It’s Not Hard
Repeat after me: Osama bin Laden is a dead man.

September 18, 2001 4:45 p.m.

epeat after me: Osama bin Laden is a dead man.

The danger of the manic wave of emotion that the nation has been riding for the last week is that when it ebbs away, we may be particularly susceptible to the depressive voices of doubt and complication: We don't do mountains; we can't track down a "shadowy" network that has none of the traditional infrastructure of a state; we aren't ready for the casualties and time this war will entail.

Indeed, if you follow the logic of various pieces in the press over the last few days, the "nothing option" begins to seem the only reasonable alternative: We can't undertake any large-scale bombing in the Middle East because this would be counterproductive and immoral; we can't take out Saddam specifically because we supposedly already tried that once and it didn't work out; and, finally, even getting bin Laden will be difficult because of his elusiveness and the Afghani terrain.

You can just hear the pundit class talking itself out of any intensive military action. (Maureen Dowd will probably be back on the side of the Euro-appeasers before the month is out.)

All of this is "realism" as an excuse for lack of resolve — since the real hard work requires a moral and intellectual commitment many commentators won't be willing to undertake. It means welcoming the frank application of American military power, acknowledging the superiority of American civilization to the corrupt and backward political culture that has attacked it, and supporting unilateral American action when necessary.

This is what's difficult for that portion of the political elite that is wedded to cultural relativism and a low-grade anti-Americanism. The rest is relatively easy.

And telling ourselves as much is not simply a matter of maintaining patriotic ardor. A nation's attitude matters. What it tells itself about its capabilities has an important influence on what those capabilities will be.

For instance: Between the two world wars, the French were, in a sense, psychologically damaged. After the slaughter of the trenches, they so abhorred the idea of taking the offensive that they crouched behind the Maginot Line and were unwilling to deal Hitler an offensive blow — even when he was at his most vulnerable, during his remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936.

So, let's remember.

We breached the Atlantic wall in 1944: Osama bin Laden is a dead man.

We — thirty years ago! — put a man on the moon: Osama bin Laden is a dead man.

We vanquished Saddam's army in a 100-hour ground war: Osama bin Laden is a dead man.

It may take some time and dirty tactics and unsavory temporary alliances, but given our might, technology, and determination, it's inevitable — all four of his wives will be widowed. Osama bin Laden is a dead man.

Lockbox Redux
The New Republic's Jonathan Chait has written a good-natured, if earnest, letter to complain that I have quoted him too many times to the effect that the lockboxes — remember them? — are an "artificial device." Chait worries that readers might get the wrong idea about his position from this selective quotation. And he has a point: Most people would have concluded from the fact that the lockboxes are an "artificial device," that the Democrats' howls about "raids" on Social Security and Medicare were risible and demagogic, and that other things — whether restoring the military or stimulating the economy — should take precedence. They would be mistaken. Chait, who is a shrewd (if, in my opinion, often wrong-headed) writer, had many complicated and subtle reasons for honoring this "artificial device" (oops, there I go again). Suffice it to say that none of this matters, because everyone now is willing to abandon the pretense of believing in the lockboxes because, among others things, they were all along what Chait has called . . . well, better not say it.

Marching On
Thanks to everyone who checked out the website of the marching band affiliated with the National Association for the Prevention of Starvation, which appeared, as if heaven-sent, on the streets of New York City on Saturday. The wife of the bandleader called from Huntsville, Alabama, yesterday to say how much they appreciated all the comments people sent. For thousands of New Yorkers last weekend, NAPS provided what will be a lovely memory amid all the despair.