December 17, 2001, Issue

Having Their Day in (a Military) Court
By Robert H. Bork

Trials in federal courts have features that make them totally inappropriate for the trial of terrorists. An open trial would be an ideal stage for an Osama bin Laden to spread his propaganda to all the Muslims in the world; moreover, our government would inevitably have to reveal much of our intelligence information, and about the means by which it is gathered. Charles Krauthammer notes that in the trial of the bombers of our embassies in Africa, the prosecution had to reveal that American intelligence intercepted bin Laden's satellite phone calls: "As soon as that testimony was published, Osama stopped using the satellite system and went silent. We lost him. Until Sept. 11."

The Mob Lawyer, Updated
By John J. Miller

Porges is hardly the first dirty immigration lawyer. What makes the case different — and sleazier — is his firm's ties to vicious Chinese smugglers. "Snakeheads" demand up to $50,000 for taking immigrants from China to the United States, often through several countries and over many months. Because the costs are so steep and the immigrants so poor, men sometimes enter into arrangements that can only be described as indentured servitude; women are frequently forced to work as prostitutes. The phenomenon comes as close to the African slave trade as anything this country has seen since the 19th century.

Studyin’ War Some More
By John Derbyshire

I confess I never felt much at ease with the "greatest generation" promotions. Sure, it was good to see the old folk being honored. Yet there was something smug about it all, something self-congratulatory and... boomer. It was as if the postwar elites were saying to their parents: "Yes, we scoffed at your values and ignored your sacrifice. When we weren't actually denouncing the military virtues, we were steering as far clear of them as we could. Certainly we never showed any fondness for them, and brought forward as the first president from our generation a man who held them in open contempt. But, hey, that was then and we've, like, moved on." Nor have boomer moviemakers altogether shaken off the mindset they left college with: It is interesting to recall that Spielberg promoted Ryan in the first place as an antiwar movie.

Did You Say “American Imperialism”?
By Bernard Lewis

Charges of a lack of "evenhandedness" rest on a total misunderstanding of the situation. Evenhandedness is a desirable quality in judges, juries, and police forces. It is also appropriate to an imperial suzerain trying to maintain some balance between contending protégés and native princes. But it is irrelevant to the policies of a power protecting its interests as best it can in a dangerous and troubled region. In the theater of Middle Eastern politics, the United States is cast in several roles — sometimes as arbiter and enforcer, i.e., as suzerain; more often, and more popularly, as villain and scapegoat — and is variously denounced, sometimes by the same people, for claiming and shirking an imperial mission. The range of American policy options in the region is being reduced to two alternatives, both disagreeable: Get tough or get out.

Getting Saddam
By David Pryce-Jones

Saddam's terrorist crimes have disgraced the 23 years in which he has been in power. He has beggared and bludgeoned his unfortunate country. Yet the multicultural and pacifist Left maintains that the United States should not interfere; to do so attracts the reproach "neo-colonialism." Those who argue that there are no universal values to justify the elimination of slavers and pirates, the Taliban and Saddam, in practice place themselves on the side of these various hells. The inhabitants of Kabul and other cities — Pashtuns among them — are turning out in the streets to rejoice at their liberation. To suppose that they would welcome their oppressors and resist their liberators is condescending in the extreme. The simplest tribesman is as capable as an American professor (sometimes, evidently, more so) of distinguishing what is good for him from what is bad.

Clinton Has No Clothes
By Byron York

At the time of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Clinton was embroiled in controversies over gays in the military, an economic stimulus plan, and the beginnings of Hillary's health-care task force. Khobar Towers happened not only in the midst of the president's re-election campaign but also at the end of a month in which there were new and damaging developments in the Whitewater and Filegate scandals. The African embassy attacks occurred as the Lewinsky affair was at fever pitch, in the month that Clinton appeared before Kenneth Starr's grand jury. And when the Cole was rammed, Clinton had little time left in office and was desperately hoping to build his legacy with a breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Whenever a serious terrorist attack occurred, it seemed Bill Clinton was always busy with something else.

Sticking with Small
By Ramesh Ponnuru

The war on terrorism might expand government in unforeseen, almost accidental ways. American health care is still affected by centralizing forces set in motion by World War II. But there is not yet any reason to expect a major, lasting shift in public attitudes. If the September 11 attacks had led people to look to Washington for security, they should have caused support for gun control to rise. Instead, it's fallen. Americans appreciate the indispensable role of the federal government in protecting them, but the spike in gun sales suggests that they're not relying on it alone.

Safe for Democracy, and a Nation
By John O’Sullivan

The progressivist revolution is an assault on not merely the free market, but also individual rights, free scientific inquiry, free speech, the rule of law, majority rule, democratic accountability, and national sovereignty. In the post-national world, nations are no longer peoples united by a common history and culture, but are simply the varied inhabitants of an arbitrary piece of real estate. Civic patriotism is no longer the prime civic virtue; it is displaced either downwards, by a narrow ethnic loyalty, or upwards, by a cosmopolitan loyalty to international institutions. Democracy and the nation-state are the Siamese twins of political theory; democracy rarely survives apart from its twin. Every attempt to create a multicultural democracy either has failed or is deeply troubled. Bush could very reasonably weave a national appeal around the theme of defending American democracy — with equal emphasis on both words. If such an appeal is not made, the progressivist revolution is going to end up winning.

Up-‘n’-Comers
By Kate O’Beirne

Grover Norquist predicts that there will be a spirited competition for the mantle of national conservative leader. A record number of Republican governors have been elected in recent years, but their disappointing performance in office has conservatives looking elsewhere for promising politicians to champion their agenda. And while the right-wing bench — even apart from the governors — is not crowded, there are worthy incumbents and challengers conservatives should be rooting for.