In Defense of Going Wobbly
The Margaret Thatcher zinger most beloved by American neoconservatives was her admonition to George H. W. Bush in 1990 to not "go wobbly" and refrain from using military force to get Iraq out of Kuwait. She was saying, don't be afraid to use lethal force, don't doubt. She, of course, was the Iron Lady, the leader who never doubted or compromised.
U.S. war hawks soon adopted the refrain as part of their arsenal of "moral clarity," a childish concept that ultimately only creates more trouble and is completely unworkable in any meaningful sense in the real world.* So when it was time to invade Iraq in 2003, we were again advised to not go wobbly, with the implication being that any opposition to the invasion was fundamentally cowardly, immoral, and weak-willed. In this worldview, caution is equated with timidity and faintheartedness. In those days after 9/11, many liberals bought into this perspective, as well.
It's too late to undo that debacle, but in the future, maybe more of us will speak up in defense of "going wobbly."
* In this formulation moral clarity means the ability to distinguish "good" from "evil" in all cases, with us, of course, always on the side of good. Thus the catastrophic framing "The Axis of Evil." Once this "moral clarity" is invoked, all actions on behalf of the "good" are deemed appropriate, including, for example, torture. Moral clarity ironically leads in practice to pure moral relativism.
U.S. war hawks soon adopted the refrain as part of their arsenal of "moral clarity," a childish concept that ultimately only creates more trouble and is completely unworkable in any meaningful sense in the real world.* So when it was time to invade Iraq in 2003, we were again advised to not go wobbly, with the implication being that any opposition to the invasion was fundamentally cowardly, immoral, and weak-willed. In this worldview, caution is equated with timidity and faintheartedness. In those days after 9/11, many liberals bought into this perspective, as well.
It's too late to undo that debacle, but in the future, maybe more of us will speak up in defense of "going wobbly."
* In this formulation moral clarity means the ability to distinguish "good" from "evil" in all cases, with us, of course, always on the side of good. Thus the catastrophic framing "The Axis of Evil." Once this "moral clarity" is invoked, all actions on behalf of the "good" are deemed appropriate, including, for example, torture. Moral clarity ironically leads in practice to pure moral relativism.
She was a cold, hard battle-ax, with about as much sympathy (much less empathy) as one. Pre-Thatcher Britain was a nice place to visit, and I did it a number of times in my youth after emigrating from there as a child. Post-Thatcher Britain is among my least favorite places to go. Everything seems hard, gray and mean, with an undercurrent of impending violence - just like Maggie Thatcher. Good freakin' riddance.
ReplyDeleteDeborah, your candor is a welcome presence here at Art & Argument. Carry on!
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