Everything Must Go

From Harrys Place, article in The Age

"In his new book, The Good Fight: Why Liberals — and only Liberals — Can Win The War on Terror and Make America Great again, Peter Beinart, the former editor and now editor-at-large of the venerable liberal magazine The New Republic, argues that liberals — and by implication, the moderate left in Europe and Australia — do not have a coherent position on the security challenges facing the US and the world post-9/11. Beinart, who initially supported the war in Iraq and now says that he was mistaken, is fierce in his criticism of the Bush Administration's foreign policy, which he argues has alienated allies, made the world less safe and made the fight against Islamist totalitarianism much harder than it should have been.

But Beinart believes that Bush — and conservatives in general — have at least a coherent story to tell about the world after 9/11. America, which represents good, is in a struggle against evil, and liberals and leftists in general are constantly trying to undermine the "moral clarity" of America, rein in its power and make Americans question their faith in the country's exceptionalism.

So far, the response to Beinart's call for change among the Democratic Party's liberal base has not been all that encouraging. But there are signs that an increasing number of people on the left in America, in Europe and in Australia are uncomfortable with knee-jerk anti-Americanism, with the left's virtual silence in response to the unspeakable violence of Islamist totalitarianism, and with the way Western feminists have basically turned their backs on their oppressed sisters in much of the Muslim world.

There are signs a battle is beginning on the left over the meaning and the threat of Islamist totalitarianism that mirrors the battles over anti-communism a half a century ago. Many people would say about time."