The Good War
"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." -- George Orwell
We are at war and it's amazing how few people seem to know it.
If I were to wander from my apartment down to the 7-11 at the corner right now and mention "the war" to the lady with the nose ring at the cash register, there's a very high probability that she wouldn't have any idea what I'm talking about.
Our country has an entire battle group in Afghanistan right now (and for a little while longer, anyway). Does she care? Does she even know we're fighting a war so that women can go to school and children can have a chance at a decent future?
If the apartment she rents is on Commercial Drive, there's a pretty good chance that she'll interpret this conflict I allude to quite differently. Perhaps she might say something about our horrible bombs blowing up innocent farmers and wedding parties for Bush, Cheney, Obama and Co. Just as likely, she'd go off on some tangent about the Harperites going to war on poor downtrodden Canucks yearning to breathe free.
Of course, the struggle we're involved in is much bigger than the Taliban-land of Central Asia. There's a whole world of crazies out there who would be happy to set a torch to all of Western civilization and build a golden Caliphate that has never really existed upon its ashes.
It's not entirely our infantilized population's fault that they're so oblivious to the challenge of fascists in our midst who wave fascist signs and chant fascist chants at their unholy rallies. The ivory towers that were supposed to provide an ideological defense of Enlightenment ideas have been utterly conquered by politically correct leftists who have found common cause with those who would destroy us.
Hitchens put his finger on the problem years ago (and was not the first to do so, though he is more readable):
The United States was attacked by theocratic fascists who represents all the most reactionary elements on earth. They stand for liquidating everything the left has fought for: women's rights, democracy? And how did much of the left respond? By affecting a kind of neutrality between America and the theocratic fascists...
A few months ago, when Bush went to Ireland for the G8 meeting, Hitchens was on a TV debate with the leader of a small socialist party in the Irish dail. "He said these Islamic fascists are doing this because they have deep-seated grievances. And I said, 'Ah yes, they have many grievances. They are aggrieved when they see an unveiled woman. And they are aggrieved that we tolerate homosexuals and Jews and free speech and the reading of literature.'"
The Propagandist's plucky crew of contributors recognizes that we are at war. We are fighting a late rearguard action now to awaken the masses to the scope and sophistication of this conflict: a war where borders are nearly meaningless and fifth columnists abound in our public spaces, flaunting their weird combination of death-cultish ideology and anti-globalization anarchism.
It's going to be a long war. But as far as wars go, it's a good one. From our side, anyhow.
Let freedom ring.
