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April 9, 2002, 8:30 a.m. Why We Fight An interview with William J. Bennett.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: How were we morally and intellectually unprepared for Sept. 11?

William J. Bennett: We were all unprepared for September 11th — not just in the sense that our intelligence services, our policies, were flawed, although that is certainly true. You can see the intellectual and moral confusion of the average American who asked, "Why do they hate us?" and "Did we bring this on ourselves" and "Shouldn't we work on getting rid of poverty and oppression — the root causes of terrorism?" Many of these Americans, it should be said, were and are supportive of our military campaign in Afghanistan. But that these questions arose — and in some cases arose immediately — bespeaks lessons that have been forgotten and, for the young among us, have not been learned at all. We have forgotten why America is, in Lincoln's words, the last, best hope of earth.

Lopez: Have things changed in this regard? Have we, as it is so often said, changed since Sept. 11?

Bennett: I do not know that we have indeed relearned the lessons. But I do think that the patriotic inclinations of Americans are still running strong. My fear is that as the war expands beyond the groups immediately responsible for the September 11th attacks, the criticisms of the war will increase. If Americans are not prepared to respond to these criticisms, our morale will indeed suffer as will our efforts to fight terrorism around the world.

Lopez: Do most Americans know why we fight this war?

Bennett: I think Americans know what we are fighting against and that it is good to fight against terrorism. I am not sure they know what we're fighting for or why we are right to fight.

Lopez: How is our military doing in terms of morale and Americans support for them?

Bennett: I think our military is doing very well. I don't think you could ask for a better commander-in-chief and secretary of defense at such a time. And I think every indication is that the American people remain fully behind them.

Lopez: Do you see the relativism and pacifism that has been so much a part of elite and academic culture becoming a dominant view as Sept. 11 starts to fade into history and the war continues — casualties, European criticism, and all?

Bennett: I do; I think that movement is growing stronger. We've moved from Susan Sontag and Eric Foner criticizing the president to Maxine Waters and Dennis Kucinich, who are far more mainstream. Jimmy Carter and editorialists around the globe criticized the "axis of evil" rhetoric of the president. What we are seeing — both with pacifism and relativism — is really, as Michael Kelly has pointed out, nothing more than anti-Americanism: The objection is to using American force; the objection is to exporting American values.

Lopez: What is it that needs to be drilled into Americans so they can be behind this war effort for the long-term? Is there some kind of mantra we can teach schoolchildren?

Bennett: I am not for brainwashing; I am not for uncritical histories of America. I would, however, like every American to be able to understand and agree with what Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: "Am I embarrassed to speak for a less than perfect democracy? Not one bit. Find me a better one. Do I suppose there are societies which are free of sin? No, I don't. Do I think ours is, on balance, incomparably the most hopeful set of human relations the world has? Yes, I do." That is what American children need to learn. I think that if children know the truth about America and her noble history, they will be behind the war.

Lopez: Why is it that Muslim groups like CAIR, that support Islamist groups, and in some cases terrorist organizations, are so mainstream in the U.S. and why are some many — journalists, commentators, politicians (with a few notable exceptions) — so reluctant to expose them?

Bennett: I am not sure why these groups are treated as impartial and mainstream. The leadership of these groups, it seems to me, have a problematic history of condoning terrorism as practiced by the Palestinians. They may be willing to condemn Osama bin Laden, however hesitantly, but they won't condemn a suicide attack on Israel. At a time when moral clarity was achieved by many, these groups did not share in it. I think most Muslims in America do not support their positions on these matters, but it is up to them to say so. If Islam is truly a religion of peace we need to see more Muslims — in America and elsewhere — condemn terrorism in all its manifestations, whether it is planes into the Twin Towers or a suicide bomber on Passover.

Lopez: How's President Bush's moral clarity? Has he lost some of his moral clarity when it comes to Israel?

Bennett: I do not think that the president has lost his moral clarity on the issue. I do think that the policies reflect the clarity of his thinking. President Bush knows all too well that Arafat is the problem in the Middle East: He has fostered and encouraged and applauded terrorism for too long. I think he realizes that Israel's war against terrorism is of a piece with ours. I just cannot understand then, why he believes that negotiations and a "peace process" are the order of the day. Defeating terrorists — like we did in Afghanistan — is an entirely legitimate exercise of the Israeli military.

Lopez: Speaking of moral clarity: In Why We Fight you mention, as one example, Xavier High School in New York City. Many faculty, students, and alumni were intimately affected by the Sept. 11th attacks. But they had a built in community, built, nurtured, and sustained by faith, that could respond in ways some others could not. To what extent are these rich Catholic communities of faith, specifically, threatened by the priest scandals that we've been hearing so much about in the past few months?

Bennett: I don't think there's any indication that a large number of Americans have lost faith in the Catholic Church in the wake of these revelations. That is not to say that they are trivial: On the contrary, they are terrible, grave evils that must be addressed. But I think most Catholics love and trust their parish priests, and I think most Catholics realize that the flaws of the humans in the institution are not flaws of the Catholic faith.

— William J. Bennett, secretary of education under President Reagan and "drug czar" under President George H. W. Bush, co-director of Empower America, is author of Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism, written after Sept. 11, in bookstores today. (You can purchase it online from the NRBookService.)