On ‘Liking’ War

By Jay Nordlinger

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Last night and this morning, I have done some tweeting, and, of course, tweeting gets some reaction — that’s what you sign up for, in part.

I am a tool of Likud. (Frankly, my check is late!) I don’t understand about the overthrow of Mosaddegh. (Hey, POTUS, is that you, tweeting?) If I’m so eager for war, why don’t I put on a uniform myself, huh, huh?

You get the drift.

There is one tweet I’d like to respond to, however — this one: “Among the depressing things about last night is how excited (almost orgasmically so) ‪@jaynordlinger et al. are about the imagined response.”

No, dear one. If I had my way, there’d be no War on Terror — no need for it. No need for self-defense.

If I had my way, we would not need armies, navies, nukes, or guns. No Pentagon.

For that matter, there would be no need for police departments or locks on doors.

But I don’t get my way. Men are not angels yet. And when someone is trying to kill you, or subjugate you, you can either resist or submit.

I remember talking to Rumsfeld about charges that he liked war. He said that he and Joyce (Mrs. Rumsfeld) had visited soldiers at Walter Reed who’d had their faces blown off.

Nobody likes this stuff, except for sickos. But you either face up to reality — as Churchill, FDR, and others did — or you don’t. And don’t blame Gary Cooper — a.k.a. Will Kane (High Noon) — for trying to stop the killer before the killer stops you and everything you hold dear.

You know?