Andrew Sullivan: America at War

The Sunday Times (U.K.) ^ | 09/16/2001 | Andrew Sullivan

[JRandomFreeper]

Sorry I didn't ping you, I haven't seen you this afternoon, didn't know you would be around. Mea Culpa. D@mn fine article though. He pretty well nails it.

/john

[Faraday]

Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand

Excellent article. But Andrew and these other intellectuals have to get over thinking everything about leadership is determined by how someone comes across on TV. The American people can read the heart of their leaders. That is why, though he had unsurpassed TV/empathy skills, Bill Clinton was understood to be a lying scumbag by the people. (A lot of people wanted him as President in spite of that, but they knew what he was.) And that is why, even though President Bush sometimes stumbles on words and doesn't always have the keenest inflection, the people know his heart and know he is leading where we want to go.

[Nick Danger]

The sanctity of this continent - a sanctity embedded deep in the American soul - is hard to convey to outsiders. But it is at the very centre of what America means to Americans. Its founders saw this new continent as a place apart, a place unlike the old world, a place whose geographic distance and defensive inviolability was intrinsic to its attraction...

...Yes, much of this is myth. But myth matters. A nation that is not built on race or creed or an ancient history must build itself on something else. And Americans built themselves on an idea of liberty and wrapped it in the myth of elsewhere.

In one morning, this dream ended as America was wakened from its long sleep. The elsewhere is now somewhere. The refuge is now insecure.

This is an interesting insight. It foretells the fury with which Americans will prosecute this war. Perhaps we can never re-establish "elsewhere," but we can make sure that those who would violate it are nowhere.

[GhostOfAtwater]

Without any doubt, the best commentary on the attack!

I suggest sending this to a few people who may think life in America will be business as usual. Or believe a few bombs will end this evil.

[maranatha]

Excellent article. But Andrew and these other intellectuals have to get over thinking everything about leadership is determined by how someone comes across on TV

Absolutely right. We knew the kind of leader we were praying into office. They are just now getting the picture and after the speech at the cathedral and meeting with the firefighters and volunteers at ground zero they are surprised and see what we knew all along.

Of course those that have criticized him for not connecting with the public or giving a good speech will now try to give the idea that he has changed or grown into the job because of events. He was always that way, they should have attended one of his campaign rallies and saw him and how the people responded to him.

I heard a volunteer worker talking to a Fox News person that he had shook hands with the President and how thrilled he was. From under his hardhat he says, "I know people, and he looked me straight in the eye, I mean straight in the eye, I know this man is sincere." And, it seemed very important to that man to learn that.

[Faraday]

I agree completely.

[ThePythonicCow]

bttt

[DB]

An Excellent Post. Thank you.

[headsonpikes]

"When they bare the iron hand" Bump!

[surfer]

Well written and impressive...

[SuziQ]

When you take a step back, it is hard not to believe that we are now in the quiet moment before the whirlwind.

OK any Freeper archivists, what were Pres. Bush's words about 'angels in the whirlwind' during his inauguration speech? How prophetic those words might sound today.

[Politico2]

Bump!

[Miss Marple]

"An angel still rides within the whirlwind, and directs the storm."

From the Inauguration Address of President George W. Bush, January 20, 2001.