Tears of a Neocon

[Judi Lynn]

January 16, 2006

Tears of a Neocon
And Now the Good News, From Daniel Pipes
By JOHN WALSH

Want to hear some good news? Try neo-con Daniel Pipes. When he weeps, we cheer, so check out his piece "My Gloom: Back to September 10" (NY Sun, 12/20. later reprinted in the Jerusalem Post). Most Americans felt less secure after September 11, although this feeling ran wildly beyond the rational. Not Pipes. The founder of the notorious Campus Watch , felt differently. He reports that a rush of security engulfed him: "The attacks of September 11, 2001, made me feel more secure, unlike most Americans. Finally, the country is focused on issues that had long worried me. The newfound alarm is healthy, the sense of solidarity heartening, the resolve encouraging." But Pipes fretted that it would not last. "Are Americans truly ready to sacrifice liberties and lives to prosecute seriously the war against militant Islam? I worry about US constancy and purpose."

And now Pipes says the verdict is in. "And right I was to worry, as the alarm, solidarity, and resolve of late 2001 have plummeted lately, returning us to a roughly pre-September 11 mentality."

At long last in 2001 Pipes had in hand the neocons' coveted "war against militant Islam," although how that phrase characterizes the secular, anti-Osama Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein remains a mystery. Ominously, Pipes asked after 9/11 whether Americans were willing to sacrifice "liberties" as well as "lives." And, alas for him, no sooner was his beloved war on Iraq up and running than the resolve of Americans began to wither in the face of the death toll in Iraq and the threats of a police state in the U.S. That is enough to ruin the day of any self respecting neocon. But there is more.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh01162006.html