But that’s not really what tickled me about the letter. It’s a fairly concise summation of a particular mindset that does not, to put it lightly, share the same peril-set I do. The arguments about the legality of the intercept programs are complex and fascinating, but – if I can overgeneralize – seem to trouble most those who are convinced that the entire point of the intelligence operation is to bring about some Panopticon nightmare with no rationale for its existence other than some nebulous, undefined notion of “security.” Those who are less troubled see the core problem as the threat to which these intelligence efforts are responding. And that’s why the letter amused. He said:
Assume that violent Islamic fundamentalism, like Nazism and communism before it, is completely marginalized.
Right. The Iranian sponsors, with their nuclear ambitions and support of international terror, are off the stage; the Saudi paymasters are likewise cowed or replaced with a government that seeks coexistence with Israel; Syria has had a revolution, Iraq makes the Swiss look like South Bronx (or a Paris Suburb), the Chechen rebels have disbanded in shame, the store-front sheiks of London have decided to join in the experiment of 21st century post-national continental identity, the various rag-tag bombers and separatists and fundamentalists from Indonesia to India to Pakistan have likewise stood down, and the most primitive, unreconstructed, antagonistic threat to modernity, liberalism, gender equity, religious tolerance, pluralism, and all the other right bonny boons of the Western Civ have been defeated, thwarted, or persuaded to change their ways.
Assume that, and we can get on to the issues the apologists never consider.
Give me a call when it happens. We’ll sit down and have a nice hot cup of worry. Some scones, too. If they’re fresh.
Lileks is quite right. In the Cold War, once we beat the Soviets the fact that we won was spun by the Left as a reason the USSR wasn't very powerful all along. See? What were we worried about? They would have collapsed anyway if we'd just ignored them and instituted nationalized health care! What a waste we spent all that money on the military!
Likewise, the lack of further 9-11s is seen as proof we face no real threat from jihadi terrorists. It's all just a Cheney plot to do something secret but undoubtedly nefarious. In a vague sort of way, of course. No real details or evidence of dictatorships are available. (But they feel oppressed! That must count for something, right?)
That we had to fight the Cold War to win seems genuinely a mystery to the Left. And that we must fight the jihadi enemies we have now to win just doesn't seem to enter their thought processes, either. No, assume there is no threat from violent Islamic fundamentalism and then base our actions on that assumption. Yeah, right.
When you assume a can opener, all else follows naturally.
