It should be fairly clear this morning after the major event of last night and its analysis today , that the world has been blissfully composing historical blank verse (history that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter) only to discover that some rhyming (or at least assonance) is definitely going on.
Iran, interestingly turns out to rhyme beautifully with Nazi Germany. After last night, we can suddenly hear the correspondence in sound between North Korea and Imperial Japan.
In this poetic anapest (or possibly dactyl--it is unclear which syllables will be stressed, but I suspect that Iran is the most dangerous), it remains to be seen which state will become the third syllable--though there are some leading contenders for the unstressed syllables of the meter.
Which country will take complete the rhyme and become the third Axis (of Evil) power? Will it be Hugo Chavez'Venezuela? He'd really like that kind of attention and he sort of sounds like Mussolini, don't you think? Will it be Syria? Assad likes to kiss up to Iran just as Mussolini liked to kiss up to Hitler. Or, will the conglomeration of political dysfunctionality we usually refer to as the Palestinian Authority eagerly take up the meter? Maybe, if Iraq or Afghanistan go further down the poetic road to hell, they might join the developing rhythm?
Stanley Kurtz has this to say:
What will it take to wake up the West? Will a nuclear explosion beneath a North Korean mountain be enough? The threat of nuclear terror has been rumbling beneath the surface since 9/11, yet still we’re in denial. Make a deal? President Clinton tried that and failed, accepting a bogus deal, with a porous inspections regime. North Korea flouted the agreement at the first opportunity. Keep negotiating? At this point, the prospect that North Korea is simply positioning itself for negotiations is dim. More likely they’ve given up on the hope of another Clinton-style bonanza (on which they would have simply cheated again), and have decided instead to defy the world, with all the attendant risks. Those risks are huge. If the U.S. and China cooperate now in seriously sanctioning North Korea, the regime could collapse. That would be both welcome and deeply dangerous. On the other hand, if the U.S. and China refuse to cooperate in sanctioning Korea, and break with each other instead, we face yet another sort of destabilizing regional conflict. On top of all this, American interdiction of ships bound for North Korea could lead to war. On the other hand, failure to interdict would reveal the weakness of our position, and would make it that much easier for the North Koreans to smuggle out weapons and nuclear material to terrorists and the rogue regimes of the Middle East.
But there is no doubt in my mind, at least, that the denial will continue unabated. Even louder than usual, actually, since there is an election coming up. Foleygate should be relegated to the political trashbin, where it can join the ever-growing list of Democratic distractions that have tied this country up in knots and undermined its ability to use its military in an optimal manner to deal with the growing threats.
Except that it won't.
You and I know that everything is Bush's fault! Or Cheney's. Or Rumsfeld's. That will be the Democratic Party line (I've already read it in several of the usual lefty blogs)--you can put money on it.
The simple solution they will put forth is that if the American public gets rid of Bush and the evil Republicans, then everything will be wonderful again like it was in the Clinton years, hallejulah!
Some American's will buy that line of crap very easily. The state of denial can be so blissful and peaceful-- and even politically and financially rewarding.
Expect to hear the Democrats continue on their opportunistic way, intent only on achieving a majority in the House or Senate so they can focus on those really really important issues of our day--like impeaching Bush and trashing America's ability to respond to the threats of the 21st century.
And peace. Don't forget peace. We've got to have peace at any price. Peace in our time.
We can probably rest much more easily in our beds at night as senior Democratic leadership ensures that there will be no illegal listening in on NOKO conversations with anyone in this country; and as they dutifully protect everyone in the world's right to attack the U.S. with impunity. The "shrieking of American doves" will continue shrieking unabated (even louder!) and add to the ongoing alliteration of the lunatic left.
Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore will compose a stanza or two to encourage that the drumbeat of peace peace peace marches on (or was that doom doom doom?).
Interestingly, even the appeasement and stupidity of the left and the Democrats; even their gross opportunism and pervasive psychological denial are rhyming beautifully in this historical couplet.
I just haven't decided yet which of the many choices within the Democratic party rhymes best with "Neville Chamberlain".
This historical rhyming is likely to continue; and this time I fear that the envoy, or final stanza of the emerging poem, will conclude-- not just with a nuclear bang, but with a nuclear whimper.
And even that has a certain internal rhyme that isn't difficult to appreciate anymore.
UPDATE: A reader at The Corner writes to Jonah Goldbeg
So you’ve hired the Republican Pest Control Co. to get rid of your pests, and 5 years latter, you’ve still got an infestation. Do you:
A) Reflect on how difficult it is to cure and infestation?
B) Hire the Democrat Pest Control Co. who’s Yellow Pages add talks about “metaphorically killing ‘uninvited guests’ in your home with kindness” and “uses only non-lethal traps so that they can be relocated to the flower beds in front of your home.”
I’ll stick with A).
See the comment thread for an example of A) and B) in real life! This is what always happens when I am linked to by certain sites.
UPDATE II: What is it about the message, "We intend to kill you" that some people don't understand? Osama said it in his 1998 Fatwa. Zawahiri takes every opportunity to say it. The 9/11 hijackers said it very clearly. Other two bit thugs like Kim Jong Il and Hugo Chavez tend to be less direct because most of the time they are paranoid and out of touch with reality; so they indulge in a little projection (claiming we intend to kill them); but every so often, they emit a carefully nuanced expression of their real feelings.
Oh, and comments on this thread have been shut down.
