Where’s my Moratorium button collection?
: OK, so I’ve turned from pacifist to hawk, in favor of our war against terrorism, and I’m making fun of the protesting twerps threatening to take on the evils of globalization and Starbucks. But that doesn’t mean I have lost my memory or good sense or ethics. I still remember that Richard Nixon was a lying slime who degraded the presidency and the nation and whose stubborn execution of the wrongful war in Vietnam split this nation and its generations. And so, my old dander was raised when I read an interview with Henry Kissinger in the FT, saying, smugly (of course) that Bill Clinton “really reflected the last flowering of the self-indulgent side of the Vietnam protests.” What a crock, Kissinger. The Vietnam protests were not self-indulgent; you were going to have us killed as we killed because you thought Communism was going to take over the world (how stupid does that look today?) in a land that — unlike Afghanistan — did not attack us or harbor our attackers; we attacked. So you insult Clinton and my generation in the same stale breath with which you defend Nixon: “There’s one problem about the Nixon period — the passions you encounter in people who have nurtured hatred for 30 years.” You bet, Hank. And don’t you ever forget it. [via Reductio Ad Absurdum]
Oh, Canada
: A column in the National Post says Canada has to help defend us from terrorists:
The United States, homeland security to the fore, will soon create a new military command to co-ordinate continental defence. What should Canada do? Remain aloof, ever fearful of a loss of more independence to the United States? Or join in as a partner, ready to work with the United States? What does the national interest demand?
To me, the Canadian national interest is as clear today as in 1940-41 and 1957-58. Since the United States will do what it must to protect its security, our choice can only be to participate as fully as we can. This way we can secure some role in shaping the decisions that will affect us. If we turn away, as the Council of Canadians and others prefer, we will have a form of sovereignty without meaning. Who can believe we are truly sovereign and independent if we have no share in taking the defence decisions that affect us?
From the pile to the pit
: A nice story in the Washington Post on the work at the World Trade Center, as The Pile becomes The Pit and they still find the remains of lives there: a yo-yo, a picture book, personal checks, personal notes, jewelry, people.
