Thursday, October 07, 2004

 
Open letter to Dave Kopel re his excellent "Torch" piece:
"I have a copy of "The Murder of Admiral Darlan" by Peter Tompkins, given to me by my late father, who, if memory serves, may have told me that the admiral got something of a raw deal. I never read the thing, but the foreword by Charles Collingwood has an interesting assertion:
"....In the end Charles de Gaulle came to power among the French in North Africa. It was already in 1942 a gross misreading of the realities of the situation to think he would not. But his triumph was no thanks to us, and de Gaulle has never forgotten it, nor, one suspects, forgiven it...."
Collingwood also says that the "pseudo-Machiavellian American diplomacy of the Roosevelt era" did not "carry the day."
Perhaps, like GWB, Roosevelt was guilty of "blunders," "mismanagement," and a general lack of "nuance" or "sensitivity," but, contrary to Kerry, neither made what were *necessarily*(unless one blames them for the colossal mistake of a people electing a President Kerry ) "colossal" errors. The victory of the Allies over the Axis ultimately owed little to how much or little aid or hinderance came from the Darlans or de Gaulles, or for that matter, the Stauffenbergs. The outcome of a *serious* war on Islamofascism need not be dependent upon the Allawis, Chalabis or "Free Iraqis." If we gain allies among Muslims in the course of this war; so much the better for all; if we do not; so much the worse for *them.* GWB may be making a "colossal" error with the electorate if he does not soon believe *and* say this.
And Kerry? If elected, Republicans should resist their natural impulses to stop their politics at the water's edge, rally-round-the-flag and so on to help the old comsymp if he decides to "stand up"(for at best, short term political considerations)to the Deaniacs(arguably a majority)in his party as he promotes such strategies as putting more targets on the ground in Iraq or elsewhere."