I take your pessimism very seriously, Derb–although I’ll tweak you a bit by reminding you that you didn’t think we’d invade Iraq, and we did. But I don’t doubt for a minute that your fears could be realized. It’s good that you’ve spoken so frankly, because people need to understand what’s at stake. I find hope in your Falklands response. Leadership makes a difference. Difficult circumstances sometimes create leaders–or thrust leaders into positions of power they might not otherwise have won, as with Churchill. Mark Steyn obviously takes your worries very seriously as well. But I like this quote from his new piece for the Telegraph. “This is the beginning of a long existential struggle, for Britain and the West.” I think that’s right. It may mean that things are going to get worse before they get better. But it also means that there’s time for leadership, and for the public to wake up to the need for it.
My fear is still the nukes. Korea’s got ‘em, and there’s relatively little we can do about it. They can sell them. Iran is making them. This is the great danger. Saddam would have been first in line at Korea’s nuclear supermarket. Thank goodness we took him out. But the failure to find WMD’s has obscured all this. A nuclear strike would wake up the West alright. But it would also wreak havoc far beyond even the massive loss of life. That, I think, is the real danger. I hope we can defeat the terrorists–and the terror states, before we get to that point.