William Kristol vs. Little Alex
William Kristol objects to the now famous MoveOn.org ad featuring a mother and her 1-year old son:
Now he argues that “Unless we enter a world without enemies and without war, we will need young men and women willing to risk their lives for our nation. And we’re not entering any such world.” Thanks to him we are indeed not. But anyway, the young men and women can rest easy. I am part of the “nation,” but I don’t want them to risk their lives for me. If anyone wants to risk his life, go climb a mountain or learn some extreme sport. Me, you can leave alone, unguarded and unrisked for. I can defend myself, thank you very much. If necessary, I’ll even call the city cops to help me. (Yes, I know: “defense” is a public good; non-excludability and all that. Readers of my blog will know that I care little for the federal and state protection.)
Doesn’t Kristol understand that the point of the ad is not to denigrate soldiering as such but to protest against particular offensive imperial conquests such as indeed the war in Iraq; against deceiving young men into serving not the “people” but the state and its connected pressure groups; and against foreign statism and interventionism as such? It is true that “Someone has to stand between our society and danger.” But no country in the Middle East was a danger to us, certainly not Iraq. What McCain can’t have is Alex as his tool, his useful idiot in perpetuating government destructionism of the despot-in-chief.