Phony War

IF bin Laden is alive, he may believe that, since September 11, the United States has become more vulnerable to terrorists, to rising states, and to new coalitions that see in America’s careless delusions about its powers and prospects an irresistible opening for their own. And if he did believe such a thing, he would be right, though not for the first time, as you may recall.

It was he, after all, who watched for decades as this country was urged to strike at terrorists and the regimes that sustained them, and did not; as it was warned of Muslim religious fanatics piloting jets into its tallest buildings, and did nothing; as it suffered attacks upon its aviation, embassies, navy, and greatest city, and answered not by acts of war but in torrents of language, and gobbledygook at that.

About the Author

Mark Helprin

Mark Helprin is the author of The Oceans and the Stars, Paris in the Present Tense, Winter’s Tale, In Sunlight and in Shadow, Freddy and Fredericka, A Soldier of the Great War, and numerous other novels.

Featured Tags

IF bin Laden is alive, he may believe that, since September 11, the United States has become more vulnerable to terrorists, to rising states, and to new coalitions that see in America’s careless delusions about its powers and prospects an irresistible opening for their own. And if he did believe such a thing, he would be right, though not for the first time, as you may recall.

It was he, after all, who watched for decades as this country was urged to strike at terrorists and the regimes that sustained them, and did not; as it was warned of Muslim religious fanatics piloting jets into its tallest buildings, and did nothing; as it suffered attacks upon its aviation, embassies, navy, and greatest city, and answered not by acts of war but in torrents of language, and gobbledygook at that.

About the Author

Mark Helprin

Mark Helprin is the author of The Oceans and the Stars, Paris in the Present Tense, Winter’s Tale, In Sunlight and in Shadow, Freddy and Fredericka, A Soldier of the Great War, and numerous other novels.