Friday, May 25, 2007

The Price Too High

One way to restate Dr. Kilcullen is to say 'the enemy has been telling his story. We have not been telling ours.' And that I am afraid, is not the enemy's fault. The wound is entirely self-inflicted. Somewhere in the last forty years the West's favorite cultural activity changed from telling it's story to disparaging it: to mocking its faith, describing its economic system as inhuman, ridiculing the continuation of its family life as bovine. This trend came under many colors: anti-establishmentarianism, sexual liberation, cultural rebellion. It occasionally described itself as avante garde, though whither this advanced contingent was heading no one could say, except that it led away.

We must rival the enemy vision with one of our own, or perhaps more accurately, one that the Iraqi people can come up with. Our survival must be purchased at the cost of renewed self-belief. Alas, some will find the price too high.