On defense and foreign policy; cases on campus; a forger-hero; the best post-game interview in sports; and more
In the current issue of National Review, John R. Bolton has a piece — typically excellent — called “Containing Isolationism: The pursuit of U.S. interests requires engagement with the world.” Americans have been arguing about this for many years, many generations. I recommend a biography of Arthur Vandenberg, by Hendrik Meijer. (I reviewed it here.) In recent years, some world-minded Americans have established what they call the “Vandenberg Coalition.” Interesting outfit.
At any rate, JRB — John R. Bolton — begins his new piece by saying,
Among the many unwelcome legacies of Donald Trump’s random walk through foreign and defense policy during his presidency, the resurgence of isolationism and know-nothingism in the Republican Party is among the most distasteful and dangerous. Isolationism has never entirely disappeared from the Republican Party’s fringes, and the Democrats’ leftist marches are perennial habitats for this virus. Trump, however, fostered a toxic environment within which the virus spread.
I would like to make a point about isolationism, or rather isolationists, which I have made before. I have met many, many people in my life — including those who are called “isolationist.” I don’t think I’ve ever met a true isolationist. Instead, I have met admirers or excusers of dictatorships — including aggressive, expansionist ones.
“Isolationism,” “isolation,” etc., spring from the same word as “island.” (The Italian word for “island” is, in fact, isola.) The true American isolationist might say something like this: “I believe in national self-defense. I also believe in Fortress America. Yes, that dictator over there is terrible. He bludgeons the people he rules. He threatens his neighbors, or outright invades them. But we ought not to get involved. Let me know when he reaches Fort Dodge. We need to hunker down and tend to our own garden — while keeping our defenses ever at the ready.”
Have you ever met a person who talks like that? I have not.
I think of Ron Paul, the Republican politician who ran for president in 2008 and 2012. Iran policy was a big topic. Paul did not say, “Yes, Iran is bad news. It is an existential threat to Israel. It wants to destabilize the entire Middle East. But that is not our business. We’ve done enough meddling in the world. We need to stay out of it.”
Ron Paul did not talk like that. He was more apt to sneak in defenses of Iran and fault the United States for provocation and belligerence.
The genuine isolationist is someone I could understand, and even to a degree respect. I think isolationism is naïve, and leads to disaster. Yet it is a coherent and probably well-meaning point of view. Engagement with the world can be hellish, and wrong.
I understand the conscientious objector, and respect him, to a degree. If everyone were a conscientious objector, we would have no country — at least not a free one. Still . . . you can understand the man who wants to drive an ambulance, rather than take up arms. You can understand the man who flees to Canada. I understand pacifism and I understand conscientious objection. We all can.
Incidentally, there’s a lot on this subject in my history of the Nobel Peace Prize, Peace, They Say.
In the American debate over Ukraine, I don’t hear isolationism. I instead hear defenses of, or excuses for, Putin’s Russia. And the running down of the Ukrainians and their cause. Some people outright admire Putin, as a bulwark against “wokeness” and “Western decadence.” Then you have moral-equivalence people: “There’s nothing to choose from between Russia and Ukraine. They’re both bad actors — two Slavic peoples, duking it out, with the poor Russian-speakers in Ukraine in between.” That kind of thing.
I was recently talking with a wise and experienced friend about this issue. He said, “I think even the best-intentioned isolationist is tempted to minimize tyranny. Otherwise the moral argument for acting is simply too compelling to overcome. So there is always pressure to find a reason not to intervene, and minimizing the reason for the intervention is a key tool in the toolbox.”
Surely there are isolationists in our country — real isolationists, who are not apologists for dictatorships or blame-America-first types. I must say, however, that I don’t run into them.
(I imagine there are anti-Israel people who are not antisemites. But these must be exceedingly rare.)
• When it comes to defense spending, I can hear a new line developing on the right: “There’s a lot of woke in that budget. There’s a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse.” This is what Larry Kudlow said on Fox. I think we will hear a lot more of this in the months and years ahead. What will the Democrats be arguing? Current political times are dizzying.
• Quin Hillyer has written a column that ends,
For all these reasons, it would be foolhardy, indeed irresponsible, for House Republicans to demand defense cuts back to 2022 levels. Weakness invites foreign aggression. The results could be disastrous.
Quin comes from an old school — but it is a good school, one that formed from hard, awful experience.
• “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. I believe the below picture should replace the elephant as the symbol of the GOP. It encapsulates so much.
(For those who aren’t political junkies or media junkies — and bless you if you’re not — the woman on the left is Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the man on the right is Kevin McCarthy, the new speaker of the House.)
• One of the specialties of Mona Charen is staring at reality — unflinchingly — and then writing about it. As she does in this column: “The Normalization of Marjorie Taylor Greene: Once considered a blight on the Republican party, she is now one of its prominent leaders.” Yes.
• Have you read about the controversy at Hamline University, in St. Paul? Vimal Patel has a long and fascinating report in the New York Times: “A Lecturer Showed a Painting of the Prophet Muhammad. She Lost Her Job.” Typical. But I think a fed-up-ness — a righteous fed-up-ness — is growing.
• A report from the Associated Press is headed, “Conservatives take aim at tenure for university professors.” I understand the frustrations over tenure. But I also know — for sure — that tenure has been a godsend for many a conservative professor. Because it protects such professors from lefty colleagues, administrators, and students. Conservatives on campus can give you chapter and verse.
So, before you abolish — tread carefully, I would say.
• For the last many years, I’ve had one prayer — one wish — for the Detroit professional-sports teams (who are my teams): .500. If only the Lions, Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings could be .500 . . .
Well, the Lions have finished one game better: 9–8. May next season bring yet more (wins).
• Let’s do a little language, based on the above item: Is a team a “who” or a “which”? Should I have said “which are my teams,” instead of “who are my teams”? That goes either way. A team is composed of people. In this area, we English-speakers have flexibility . . .
• Back to the Detroit Lions, to celebrate our running back, Jamaal Williams — who must be the best post-game interview in the world. Here he is, saying, jovially, that he doesn’t want to be interviewed. “You’re holdin’ me right now.” All he wants to do is play football and go home and play Pokémon. And please, says Williams: Pronounce “Pokémon” right.
A national treasure, he is.
• Let’s have a little music — in the form of a review, here. The New York Philharmonic played a concert that began with Rossini and ended with Beethoven.
• Bernard Kalb has passed away, at 100. For many, many years, he and his brother Marvin were part of our media furniture. I interviewed Marvin a year and a half ago. An amazing family, the Kalbs.
• “Adolfo Kaminsky Dies at 97; His Forgeries Saved Thousands of Jews.” For that obit, by Joseph Berger in the New York Times, go here.
He toiled for two straight days, forcing himself to stay awake by telling himself: “In one hour I can make 30 blank documents. If I sleep for an hour 30 people will die.”
Hero. Hero.
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