by Blair demonstrated. But alas, like the poor, those who fetishize peace so fervently that they invite war will always be with us.
The more interesting phenomenon of late is the slow but steady progression of prominent liberal intellectuals to the pro-war side. The New York Times’s Bill Keller recently described himself and other recently minted pro-war liberals as members of the “I-Can’t-Believe-I’m-a-Hawk Club.” Other members include Slate magazine’s “Chatterbox” columnist Tim Noah, New Yorker editor David Remnick, Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, and Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory (depending on when you ask–she still can’t quite make up her mind).
