BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Monday, March 15, 2004
SPAIN SAYS NO. The terrorist
attack in Spain, and the subsequent victory
of the opposition Socialist Party, defy easy analysis. My thoughts
are completely conflicted. (Which is why I recommend this
New York Times Magazine essay
by the Kennedy School's Michael Ignatieff, a liberal supporter of the
war in Iraq.)
On the one hand, I believe George
W. Bush's decision to go to war on Iraq was ill-considered. There
were no weapons of mass destruction and no evidence that Saddam
Hussein's government was tied to Al Qaeda. In light of that, Spanish
prime minister Jose Maria Aznar's decision to support Bush's war
against the wishes of 90 percent of his own people amounted to
courage uninformed by judgment.
On the other hand, the Spanish
public, by flipping from Aznar's Popular Party to the Socialists
almost overnight, may very well have sent a signal to Al Qaeda about
how easily they can be swayed by a terrorist attack. Incoming prime
minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says he'll pull Spanish troops
out of Iraq as soon as possible, and who can blame him? They
shouldn't have been there in the first place. But I'm afraid that he
- and the voters who just put him in office - are doing the right
thing for the wrong reason.
At such a time of uncertainty, it
can at least be helpful to find someone with whom to disagree. Andrew
Sullivan today offers the insulting headline "Bin
Laden's Victory in Spain."
What follows is only slightly more nuanced.
What Sullivan and his ilk don't
seem to get is that the way Saddam was removed was every bit
as important as the fact that he was removed. Saddam was one
of the most evil dictators of our time (though a piker compared to
the guy with the hair in North Korea), and the people of Iraq are
far, far better off without him.
But by arrogantly swaggering in
without the support of the United Nations and with phonied-up
evidence of Iraq's weapons capabilities, Bush and his handful of
friends have created a mess that may take a generation to clean
up.
Sullivan's right about one thing:
Britain is the next logical target.
THE GOD OF REAL ESTATE. If
you didn't read Kevin Cullen's page-one story in yesterday's
Boston Globe about ex-gangster Eddie MacKenzie's virtual
takeover of a small Beacon Hill church, click
here.
It is, as they say in the business,
a "holy shit" story.
PUBLIC RELIGIOSITY. I'll be
moderating a Ford Hall Forum discussion on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. on
"Prayer
in Public." The panelists
will be Ellen Band, an artist and the creator of Portal of
Prayer, a sound-based work of public art; Wendy Kaminer, a
prominent civil libertarian and writer; and Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr.,
dean of religious and spiritual life at Wellesley College.
The discussion will take place at
the Old South Meeting House.
posted at 9:11 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
