My own hunch is that in the last two or three months there's been a change in the tone of the blogosphere. Nothing definite, simply a change in atmosphere in proportion to the degree of abstract tendencies of the blogger. Authors who trafficked in ideas and concepts have altered the most. Some have paused to take
stock, pleading disgust or confusion; still others have returned to writing as seemingly different persons; others seem to be suffering a kind of nervous breakdown, obsessed with hatred for one or more public figures or inventing new words and finding conspiracies in everything they see.
By chance, I made the following comment the same morning regarding how the Left has waged war against the administration of George W. Bush with an intensity that they could never work up over actual enemies who seek to kill us:
I'd sink into despair over our current culture that undermines our war efforts, but that would be a luxury we who support the war can ill afford to indulge in while our troops dutifully win the war that many in our country would just as soon lose.
Was I reacting to the same feeling that Wretchard described? I don't know. Perhaps. But though I may have been reacting to the forces that Wretchard is describing, I did not succumb to them. As I wrote, succumbing to them is a luxury. Our troops can't afford to succumb to anxiety or worry that the cosmos are just unfair or wrong. Actual enemies are shooting and bombing them so practical details of surviving and killing the enemy take priority.
We who only have to type a few goddamn words on blogs have a duty to display only a shadow of the resolve that our soldiers and Marines are displaying every day at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and in locations we never read about.
Perhaps I don't traffic in ideas as Wretchard speculates. I won't judge that. But I am confident enough in my ability to judge what is going on to resist the siren song of giving in to despair. Believe me, as a resident of Ann Arbor I'd have an easier time if I just got with the program and declared that I no longer supported the war because of this reason or that.
But that would be both cowardly and intellectually dishonest.
We are winning this war. And our troops who are winning it for us deserve our support until even the waverers can no longer deny it--or until their denial just doesn't matter. Maybe this unease is why I again felt the need to start linking to my victory post.
There should be no expiration date on our support for a just war.
Get over your self-centered angst. If you don't support our victory, you support our defeat.
UPDATE: Chester (via Instapundit) is unimpressed with this keyboard fatigue. I say some people need to be slapped.
