Monday, September 11, 2006
World War Three
World War Three has begun. At least, that’s what Newt Gingrich wants us to believe. He told Meet the Press that the Republicans can remaster all the world’s conflicts into electoral success if they make the case that Iraq’s civil war, Iran’s assertiveness, North Korea’s ominous provocations and Israel’s aggressive approach to Hezbollah and Lebanon are in reality a single eschatological narrative that only the mighty GOP can vanquish.
Presumably this call-to-arms, the honest recognition that the Third World War is here, will encourage all Americans abandon their anti-incumbent predilections and welcome a new round of civil liberties belt-tightening. “Staying the Course,” has failed so wretchedly that Bush and Rove now need to rebrand the national strategy, out of which a phoenix of Republican landslides will flutter toward the heavens. “We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city,’” Gingrich told the Seattle Times. One year after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has been all but written out of the storyline.
When nature accomplishes what terrorists must never be permitted to do, it simply fans the fire of those who view the world through a prophetic lens, wherein the United States’ catastrophic policy towards nearly every global hot spot (not to mention natural disasters) simply validates the evangelical belief that the end is surely nigh. This time. Gingrich believes that Republicans suffer from “incumbentitis,” and have sacrificed their muscular resolve for unlimited pork. This sacrifice of core principles has permitted the incoherent opposition to jump ahead in the polls heading into November. That much is true.
In actuality, Gingrich’s demand to redouble the war effort under the most chilling rhetorical banner reveals just how far the Party of Lincoln has become the Party of Robertson, and how Republican reliance on evangelical values-voters as useful idiots has metastasized into their domination of the party’s strategies. The grownups have lost complete control. The insistence that we are fighting World War Three grants a single-minded moral clarity to the grotesque ethical compromises (Guantanamo, Haditha, Abu Ghraib, domestic wiretapping) that have sullied the early War on Terrorism.
Few remember World War One (or the eerie parallel between the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and Israel’s pretext for pounding Lebanon), but World War Two was a good fight through and through—internment camps be damned--according to the national meta-narrative. If all signs point to this as the struggle out of which the Antichrist could emerge, quibbles of waterboarding will disappear as the trifling distraction they should have been all along. The idea of the United States as a Christian nation performing God’s work airbrushes our peccadilloes in favor of a commanding sound byte that all normal people should be able to agree on. That is the central point of Gingrich’s remarks, with their evangelical inflection: we will no longer tolerate these nuisances.
Dissent, now that all conflicts have been amalgamated into one total war against America, reveals the dissenter to be a troop-hating traitor who probably prefers to muddy up our focus with talk of gay marriages and national health insurance, things which God would never condone. For those who hold the New York Times guilty of abetting Al-Qaeda for publishing photos of Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home after the Secret Service okayed them, Gingrich’s marketing ploy might appear long overdue. Seeing the left itself as the domestic counterpart to Islamist terrorism means no tactic is too desperate in preventing Democrats from retaking the House. Anything that connects our current debacle to the glorious wars of the past and the biblical tribulations of the near future literally must succeed, if conservatives are prepared to heed Gingrich’s warmongering and put the soul of the Republic on the line as never before. Gingrich, tired of writing Amazon.com reviews all day, might be angling for media attention in preparation for an ’08 comeback. Sensationalism in the guise of sage advice from yesterday’s king is a time-tested method. But before excoriating those who deny the “reality” of a Third World War, Gingrich might want to take a page from War Games--one of the many, many pop artifacts dealing with the unimaginable horror of WWIII, and note that the only winning move is not to play.
Presumably this call-to-arms, the honest recognition that the Third World War is here, will encourage all Americans abandon their anti-incumbent predilections and welcome a new round of civil liberties belt-tightening. “Staying the Course,” has failed so wretchedly that Bush and Rove now need to rebrand the national strategy, out of which a phoenix of Republican landslides will flutter toward the heavens. “We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city,’” Gingrich told the Seattle Times. One year after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has been all but written out of the storyline.
When nature accomplishes what terrorists must never be permitted to do, it simply fans the fire of those who view the world through a prophetic lens, wherein the United States’ catastrophic policy towards nearly every global hot spot (not to mention natural disasters) simply validates the evangelical belief that the end is surely nigh. This time. Gingrich believes that Republicans suffer from “incumbentitis,” and have sacrificed their muscular resolve for unlimited pork. This sacrifice of core principles has permitted the incoherent opposition to jump ahead in the polls heading into November. That much is true.
In actuality, Gingrich’s demand to redouble the war effort under the most chilling rhetorical banner reveals just how far the Party of Lincoln has become the Party of Robertson, and how Republican reliance on evangelical values-voters as useful idiots has metastasized into their domination of the party’s strategies. The grownups have lost complete control. The insistence that we are fighting World War Three grants a single-minded moral clarity to the grotesque ethical compromises (Guantanamo, Haditha, Abu Ghraib, domestic wiretapping) that have sullied the early War on Terrorism.
Few remember World War One (or the eerie parallel between the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and Israel’s pretext for pounding Lebanon), but World War Two was a good fight through and through—internment camps be damned--according to the national meta-narrative. If all signs point to this as the struggle out of which the Antichrist could emerge, quibbles of waterboarding will disappear as the trifling distraction they should have been all along. The idea of the United States as a Christian nation performing God’s work airbrushes our peccadilloes in favor of a commanding sound byte that all normal people should be able to agree on. That is the central point of Gingrich’s remarks, with their evangelical inflection: we will no longer tolerate these nuisances.
Dissent, now that all conflicts have been amalgamated into one total war against America, reveals the dissenter to be a troop-hating traitor who probably prefers to muddy up our focus with talk of gay marriages and national health insurance, things which God would never condone. For those who hold the New York Times guilty of abetting Al-Qaeda for publishing photos of Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home after the Secret Service okayed them, Gingrich’s marketing ploy might appear long overdue. Seeing the left itself as the domestic counterpart to Islamist terrorism means no tactic is too desperate in preventing Democrats from retaking the House. Anything that connects our current debacle to the glorious wars of the past and the biblical tribulations of the near future literally must succeed, if conservatives are prepared to heed Gingrich’s warmongering and put the soul of the Republic on the line as never before. Gingrich, tired of writing Amazon.com reviews all day, might be angling for media attention in preparation for an ’08 comeback. Sensationalism in the guise of sage advice from yesterday’s king is a time-tested method. But before excoriating those who deny the “reality” of a Third World War, Gingrich might want to take a page from War Games--one of the many, many pop artifacts dealing with the unimaginable horror of WWIII, and note that the only winning move is not to play.
