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Posted on 09/28/2001 6:16:06 PM PDT by aculeus

I WAS over in Warren a couple of days back. It's a typical New Hampshire town at the foot of Mount Moosilauke - population 600 or so, clapboard houses around the common, small village school, church meeting house from the early days of the republic, and a big space rocket.

As far as I know, Warren is the only New Hampshire town with a rocket. It stands on the common, and is actually a Redstone missile, the first launch vehicle for the Mercury space programme. A few years ago, at Old Home Day, I met the guy who brought it to town. Ted was a Warren boy who retired from the army in 1970 and thought that, if his hometown had its own rocket, the kids playing on the common might get a more vivid sense of their country's great accomplishments.

So he found an unwanted Redstone missile at a military base in Alabama and spent his life savings transporting it 3,000 miles back to New Hampshire. The Warren Board of Selectmen had to sign an agreement with the federal government promising not to use the missile "to make war on the United States". The Governor came to town to dedicate it on the Fourth of July, 1971, and there it stands, 68ft high, looming over everything else around.

But just because it can't make war on the United States doesn't mean Warren can't make war on other selected targets. As I swung through the other day, I couldn't help noticing there were now two missiles - the Redstone and, leaning against it, a slightly smaller replica, bearing the words along the fuselage Greetings from N.H., Bin Laden - Live Free or Die (the state motto). This one's for you, Osama.

To be honest, we could use a bit more of that. Two weeks in and the Oprahfication of atrocity is well under way. Oprah herself concluded last weekend's special service at Yankee Stadium with this thought: "What really matters is who you love and how you love." At the all-star telethon, the big song was John Lennon's Imagine. As a sentiment to go to war to, Imagine there's no countries isn't exactly "And we won't come back till it's over/ Over There!"

Warren isn't what you'd call a wealthy burg and the jokes about it are the usual ones ("Have your parents split up or are they still brother and sister?"). But the poorer the town, the more sense you'll hear about September 11. If you meet, say, a high-school drop-out, he'll generally be in favour of sending in special forces to kill Osama, using overwhelming force to take out the Taliban and then overthrowing Saddam.

On the other hand, if you run into an Ivy League professor, he'll say violence only breeds more violence, America brought this on itself through its rejection of Kyoto, and who are we to denounce the Taliban as undemocratic after the way Bush stopped the Florida recount. The rough rule of thumb is that the amount of rubbish any American talks on this subject is inversely proportional to the number of tattoos he has.

Thus, at the lunch counter in Warren, I bumped into Cal, a fellow who used to live in my town until a spot of girlfriend trouble. "I ain't givin' to any charity that calls it a 'tragedy'," he said. "I'm only givin' to charities that call it an 'attack'." The local radio station had just run a fund-drive announcement, beginning: "After the tragic events of September 11". Cal thought this was pussy talk. "I never heard my grampa talk about 'the tragedy of Pearl Harbor'."

Cal was in the Gulf War and is still mad at Bush Snr for not letting him "whack Saddam". Long ago, the American military liked to make jokes about the snobbish Brit officers, but one of the consequences of a lack of a snooty self-sustaining hereditary officer class is that military life is left almost exclusively to the lowest tiers of society. In America, if you live in a college town or a yuppie urban enclave, chances are you've never met anyone who's been in the army or would consider joining in a zillion years.

So, as bipartisan "unity" begins to fray and the peace vigils multiply, Bush will need the support of the uncomplicatedly patriotic types you find in towns such as Warren. Unfortunately, guys like Cal are also great civil liberties zealots: they believe in war, but also in gun ownership, privacy and the right not to be bugged by the government.

The alleged "anti-terrorist legislation" that various opportunists in Congress want to push through will do little about terrorism, but their restrictions and intrusions will sorely test the loyalty of the pro-war faction. The attorney-general, John Ashcroft, justifies it as follows: "There is absolutely no guarantee that these safeguards would have avoided the September 11 occurence," he said. "We do know that, without them, the occurrence took place."

At the New York Times it probably makes perfect sense. But at the lunch counter they thought it was a hoot. "Congress should pass a law making Ashcroft walk around with his wiener hanging out," said one of the guys. "There is absolutely no guarantee that this measure would have avoided the September 11 occurrence. We do know that, without it, the occurrence took place."

Mark Steyn is one of the best commentators around on life in America, absolutely hits the nail on the head. He writes for the Daily Telegraph of London and the National Post of Canada.

If you have the time, check out some of his past articles from the Daily Telegraph here or the National Post here

His commentary during the election was particularly good. I still laugh when I remember Steyn talking about Gore & his obsession with Dingle-Norwood during one of the debates.

Or you could do a search here on FR here. You won't be sorry you took the time.

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