WHAT TO DO ABOUT SYRIA

BARNES • GERECHT • KAGAN KRISTOL • SCHMITT • SMITH

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 $4.95

The Last 24 Notes MATT LABASH on Bugles Across America

WWEEKLYSTANDARD.COMEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents September 16, 2013 • Volume 19, Number 2

2 The Scrapbook We’ll take the disposable Post, the march of science, & more 5 Casual Joseph Bottum gets stuck in the land of honey 7 Editorial The Right Vote BY WILLIAM KRISTOL Articles

9 I Came, I Saw, I Skedaddled BY P. J. O’ROURKE Decisive moments in Barack Obama history

7 10 Do It for the Presidency BY GARY SCHMITT Congress, this time at least, shouldn’t say no to Obama

12 What to Do About Syria BY FREDERICK W. K AGAN Vital U.S. interests are at stake

14 Sorting Out the Opposition to Assad BY LEE SMITH They’re not all jihadist dead-enders

16 Hesitation, Delay, and Unreliability BY FRED BARNES Not the qualities one looks for in a war president

17 The Louisiana GOP Gains a Convert BY MICHAEL WARREN Elbert Lee Guillory, Cajun noir Features

20 The Last 24 Notes BY MATT LABASH Tom Day and the volunteer buglers who play ‘Taps’ at veterans’ funerals across America

26 The Muddle East BY REUEL MARC GERECHT Every idea Obama had about pacifying the Muslim world turned out to be wrong Books & Arts

9 30 Winston in Focus BY ANDREW ROBERTS A great man gets a second look

32 Indivisible Man BY EDWIN M. YODER JR. Albert Murray, 1916-2013

33 Classical Revival BY MARK FALCOFF Germany breaks from its past to embrace the past

36 Living in Vein BY JOSHUA GELERNTER Remember the man who invented modern medicine

37 With a Grain of Salt BY ELI LEHRER Who and what, exactly, is the chef du jour?

39 Still Small Voice BY JOHN PODHORETZ Sundance gives birth to yet another meh-sterpiece

20 40 Parody And in Russia, the sun revolves around us

COVER: An honor guard bugler plays at the burial of U.S. Marine Cpl. Mark David Kidd of Milford, Michigan, at Arlington National Cemetery, August 14, 2007. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images) THE SCRAPBOOK We’ll Take the Disposable Post

eaders will, we hope, forgive THE 5) we’ve grown accustomed lately to those 20 reporters—“20 hard-bitten R SCRAPBOOK for the undue pleasure reading in the Post. journalists,” in the words of one Post we have taken in Washington Post sto- To be sure, given the New York editor—must have seemed especially ries about the impending sale of the Times’s own fi nancial peril and self- formidable to the Amazon CEO. Post to Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos. aggrandizing family-owner, this For the Post, as its readers are fre- In one sense, it has been something should come as no surprise. But back quently reminded, employs some of of a relief for long-suffering Post read- to the story. Jeff Bezos began his visit the toughest, most penetratingly inci- ers. After decades of worshipful cov- to the Post with an hourlong breakfast sive, ink-stained wretches in the news erage of the Meyer/Graham business, men and women of family—which purchased the deep experience, and all races, Post in 1933—the soon-to-be- creeds, and sexual orienta- ex-proprietors are already vir- tions, who have covered Water- tual nonpersons in the pages gate, the Federal Home Loan of the newspaper they bought Bank Board, Watergate, the at auction 80 years ago and Kennedy Center, Watergate, seem to be abandoning at the the Washington Redskins, Wa- edge of oblivion. tergate, the Arlington County Instead of multiple (favor- (Va.) Board, and Watergate. able) reviews of the late Katha- And yet, unexpectedly, rine Graham’s ghostwritten Bezos “charmed the room,” memoirs—which, believe it or according to Jeffrey Leen, the not, won the Pulitzer Prize for Post’s investigations editor. biography in 1998!—we have Leen continued: lately been reading a lot about Jeff Bezos. He was a big supporter of Some of these essays have investigative reporting, which been thinly veiled warnings warmed my heart. He already has a very good grasp of our to the effect that Bezos has Subscribing to the Washington Post should be this easy. business. It was, all in all, a very purchased a near-perfect in- impressive performance. stitution, and that he tampers with its (“fruit plate, poached eggs, spinach, magical formula at his peril. But most coffee and orange juice”) with Bob Almost as impressive, in THE SCRAP- have been friendly accounts of a suc- Woodward himself, who later emailed BOOK’s estimation, as Jeffrey Leen’s cessful businessman who, like most colleagues, “I was struck by how wide- spontaneous comments, which some- successful businessmen, has seldom ranging and methodical [Bezos] is. He how failed to mention the other Jef- been the subject of friendly accounts voiced strong, even intense, optimism frey’s good looks, exquisite wardrobe, in the Washington Post. about the future of the Post.” wide-ranging intellect, and astonish- Of course, most of the aforemen- This was followed by a question- ing success as a visionary business- tioned malicious pleasure has been and-answer session in the news- man. And how, by the way, does Jeff enjoyed at the expense of the Post. But room and, according to the Times, Bezos defi ne success? “It should be as last week we found ourselves indebted a private meeting “with about 20 re- easy,” he told his newsroom audience, to the New York Times. For there, on porters in a neighboring ninth-fl oor “to get a subscription to the Post as it is the front page of the Times Business conference room [where Bezos] talked to buy diapers on Amazon”—a curious section, was the kind of nervously up- about how he defi ned success.” This analogy, in THE SCRAPBOOK’s opinion, beat story (“Bezos Is a Hit in a Wash- particular encounter was, undoubt- given the uses to which the Post is oc- ington Post Newsroom Visit,” Sept. edly, Bezos’s greatest challenge, since casionally put. ♦

Unrehabilitated Bakers gay marriage? Don’t have one,” went there are real consequences to being the bumper-sticker-turned-rallying- publicly opposed to the practice. In s the debate over gay marriage cry. Of course, it was never going last week’s issue, Mark Hemingway A began heating up, supporters of to be that simple with regard to wrote of Christian businesses around the idea insisted that it was a matter something as foundational as mar- the country that have rankled state of basic libertarianism. “Don’t like riage, and now we are starting to see authorities for the crime of refus-

2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 ing to participate in gay weddings (“The ‘Human Rights’ Juggernaut,” Sept. 9, 2013). The most high-profi le case involves the seven-year legal battle of a New Mexico wedding photography busi- ness that was fi ned in excess of $6,000 for refusing to shoot a gay commit- ment ceremony. State and local au- thorities have also threatened or fi ned an inn in Vermont, a printer in Ken- tucky, a fl orist in Wash ington state, and a bakery in Oregon for declin- ing to provide their services in gay weddings and commitment ceremo- nies. The legal issues involved are not a simple matter of public accom- modation, as these businesses all willingly serve gay clients in every capacity other than matrimonial. They just don’t want to be com- pelled to participate in events of re- ligious signifi cance that run counter to their faith. Well, in the week since Heming- way’s article appeared, we are sad to report, Sweet Cakes, the bakery in Gresham, Oregon, that was men- tioned in the article, has closed its doors. Oregon labor commissioner Brad Avakian told the Oregonian that he hoped to “rehabilitate” Sweet Cakes as one outcome of the state investigation into the matter, but the family that owns the business had long been receiving threats, and activists were already pressur- ing local vendors not to do business with the bakery. After shuttering the clash between gay marriage and ple’s beliefs should not be threatened premises, the owners hung a sign on religious liberty: and that religious liberty should be the door that reads, “This fi ght is “defi ned as maximally as possible,” not over we will continue to stand I don’t want anybody’s religious the gay marriage movement has strong. Your religious freedom is be- liberty—I want that to be defi ned already gone off the rails. ♦ as maximally as possible. We do coming not free anymore. This is ri- not threaten and we should never diculous that we cannot practice our threaten the conscientious beliefs Sentences faith anymore. The LORD is good of those who disagree with us, but and we will continue to serve Him we should welcome their freedom We Didn’t Finish with all our heart.” because it’s our freedom too. And so ould this Labor Day mark the Upon hearing that the bakery had I’m very concerned, actually, that we comeback of movements for may become intolerant of people who ‘C shut its doors, THE SCRAPBOOK recalled workers’ rights and a turn toward believe homosexuality is still sinful. an appearance by Andrew Sullivan on innovation and a new militancy on CNN this past June. Sullivan, who We take Sullivan at his word that behalf of wage-earners? Suggesting through his essays for the New Repub- he’s very concerned that gay mar- this is not the same as a foolish and lic starting in the late 1980s arguably riage advocates “may become intol- romantic optimism that foresees an did more than any other individual erant,” so we hate to break it to him instant union revival. What’s actu- to advance the cause of gay mar- that that’s already the case. For any- ally happening is more interesting. riage, was asked about the inevitable one who genuinely believes that peo- Precisely because no one in organized

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 3 labor expects the proportion of pri- Department of vate-sector workers in their ranks to rise sharply anytime soon . . . ” (E. J. Low Expectations Dionne Jr., Washington Post, Septem- apan PM Abe shakes hands with ber 2, 2013). ♦ ‘JChina’s Xi at G20” (Reuters, Sep- www.weeklystandard.com tember 5, 2013). ♦ William Kristol, Editor Sentences Fred Barnes, Terry Eastland, Executive Editors The March of Science Richard Starr, Deputy Editor We Didn’t Finish Claudia Anderson, Managing Editor ’m so pissed off after reading these ur friends at the Free Beacon Christopher Caldwell, Andrew Ferguson, Victorino Matus, Lee Smith, Senior Editors books I can hardly type. But my report the news that, despite the ‘I O Philip Terzian, Literary Editor ire begins with baseball—and the sequester, the federal government con- Stephen F. Hayes, Mark Hemingway, same is true for Andrew Bacevich, a tinues to be able to support important Matt Labash, Jonathan V. Last, Senior Writers Jay Cost, John McCormack, Michael Warren, retired Army colonel who lost a son scientifi c research. The National Insti- Staff Writers in Iraq. Been to a game lately? Try to tutes of Health has been able to fund Daniel Halper, Online Editor grab just a few hours of peace and fun, for another year a $2.2 million inqui- Kelly Jane Torrance, Assistant Managing Editor and what do you get? A toxic brew ry, begun in the fall of 2011, into why Julianne Dudley, Ethan Epstein, Assistant Editors of manufactured religious piety and “women of minority sexual orienta- Maria Santos, Jim Swift, Editorial Assistants tin-hat patriotism, served up in force- tion are disproportionately affected by Philip Chalk, Design Director Barbara Kyttle, Design Assistant feedings of ‘God Bless America’ and the obesity epidemic.” As reported at Teri Perry, Executive Assistant coercive ‘salutes’ to ‘wounded war- FreeBeacon.com, the study has already Max Boot, Joseph Bottum, riors’ bused in for the game. Bacevich, “yielded one report, published in Janu- Tucker Carlson, Matthew Continetti, Noemie Emery, Joseph Epstein, David Frum, a West Point graduate who now writes ary, which found that gay and bisexual David Gelernter, Reuel Marc Gerecht, perceptive, bristling essays and books males had a ‘greater desire for toned Michael Goldfarb, Mary Katharine Ham, Brit Hume, Frederick W. Kagan, from his perch at Boston University muscles than completely and mostly Robert Kagan, Charles Krauthammer, . . . ” (Jeff Stein, “The Worst Years of heterosexual males.’ ” As a taxpayer, Yuval Levin, Tod Lindberg, Robert Messenger, P. J. O’Rourke, Our Lives,” Bookforum, September- THE SCRAPBOOK is pleased to learn that John Podhoretz, Irwin M. Stelzer, November 2013). ♦ we’re getting our money’s worth. ♦ Contributing Editors MediaDC Lou Ann Sabatier, Chief Executive Offi cer Joe Guerriero, Chief Revenue Offi cer You’ve read Grace Paine Terzian, Chief Communications Offi cer Steve Sparks, Chief Operating Offi cer Kathy Schaffhauser, Chief Financial Offi cer them, Catherine Lowe, Integrated Marketing Director Nicholas H.B. Swezey, V.P. Advertising T. Barry Davis, Peter Dunn, Andrew Kaumeier, you’ve Mark Kraweic, Virginia Pancoe, Chasie Powell, Jason Roberts Advertising Sales watched Advertising inquiries: 202-293-4900 them— The Weekly Standard (ISSN 1083-3013), a division of Clarity Media Group, is published weekly (except the fi rst week in January, third week in April, second week in July, and fourth week in August) at 1150 17th St., NW, Suite 505, Washington D.C. 20036. Periodicals postage paid at now listen Washington, DC, and additional mailing offi ces. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Weekly Standard, P.O. Box 421203, Palm Coast, FL 32142- 1203. For subscription customer service in the United States, call 1-800- 274-7293. For new subscription orders, please call 1-800-274-7293. to their Subscribers: Please send new subscription orders and changes of address to The Weekly Standard, P.O. Box 421203, Palm Coast, FL 32142-1203. Please include your latest magazine mailing label. 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4 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 CASUAL

little smaller, a kind of pocket guide Waylaid in Malta to the civil war. It didn’t, but after my daughter wandered off with A Coffi n for King Charles, I browsed through Wedg- arly in 1659, a strong-willed own recalcitrance, refusing several wood’s short pieces—reminded again woman named Sarah deals between the embarrassed Mal- of how sane and balanced she was as Chevers and an even stron- tese and British—even while they a historian: her suspicions of useful ger-willed woman named continued to instruct their jailers on history, her nuanced praise of Gib- KatharineE Evans arrived in Malta. true doctrine and the errors of the bon, her wonderful account of the By chance—or, as they insisted, Romish Church. Finally in July 1662, trial of the dashing highwayman Cap- Providence—they had been divert- after the intervention of the Stuart tain Hind. Two hours later, just as I ed, their Dutch ship chased into the family, they were ejected from prison remembered that I really needed to port of Valletta by rumor of pirates and bundled onto a ship for home. start on science and religion, I came and bad weather. And since Malta is It’s a great story, I think, but I across “The Conversion of Malta,” where they found themselves, Malta know it only because I sat down the Wedgwood’s small account of the is where they would stay, strong-willed Sarah Chevers preaching God’s true Protes- and the even stronger-willed tant faith—the Knights Hos- Katharine Evans. pitaller who ruled the Catho- A little online browsing lic island be damned. of an hour or so uncovered A I’m not sure why I admire Brief Discovery of God’s Eter- these women so. They seem, nal Truth and a Way Opened to all in all, profoundly igno- the Simple Hearted Whereby They rant people—ignorant in May Come to Know Christ and His that peculiarly British way Ministers, from Antichrist and that saw all other European His Ministers: With a Warning cultures as willful and child- from the Lord to All People That Do ish failures to be British. Name the Name of Christ, to Depart But maybe what draws me from Iniquity—Written in the Inqui- is what remains clearest in sition of Malta by Katharine Evans. their story, for they were also The title was only a foretaste of brave beyond measure, with a the marvelously convoluted prose. strength of conviction that still takes other morning to begin an essay on I did fi nally catch myself—just as the breath away. science and religion I had promised I was wondering whether to follow They were Quakers, members of an editor weeks earlier. And while I up with Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, the the Society of Friends, and they had stared at the blank screen, my daugh- great old 1563 account of Protestant already suffered for their evangeliz- ter came in to ask about the English suffering, or jump ahead to Quaker ing. Banned from the Isle of Wight as Civil War, which had come up in histories—and swear it was time to a public nuisance, Katharine was later something she was reading. get to work. But then it occurred “strip’d and ty’d to a whipping-post I told her, of course, that I had to me that the best parallel was prob- in the market of Salisbury” for her to work, but we could look up a few ably The Bible in Spain, George Bor- heterodox street-corner haranguing things online. An hour and a half row’s bestselling 1843 memoir of an of passersby. How could they refuse later, I explained that enough was eccentric English Protestant sent to their burden, when Malta was even enough; she would have to continue do the Lord’s work in what the Brit- more lost in sin than Salisbury? The on her own, since I had to write ish simply knew was a benighted British consul housed them, anx- about science and religion. But we Catholic country. I was deep in the iously urging them to leave the island did go through the bookshelves fi rst, third chapter when my daughter as Katharine and Sarah shouted to fi nd my copy of C.V. Wedgwood’s called me to dinner. prophecies into the streets from his classic popular history of the era, A See? Easy to spend a produc- windows. After 15 weeks, a reluctant Coffi n for King Charles. And while I tive day. Just start writing—on, say, Inquisition fi nally imprisoned them was there, I pulled down History and science and religion—and never quite in response to a public outcry. Hope, a collection of Wedgwood’s get back to it. The three years it took to obtain essays I hadn’t looked at in years, to

DAVID CLARK DAVID their release was due mostly to their see if the book contained anything a JOSEPH BOTTUM

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 5 EDITORIAL The Right Vote

he statesmanlike case for voting Yes on the con- responsibilities, forsaking our allies, and trying to con- gressional resolution to use force against the struct a Fortress America. T Assad regime has been made widely and well by But they do believe the politics of this vote is awful. conservative foreign policy thinkers. At the end, the case They believe, perhaps correctly, that President Obama has boils down to this: As a policy matter, a Yes vote may cynically thrown this ball into the lap of Congress in order be problematic in all kinds of ways. But a No vote would to get Republican fi ngerprints on an action that may not likely be disastrous for the nation in very clear ways. succeed. They believe, correctly, that their constituents Statesmanship requires choosing the are against intervention. They believe, problematic over the disastrous. A Yes vote is also therefore, that the politically prudent It’s true that Republicans on the Hill vote is No. lack confi dence in President Obama’s a vote to stop the They’re wrong. Winston Churchill execution of the military action they are Iranian nuclear noted that “the Muse of History must being asked to vote to authorize. So do program. Syria is an not be fastidious.” Likewise the Muse conservative foreign and military policy Iranian proxy. Assad’s of editorialists. So we’ll be forgiven, we experts, and so do we. But voting Yes trust, for briefly laying out the crass doesn’t preclude criticizing—indeed, it ability to use chemical political reasons why Republicans makes it easier to constructively criti- weapons is a proxy for should vote Yes. cize—much of what President Obama Iran’s ability to move A Yes vote is in fact the easy vote. has done and will do in Syria and in ahead unimpeded It’s actually close to risk-free. After all, the Middle East. Indeed, if Republicans it’s President Obama who is seeking the want to cast a broader vote of no confi - in its acquisition of authorization to use force and who will dence in President Obama’s conduct of nuclear weapons. order and preside over the use of force. It’s foreign policy, there are other ways to fundamentally his policy. Lots of Demo- do so, and we’d support many of them. crats voted in 2002 to authorize the Iraq But using this resolution to cast a vote war. When that war ran into trouble, it of no confi dence against Obama would was President Bush and Republicans empower those abroad making the case who paid the price. If the Syria effort against placing confi dence in the United goes badly, the public will blame Presi- States. That would be damaging. And in dent Obama, who dithered for two years, the real world, a vote against Obama will and who seems inclined to a halfhearted be seen as a vote for Bashar al-Assad, and execution of any military campaign. If for Vladimir Putin, and for the regime it goes well, Republicans can take credit in Iran. for pushing him to act decisively, and for The fact is that Obama is the only casting a tough vote supporting him when president we have. We can’t abdicate our he asked for authorization to act. position in the world for the next three A No vote is the risky vote. In fact, the years. So Republicans will have to resist risk is all on the side of voting No. The the temptation to weaken him when the only thing that can get Obama off the cost is weakening the country. A party that for at least two hook now is for Republicans to deny him authorization for generations has held high the banner of American lead- the use of force against the Assad regime. Then the GOP ership and strength should not cast a vote that obviously can be blamed for whatever goes wrong in Syria, and else- risks a damaging erosion of this country’s stature and where in the Middle East, over the next months and years. credibility abroad. And plenty will go wrong. It’s a Yes vote that gets Republi- Republicans on the Hill know this. The vast major- cans in Congress off the hook. ity are not followers of Pat Buchanan or of Ron and Rand A Yes vote seems to be statesmanlike. (Actually, it Paul. They don’t actually believe in abandoning our happens also to be statesmanlike, but we’re now talking

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 7 politics.) Establishment foreign policy voices, including on Obama care, immigration, the debt ceiling, and a host conservative ones, may not move voters—but they do have of other issues. some pull in the media and with infl uentials across the A Yes vote can also be explained as a vote to stop country. Casting a “tough” political vote is a way for mem- the Iranian nuclear program. Syria is an Iranian proxy. bers of Congress to appear to be rising above mere party Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons is a proxy for politics. In fact, many voters do like to think they’re vot- Iran’s ability to move ahead unimpeded in its acquisi- ing for someone who has at least a touch of statesmanship, tion of nuclear weapons. To bring this point home, soon and so casting what appears superfi cially to be a politically after voting to authorize the use of force against the Assad perilous vote could well help the stature of Republicans regime, Republicans might consider moving an authoriza- with many of their constituents back home. tion for the use of force against the Iranian nuclear weap- It’s true that a Yes vote will be temporarily unpopular ons program. They can explain that Obama’s dithering in with the base. To support Obama now may seem to invite the case of Syria shows the utility of unequivocally giving primary opposition from challengers who would be more him the authority to act early with respect to Iran. An Iran in tune with popular sentiment to stay out of the Syrian debate would pretty much unite Republicans and con- civil war. For a few weeks after the vote, Republicans will servatives and would help mitigate political problems aris- hear such rumblings. But at the end of the day, Republi- ing from a Yes vote on Syria. The issue of Iran will most can primary voters are a pretty hawkish bunch. It’s hard likely come to a head before Election Day 2014, probably to believe they’re going to end up removing otherwise con- even before primary elections earlier next year. An Iran servative representatives or senators in favor of challengers resolution means the Syria vote won’t be the most impor- who run on a platform whose key plank is that Republi- tant vote Republicans cast in this session of Congress—it cans should have voted to let an Iran-supported, terror- won’t even be the most important foreign policy vote. backing dictator with American blood on his hands off the So, in the vote on the authorization to use force hook after he’s used chemical weapons. What’s more, pri- in Syria, Republicans’ self-interest coincides with the mary elections are more than half a year away. Republican national interest. For reasons both fastidiously statesman- senators and congressmen will have plenty of time to rees- like and crassly political, Yes is the right vote. tablish their anti-Obama credentials by fi ghting Obama —William Kristol Our Economy Needs Risk Takers

By Thomas J. Donohue Edison himself tested in pursuit of the a new employee, or forgoing a steady President and CEO light bulb. It took him 1,000 tries to finally paycheck to start your own business U.S. Chamber of Commerce achieve a successful prototype. The has potential downsides. But what third time was a charm for Henry Ford, should be expected, or at least hoped No product or service is sold, no whose first two attempts to establish for, is a government that mitigates risk invention is achieved, no job is created, an automotive empire collapsed under by establishing clear rules of the game, and no opportunity arises until someone— bankruptcy and partner dispute. Ford was creating an environment for growth, and somewhere—takes a risk. Taking a driven by a self-fulfilling mantra: “Whether then getting out of the way. calculated risk to pursue a business idea you think you can, or you think you can’t— Unfortunately, Washington has long been the bedrock of our free you’re right.” It took a failed first venture discourages innovation and business enterprise system. for Microsoft founder Bill Gates to learn development as it lurches from one With risk inevitably comes failure. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces budget crises to another, fumbles to Show me a successful entrepreneur, and smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” implement Obamacare, struggles to pass I’ll show you someone whose first three Faced with the weakest economic comprehensive immigration reform that business ventures never got off the ground. recovery since World War II, we need more would establish a stronger talent pool, and The beauty of our free enterprise system risk takers. Economists note that more adds layer upon layer of regulation on the is that it allows people to make repeated businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals very people we depend on to create jobs. attempts at success, rather than punish are hunkering down and playing it safe, Until that changes, the economy won’t or stigmatize them when they fall short. choosing security and caution over hiring, be firing on all cylinders, and we won’t The only true limit to the number of times investing, and pursuing the next big idea. continue to be the dynamic and innovative people can try again is the limit they set What’s missing from the economy, they people we have always been. for themselves. say, is the dynamism that can help spark a Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s much stronger recovery. failures are people who did not realize how Nobody in business expects a risk-free Comment at FreeEnterprise.com. close they were to success”—wisdom decision. Opening a new plant, hiring

8 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 I Came, I Saw, I Skedaddled

Decisive moments in Barack Obama history. BY P. J. O ’ R OURKE Chief Executive of Sparta, Pontius Barack Pilate Obama, Barack Leonidas Obama, Matthew 27:24 at the Battle of Thermopylae When he saw that he could prevail Stand down, men. The chairman nothing, but that rather a tumult was of the Greek City States Alliance Joint made, he took water, and washed his Chiefs of Staff has indicated to me that hands before the multitude, saying, “I our capacity to execute this mission am innocent of the blood of these just against Xerxes is not time-sensitive. persons, but I’ll ask the Senate back in The Midnight Ride Rome for authority to do something- of Paul Barack Revere Obama or-other, although it may have to wait One if by land, and two if by sea, until after Good Friday.” and three if by air, and four if by drones . . . Or is it two if by land, and Christopher Barack Columbus Obama one if by sea? . . . However, there will Many prominent experts, includ- be no deployment of Colonial ground ing Thomas Friedman of the New forces. So it’s two if by ship-launched York Times, maintain that the earth is cruise missiles . . . Or is it three if by fl at. This is a debate I would like to airstrikes? . . . Anyway, the British have. Meanwhile, I have discovered a aren’t coming. new route to France. Col. WilliamW Barack Prescott Obama at the Battle of Bunker Capitol Hill Don’t fi re until you see the whites . . . But we should not understand this as a racial issue. We should not under- stand this as a partisan political issue. We should not under- stand this as a national issue. This is an international issue. Don’t fi re at General Howe’s troops until you see interna- Julius Barack Caesar Obama tional support. And it doesn’t Crosses the Rubicon count if it’s just France. I am crossing the Rubicon. Brrr, the water’s chilly. Deep, too. I’m Arthur Barack Wellesley Obama, going for a walk along the riverbank Duke of Wellington and the Rose to look for a bridge. And I will cross Garden the Rubicon as soon as the weather Shakespeare’s Henry Barack V, If there had been a battle, the Battle warms up. The die has been cast. That Act IV, Scene iii of Waterloo would have been won on is, the deck has been shuffl ed. Or the That he which hath no stomach to the playing fi elds of Eton, if there had Wheel of Fortune has been spun. And this fi ght, been a Waterloo. I’ll buy a vowel. Let him depart. So I’m out of here. [exit muttering] Sir Winston Barack Churchill Obama P. J. O’Rourke is a contributing editor We few, we very few, we hardly We shall fi ght on the beaches—

to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. any . . . mostly on Martha’s Vineyard, where GARY LOCKE BY ILLUSTRATIONS

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 9 everybody was over Labor Day weekend—we shall fi ght at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, we shall Do It for the fi ght at the U.N. Security Council, we shall fi ght in the House of Repre- sentatives and the Senate when Con- Presidency gress is fi nally back in session; we shall never surrender unless we don’t get enough votes or our poll ratings are low. Congress, this time at least, shouldn’t say no to Obama. BY GARY SCHMITT Franklin Barack Delano Hussein Roosevelt Obama here is little reason to believe tive procedures to bypass Congress We, too, born to freedom, and that President Obama’s deci- to create expansive new statutory believing in freedom, are willing to T sion to ask Congress for regimes, and fl outing an explicit pro- fi ght to maintain freedom. Sort of. We, authorization to engage in military vision in the Constitution regarding and all others who believe as deeply action in Syria is the result of a new- recess appointments. And perhaps as we do, would rather die on our feet found fastidiousness when it comes most Orwellian of all, Obama turned than live on our knees. Sometimes. to the Constitution and his constitu- the language of the War Powers Act Unless we’re busy doing yoga and are on its head during the in the “downward dog” position. 2011 Libyan interven- tion by arguing that the F.B.D.H.R.O., Twitterside Chat six months of aerial and When you see a rattlesnake poised cruise missile strikes by to strike, you do not wait until he American naval and air has struck before you crush him. You forces did not constitute go fi nd other people to crush him for actual “hostilities” and, you. But fi rst you try to talk him out hence, did not require of it. any action by Congress. It appears that for the John Barack Fitzgerald former law school profes- Kennedy Obama sor the “living Constitu- Let every nation know, whether it tion” is indeed a living wishes us well or ill—and since we’re thing—living day to day, not engaged in nation-building, that is. Not surprisingly, every nation should wish us well— then, the president’s deci- that we shall pay any price if it’s not Announcing the plan for a congressional vote, August 31 sion to go to Congress is too high, bear any burden unless seen by more than a few it’s burdensome, meet any hardship tional obligation to “take care that the as a cynical ploy in which the presi- unless it’s hard, support any friend laws be faithfully executed.” dent, already reluctant to take any if we have any, oppose any foe— On the 2007 campaign trail, can- action at all, is hoping an even more although no nation should think didate Obama regularly blasted the reluctant Congress will actually vote of us as a foe because we’re not that Bush administration over its sup- against a resolution to use force. kind of country anymore—to assure posed “imperial presidency” preten- Whether that cynicism is war- the survival and success of liberty, sions and argued that a “president ranted, or even whether President unless it’s a holiday weekend. does not have power under the Con- Obama himself fully understands the stitution to unilaterally authorize consequences of his decision to seek Apollo 11 Commander Neil Barack a military attack in a situation that an authorization from Congress, it is Armstrong Obama, July 20, 1969 does not involve stopping an actual or a huge roll of the dice for his presi- That’s one small step for . . . imminent threat to the nation.” dency. A failure to win a congressio- Nope. I think I’ll go back up the lad- But his own record shows a presi- nal authorization—when combined der to the lunar module. Maybe Buzz dent ignoring laws when he finds with existing scandals, the mess of Aldrin would like to go fi rst. them inconvenient, using administra- Obama care, and the country’s gen- eral economic malaise—is likely to Martin Barack Luther Gary Schmitt is director of the Marilyn Ware cement even further his lame duck Hussein King Obama Jr. Center for Security Studies at the American status and leave the United States

I have a daydream. ♦ Enterprise Institute. with a president whose credibility NEWSCOM

10 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 with allies and enemies alike is at rock bottom. From the #1 bestselling author of Although Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader The Revolution and End the Fed Eric Cantor now support military action, other Republicans may be tempted to use this as a political opportunity. After all, this is a pres- RON PAUL ident who has used the bully pulpit to be a partisan bully as much as No more excuses– any president in recent history. But Republicans should remember that ƒ’”‹‡”‘Š‘™–‘ϐ‹š this is an offi ce they will one day our failed education system. inherit, and the hole they dig now for Obama and the country’s strategic credibility will be a hole they might well be trying to climb out of in just a few years. There are conservatives who believe the president does not have a constitutional obligation to seek a congressional okay when it comes to striking Syria, and there are con- servatives who believe that he does. Regardless, that bridge has been crossed, and the question now is whether Congress will act as the world’s most important deliberative body, which it claims to be, or the fractious, ineffective herd of 535 that the public has come to see it as. As with most things offered up by the administration in the area of national security, the draft resolu- tion was a mishmash of tactics and strategy and needed improving. Having delayed a military strike this long, and eliminated any chance of surprise, it is militarily impossi- ble for a punishing, deterring blow against the Assad regime for its use of chemical weapons to be on the order of Obama’s initial minimal- ist “shot across the bow.” Congress must insist that any military cam- paign not be feckless, and that it be In this provocative treatise, Ron Paul shares how properly funded so as not to further we can transform our broken education system to hollow out an already sequestered- provide a brighter future for all Americans. to-death military. Such a campaign, if not so lim- “The Thomas Jefferson of our day.” ited as to be pointless, will inevita- —Judge Andrew Napolitano bly reduce the Assad regime’s capac- ity against Syria’s rebels. On this point, Senator John McCain, along grandcentralpublishing.com with his colleagues on the Foreign Available in hardcover, downloadable Relations Committee who voted for audio, and e-book formats Hachette Book Group an amended resolution on Wednes-

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 11 day, deserve high praise for under- standing that fact and making it “the policy of the United States to What to Do change the momentum on the battle- fi eld in Syria” and, in turn, urging the development of “a comprehen- About Syria sive U.S. strategy” to assist the “vet- ted elements of Syrian opposition forces” by providing lethal and non- lethal capabilities. Vital U.S. interests are at stake. Moreover, none of this requires BY FREDERICK W. K AGAN boots on the ground. Skepticism about the feasibility of an effec- merican interests in Syria the guarding force (not a very plausi- tive Syrian campaign refl ects not an are clear: preventing terror- ble option for al Qaeda facing an Ala- actual lack of American capacity, but A ists from acquiring chemical wite defense force loyal to Assad), or rather self-infl icted doubts from pull- weapons; depriving Iran of its most hope that the defense collapses, leav- ing the plug on our efforts in Iraq important ally and staging-base in ing the position open to plunder. Even and Afghanistan prematurely. Non- the Middle East; and preventing al in that last case, the United States or jihadist opposition forces do exist Qaeda from establishing an uncon- other concerned powers, seeing the and they do hold signifi cant swaths tested safe haven in the Levant. Rea- departure of the guard force, could use of Syria. However, they will certainly sonable people can disagree about the bombs to prevent the terrorists from fall by the wayside in the face of reso- extent to which President Obama’s getting into the facility or removing lute and ruthless al Qaeda-aligned proposed “limited strike” will secure materials from it or, in the worst case, forces if not properly trained, armed, these interests, but not about whether insert troops into the facilities that and guided. the interests are real or vital. Bashar were compromised, whose positions No doubt, there are conservatives al-Assad has one of the largest chemi- are presumably well known to us. who, like the president, want simply to cal weapons arsenals in the world. Al In order to use the weapons, how- pivot away from the Middle East alto- Qaeda franchises control territory in ever, Assad’s forces must remove them gether and believe that’s what the pub- Syria and have some of the most effec- from any such protective facilities, lic wants as well. But what the public tive fighting forces on the ground. load them onto vehicles, drive them wants today and what it sees as impor- Iran’s own military and security forces through the war-torn streets of a con- tant down the road will almost cer- are active in Syria in defense of the fl ict zone, set them up, and fi re them. tainly not be the same. In 1999, John Assad regime. The threat to Ameri- Those activities make the weapons McCain went against the majority of cans is very real. themselves considerably more vulner- his congressional GOP colleagues, Assad’s expanding use of chemi- able to terrorist seizure, especially as supported a military intervention in cal weapons against his own people is they are being transported. The ter- Kosovo, and stole a march on his nom- more than an atrocity and an egregious rorists’ problem then shifts from one ination opponents in appearing more violation of international law and of breaching a heavily secured bunker presidential. He was joined by then- norms. It also materially increases the to one of raiding a convoy—a tactic governor George W. Bush in support risk that terrorists, whether al Qaeda that insurgents in Syria and around of the intervention, and soon enough or Hezbollah, will get hold of some the world perfected long ago. Man- the polls showed a majority of Ameri- warheads. When not in use, weap- handling the warheads and smug- cans in agreement. ons of mass destruction are generally gling them out of the area or the On the other side of the coin, kept in heavily guarded and secured country would present challenges to another senator with presidential bunkers—regimes that possess them the terrorists depending on the size aspirations, the relatively hawkish fear both that they might be stolen or and characteristics of the weapons— Democrat Sam Nunn, voted in 1991 smuggled away and that the enemy but those challenges are by no means against the congressional authoriza- against whom the weapons are aimed insurmountable. tion for the fi rst Gulf war and now might destroy them preemptively. Facing such a situation, the United admits it was the greatest mistake of Terrorists seeking to lay hands on the States would fi nd its own responses his career. weapons, generally, would either have much more complex. To begin with, In short, conservatives, especially to penetrate those defenses (usually would it even be known that some- those thinking that they could be a task beyond their means), infi ltrate thing was awry until after the fact? sitting in the Oval Offi ce one day, Recent media reporting suggests that ought to think long and hard before Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar the intelligence community was not they reject a sensible, if not perfect, at the American Enterprise Institute and tracking preparations for Assad’s most authorization for the use of force. ♦ director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project. recent use of chemical weapons in real

12 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 time. Simply bombing the terrorists numbers. It appears that Assad keeps chemical weapons arsenal: Assad’s mil- wrestling with the weapons risks set- his chemical weapons at a variety of itary, his Hezbollah allies, al Qaeda affi l- ting off the weapons in a populated sites around the country, which would iates, and the Free Syrian Army (FSA). area. Inserting a small strike force make it necessary to insert many strike If it were clear that Assad was going into such an area (rather than onto a forces simultaneously. Each strike to win the war and reestablish control military facility separated by design force would need to be able to over- over Syria or that the current situation from the population) would be much come the guard forces at each facility was stable and could be expected to more dangerous and also signifi cantly very quickly and then hold it against endure, one might conclude that allow- increase the risk of both American and regime counterattacks. The strike ing Assad’s forces to continue their civilian casualties. And there is the forces would have to be accompanied custody over the arsenal was the safest risk that the reaction wouldn’t be fast by specialists in rendering chemical option. Some administration offi cials, enough in any case, potentially allow- weapons safe enough to be transported, in fact, had been arguing just that until ing terrorists to move the weapons and those specialists would need to be recently. But there is virtually no pros- away from the site of the attack and supported and guarded. The process of pect that Assad will reestablish control forcing the United States to start an rendering an unfamiliar stockpile safe over Syria (even if that were morally aerial hunt for them. is not instant—the forces would need or geopolitically desirable), and the In short, Syria’s use of current situation is far chemical weapons by itself from stable. In the space dramatically increases the of a few weeks we have risk of those weapons fall- seen the regime go from ing into al Qaeda’s hands. a desperate fi ght to hold Any action the United onto Homs to a blitzkrieg States and its allies could dash north to try to seize take to dissuade Assad Aleppo, only to be forced from continuing that use— back to Homs (where it thereby persuading him to has been gaining ground) keep the weapons locked and even Damascus up as securely as he can— (where it is losing ground) is a step toward reducing by rebel counterattacks. that risk. The large-scale chemical The best solution, of weapons attack was itself course, would be to destroy a regime reaction to the the weapons or remove A survivor of the Damascus gas attack, resting in a mosque, August 21 risk of losing a critical them from Syria. Sim- neighborhood in its capi- ply bombing them from the air poses to be able to hold a facility for some tal. Persistent confl ict breeds persistent unacceptable risks, unless they are time. Reserve forces and rapid-reaction instability that makes Assad’s custody about to be seized by terrorists. There troops would need to be available. All of his WMD unacceptable. is a risk of releasing clouds of toxic gas of these forces would need massive Since clearly neither Hezbollah that could kill scores or hundreds of intelligence, surveillance, and recon- nor al Qaeda is a trustworthy custo- innocent civilians, even when using naissance support; fi xed-wing aircraft dian, and since the United States has advanced bombs designed to incin- support; helicopters (including fueling no desire to send the military force erate chemical weapons. Using such stations); Medevac capabilities; and all that would be necessary to destroy or advanced munitions, moreover, would the paraphernalia of modern ground remove the weapons, the only hope require putting manned aircraft over warfare. This would be no raid on of managing Syria’s chemical weap- Syrian airspace, which in turn means Entebbe. The U.S. military has indi- ons threat lies with the success of the attacking the Syrian air defense system cated that such an option could require FSA. The United States and the inter- in advance. Bombing secured bunkers tens of thousands of troops, and this national community should make it a also makes it impossible to determine quick sketch bears out that calculation. condition of support for the FSA and with certainty whether all of the weap- Since no one in this debate is advocat- for any government they might sup- ons were destroyed, while simultane- ing sending a large ground force into port after Assad’s fall that it agree to ously exposing the storage facility to Syria, we have effectively dismissed abide by the chemical weapons bans plunder by scattering (at the very least) the option of seizing the weapons or (to which Assad’s regime is not a its guard force. One might advocate destroying them and thereby entered party) and to hand over seized stock- such action, again, as a last resort, but the realm of high-risk options. piles at once to American or other not as a fi rst military option. Four military forces are operating international forces for destruction. Removing the weapons would on the ground in Syria today, and are There is no reason to think that the

REUTERS / LANDOV require ground forces in large thus the candidates for custody of the FSA would resist such a demand.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 13 Offering more meaningful aid would make it more enticing. In the meantime, deterring or pre- Sorting Out the venting Assad from using his chemi- cal weapons or dispersing them is of primary importance. A punitive strike Opposition to Assad would be unlikely in itself to accom- plish this aim—unless it destroyed or otherwise incapacitated the weapons They’re not all jihadist dead-enders. systems Assad needs to use his chemi- cal stockpiles, such as his aircraft and BY LEE SMITH his rocket and missile batteries. The chemical agents are not militarily ast week, Secretary of State John Indeed, the regime’s brazen chemical meaningful without their launchers, Kerry went against received wis- attack last month in the Damascus sub- and Assad has been using them thus L dom—and against the assess- urb of East Ghouta suggests Assad may far for tactical reasons as well as to sow ment of the White House he works think his position is becoming increas- terror. Such a strike, which might well for—when he argued that Syrian oppo- ingly vulnerable and that he’s running need to be repeated several times to sition forces are not dominated by out of options. Because regime troops make it clear to Assad that he would Islamic extremists. “I just don’t agree proved unable to clear an area of vital not be able to use his weapons in any that a majority are al Qaeda and the bad importance that the rebels had held for orderly fashion, could buy the opposi- guys,” Kerry argued in his congressio- over a year, Assad was willing to test tion the time it needs to succeed—and nal testimony. “There are about 70,000 Obama’s red line and deploy, again, his to gain control over the arsenals them- to 100,000 oppositionists. . . . Maybe unconventional arsenal. selves. Such strikes, moreover, would 15 percent to 25 percent might be in Because Obama wanted no part of provide immediate and tangible ben- one group or another who are what we the Syrian confl ict, the White House efi ts to the opposition by degrading would deem to be bad guys.” helped create the perception that it all Assad’s ability to use the same aircraft, “Probably less,” says Major Issam came down to a choice between Assad rocket, and missile systems to hit the Rayyes, a former Syrian Army com- and an al Qaeda project to turn Syria rebels with conventional weapons, as munications offi cer who defected in into an Islamic emirate. After the oppo- his forces are now doing. It is hard, June 2012 and now serves as a coor- sition took up arms to defend itself and in fact, to conceive of a target set that dinator for the opposition’s Supreme some American policy makers like Sen- might “degrade” Assad’s ability to use Military Council. “I was watching ator John McCain argued for support- his chemical weapons in any meaning- the hearing and one congressmen ing the rebels, administration offi cials ful way without also helping the oppo- insisted the opposition was 50 percent fi rst claimed that they didn’t know who sition materially. al Qaeda, and Kerry was right to cor- was in the opposition. Later, the White Preventing Assad from using his rect him,” Rayyes told me by Skype House said they did know—that al chemical weapons while robustly sup- from northern Syria. “I’m not saying Qaeda was in the ascendant. porting the FSA also offers the best they’re not here. They have a presence, Who in their right mind, after all, hope of securing America’s other two and they’ve captured some territory. would argue for arming the engi- interests in Syria—depriving Iran of But they’re in the minority. Congress neers of 9/11? With the progeny of its forward staging area in the Levant is making a mistake in thinking the bin Laden on one side and Assad and and preventing al Qaeda from estab- opposition is al Qaeda.” the Iranian-led resistance bloc on the lishing a safe haven there. Unless According to the Syrian rebels, that’s other, the only strategically sound Americans want to send a large army one of two huge popular misconcep- course would be to let them fi ght each into Syria—which no one is advocat- tions concerning the two-and-a-half- other until no one was left standing. ing—this is, in fact, the only strat- year confl ict. The other is that Syrian The White House’s information cam- egy that offers any hope. One can president Bashar al-Assad is winning. paign had the added benefi t of resonat- well argue about the scope and scale Ever since the regime, with help ing in some Republican circles. For of the air campaign and the amount from Hezbollah, retook the town instance, where McCain wanted a vic- and kind of support the United States of Qusayr in June, we’ve heard that tory in Syria to see American interests should provide to the opposition, and Assad’s forces are on a roll. However, prevail over Iran’s, his 2008 running those arguments are important. But a number of analysts and journalists mate agreed with the White House they should not be allowed to obscure on the ground in Syria suggest more that a draw was preferable. “Let Allah the basic facts that the security of recent evidence argues otherwise. sort it out,” said Sarah Palin. Americans is profoundly threatened And indeed, in certain parts of Syria, by events in Syria and that inaction Lee Smith is a senior editor especially near the Turkish border, will only increase that threat. ♦ at THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Sunni extremists, including al Qaeda

14 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 affi liates, have until recently been a sig- official whose family is originally last month’s chemical weapons attack nifi cant part of the war against Assad. from Damascus. “Finally, we’re start- that there was indeed an American Without Western support, Syrian fi ght- ing to fi ght the message that the oppo- interest, he was left with one option— ers fl ocked to the groups that could sition is al Qaeda.” unilateralism. Only France, whose pro- offer money and arms, much of it com- Then, too, as the administration spective contribution is uncertain, is ing from private donors in the Gulf argued, the opposition is fragmented— willing to stand with the United States, Cooperation Council states. Whether which is partly a result of petty rival- and there are no rebel units that answer rebel fi ghters grew long beards and ries, competition, and insufficient directly to Washington. What happens shouted Islamist slogans out of convic- coordination between rebel groups if the rebels win? tion, or simply because it convinced inside the country, never mind with One rebel commander in Damascus Kuwaiti billionaires to keep the spigot the political spokesmen and offi cials in I spoke with thinks it’s a done deal. “If on, Islamist units like Jabhat al-Nusra, exile. But the opposition’s inability to the regime’s assets are hit in Damas- the Syrian Islamic Front, and Islamic push back against the White House’s cus, rebel efforts will be focused on State in Iraq and Syria were certainly portrait of it also refl ects the trauma Damascus,” says a fi ghter with a unit a factor. They became much less sig- of a people locked in a dark closet for close to the target area of last month’s nifi cant when Saudi Arabia, gas attack. “When the regime or more specifically Saudi falls, we’ll capture the rest of national security adviser Damascus. We’ve been work- Prince Bandar bin Sultan, ing on a transition plan for took the reins. nine months,” he continues, Saudi policies, as Syria “to prevent chaos when the scholar and University regime falls. Our objectives of Edinburgh professor are to secure liberated areas Thomas Pierret recently and to continue essential ser- wrote, “translate into sup- vices, like providing water port for political forces that and food to civilians.” are inherently conserva- Why is he so certain tive or hostile to Islamist the Assad regime is teeter- movements.” As Riyadh has ing? He explains that in backed the Egyptian military spite of Assad’s self-con- against the Muslim Brother- gratulatory bravado after hood, it has pursued an anal- Obama sought congressio- ogous course in Syria. Pierret nal authorization, “We still explains that “the marked saw 700 defectors in the last increase in Saudi involve- Kerry on the Hill: testifying to the House Foreign Affairs Committee week, including 50 from ment in the confl ict over the Assad’s Republican guard.” last months has translated into a revival more than 40 years. With two gen- Maj. Rayyes agrees. “If this strike is of the mainstream insurgency, and a erations of Syrians raised under the strong enough, if it targets airports and decline in the relative weight of hard- Assad family’s dictatorship, the oppo- major sites, the regime might fall soon. line Salafi s.” sition simply didn’t have the sophis- Maybe 60 days. When the strikes start, So why is John Kerry the major fi g- tication to craft a PR campaign on its lots of soldiers will run away. Mark my ure pushing back against the White own behalf. Shabhandhar says that’s words—not defect, run away.” House’s thesis that al Qaeda domi- starting to change. The SMC has a The rebels are almost certainly over- nates the opposition? Why didn’t restructured media offi ce focusing on stating the case for optimism. Nonethe- the rebels speak up for themselves? outreach to Western journalists. less, with McCain pushing the White Because they were busy with the real- The White House’s decision to House to change the momentum on ity on the ground, says Oubai Shab- confl ate all Syrian opposition with al the ground, the balance of power will handhar, the Syrian Support Group’s Qaeda also meant pretending that the likely shift against a regime that may vice president for Middle East opera- United States had no interests at stake be much less sturdy than it lets on. The tions, who works closely with the Syr- in Syria. Accordingly, the president good news for the White House is that ian Military Council (SMC). “They neither forged coalitions among Amer- it still has time to arm and train rebel were fi ghting a war, and what they ican allies to face down the Iran-Russia- units, thereby making them dependent heard didn’t make sense. The notion Assad alliance, nor built up rebel units on and accountable to Washington. that they are pawns of al Qaeda was that would be accountable to Washing- Provided, of course, that Obama comes so unbelievable that they thought ton in the event that someday he might to recognize that there are American it didn’t warrant a response,” says need one or the other or both. Thus, interests at stake, besides enforcing a

UPI / KEVIN DIETSCH LANDOV Shabhandhar, a former Pentagon when Obama decided in the wake of red line drawn in haste. ♦

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 15 Making of Extraordinary Leaders. “A strong war leader needs one quality Hesitation, Delay, above others,” he says, “a ruthlessness to see it through, coupled with a touch of legerdemain to keep our enemies and Unreliability off balance and fearful of what the United States might do.” Obama certainly lacks that “touch” of cunning. There’s a gulf between his Not the qualities one looks for in a war president. mission and his military. His goal is BY FRED BARNES the removal of Assad as Syrian leader —in other words, regime change. But ar presidents don’t quibble. A bombing assault was planned Obama insists a bombing attack in They don’t leak. They don’t for Labor Day weekend to “deter” Syria would be solely to stop further W go AWOL. They aren’t further use of chemical weapons use of chemical weapons. He’s pub- dispirited or downbeat. They aren’t and “degrade” Assad’s arsenal. But licly ruled out a wider assault aimed ambivalent about the mission. And Obama abruptly jettisoned that plan at regime change or deployment of most important of all, war presi- ground troops. dents are never irresolute. “Calling for Assad’s down- These are a few of the rules fall and warning him not to use for presidents before, during, chemical weapons but being and after the country goes to war. hesitant to back up his strong On Syria, President Obama dis- words with commensurate regards all of them. This should actions is not how successful mean one of two things. Either commanders in chief behave in Obama is a poor war president, wartime,” says Max Boot, author at least in the current pre-war of Invisible Armies: An Epic His- stage, or he’s an altogether differ- tory of Guerrilla Warfare from ent kind of war president. Ancient Times to the Present. In his World War II memoirs, Hayward adds: “Reagan had Winston Churchill offered this one important rule that Obama lesson: “In war, resolution; in has already fl unked: Never say defeat, defi ance; in victory, mag- ‘never.’ Privately Reagan was ada- nanimity; in peace, good will.” mant that he’d never put ‘boots Being resolute—that is, steadfast on the ground’ in Nicaragua, but and determined—comes fi rst. It publicly he’d never admit this, is normally regarded as a critical on the sensible ground that it component of success. was better for our enemies to be Obama and resolve don’t worried that we might. That fear seem to mix. As the death toll helped make our limited actions Obama contemplating a bust of Jimmy Carter in the Syrian civil war mounted, more effective.” he opposed American intervention. and announced he would seek the One could argue that Obama had Then, in an offhand remark a year approval of Congress. An attack, if no choice but to disavow the use of ago, he said his policy would change if there is to be one, could be postponed ground troops. Otherwise the resolu- the Assad regime crossed a “red line” for weeks, jeopardizing what’s known tion authorizing force would lose in and used chemical weapons. Still, he as “peak” military readiness. Congress. But this pitfall was avoid- ignored unsubstantiated reports of gas Earlier, in June, the White House able. Obama believes, correctly, he has attacks that Secretary of State John announced it would send small arms the authority, as president, to order the Kerry said numbered in the “teens.” and munitions to the Syrian reb- bombing and dispatch troops. Con- He decided to act only when Ameri- els. By early September, however, no gressional consent is optional. can intelligence confi rmed an esti- weapons had reached the rebels. As Allied commander in World mated 1,400 people had been killed in So hesitation, delay, and unreli- War II, Dwight Eisenhower felt a gas attack by the Syrian military on ability are the hallmarks of Obama’s he was obliged to be upbeat. If he August 21. approach to Syria, for now. This appeared doubtful or downbeat in amounts to presidential “feckless- public, it would be interpreted as a Fred Barnes is an executive editor ness,” says Steven F. Hayward, author sign of alarm about the war’s prog-

at THE WEEKLY STANDARD. of Greatness: Reagan, Churchill, and the ress. War presidents have the same THOMAS FLUHARTY

16 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 obligation. Yet Obama talks about Syria resolution was being debated subordinates the task of lobbying how “weary of war” he and the Amer- in Congress? Sweden wasn’t likely to antiwar Democrats in Congress, with- ican people are. help. It was neutral in World War II. out whose votes the resolution may “We’ve ended one war in Iraq,” he Thus it was no surprise that Prime fail. And he’s handed Kerry the lead said in his Rose Garden announce- Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt declined role—the presidential role, I’d say—in ment about congressional authori- to endorse Obama-style military promoting the resolution and defend- zation. “We’re ending another in intervention in Syria. ing “limited” bombing of Syria. Afghanistan. And the American peo- The visit to Sweden could have I’ve concluded Obama doesn’t ple have the good sense to know we been rescheduled without diplomatic want to be a war president. But in cannot resolve the underlying confl ict repercussion. And Obama’s next stop, his desire to bomb Syria—an act of in Syria with our military.” The mes- the G20 summit in Moscow, could war— he’s become a war president. sage, whatever the president’s inten- have been abbreviated. Or skipped. Now he needs to act like one. There’s tion, was: I’m tired and I can’t achieve Instead, the president left to still time. ♦ much in Syria anyway. “Saying ‘I am war-weary’ is an appalling thing to do,” says Eliot Cohen, whose book Supreme Com- mand examines four successful war- The Louisiana GOP time leaders (Lincoln, Clémenceau, Churchill, Ben-Gurion). “Num- ber One has to look confi dent, self- Gains a Convert assured, positive without conveying an impression of irrational optimism. Above all, he can never, ever feel sorry Elbert Lee Guillory, Cajun noir. for himself—or, indeed, anyone else.” In Sweden last week, Obama BY MICHAEL WARREN couldn’t stifl e his self-pity. They don’t understand him at home, he sug- New Orleans “Went to Baton Rouge and came back gested. “If I were here in Europe, I’d e suis un Cajun noir,” Elbert Lee with his pockets stuffed with cash, probably be considered right in the Guillory, the 69-year-old state driving a Cadillac.” Guillory regis- middle, maybe center-left, maybe cen- ‘J senator from Opelousas, Loui- tered as a Democrat and won his fi rst ter-right, depending on the country. siana, tells me proudly. “I am a black race for the statehouse in a special In the United States sometimes the Cajun.” To which he might these days election. He went on to win reelection names I’m called are quite different.” add, “Je suis un Républicain noir—I am and two subsequent elections to the At this point, the White House tran- a black Republican.” Louisiana senate. script noted “(laughter).” On May 31, Guillory became the But by his 2011 campaign, Guil- Nor could the president resist a first black Louisianan to serve at lory was the only sitting Democratic hairsplitting case that he hadn’t drawn the state or federal level as a Repub- senator not to receive the standard the “red line” in Syria. “The world lican since Reconstruction. In truth, fi nancial contribution from the state set the red line,” he claimed, citing he was a Republican before running party. Always among the most con- the treaty banning chemical weapons. for the statehouse in 2007, serving on servative members of the Democratic That wasn’t all. Forget the notion his the party’s St. Landry Parish com- caucus, Guillory had been voting credibility is “on the line” in Syria. mittee and the state committee. But with the Republicans more often Nope, it’s Congress and the “interna- when he decided to run for offi ce in than with the Democrats, who had tional community” whose credibility his majority black, majority Demo- been following the national party’s is, according to Obama. cratic district, having an “R” by his liberal lead on social issues like life, What he gained from airing these name would have done him no favors. school choice, and gun ownership. distinctions is anyone’s guess. It Besides, he says, his goal was to take “All of the core values that I held didn’t improve the prospect of pas- down what he considered the corrupt and my community held, my family sage in Congress of his use-of-force regime of the local Democratic family held,” Guillory says. “As they moved resolution. And it’s hard to imagine in power, headed by Don Cravins Sr. farther and farther away, what was Franklin Roosevelt or Churchill, both “He left Opelousas driving a Chev- kind of a tenuous relationship anyway models of wartime leadership, quib- rolet,” Guillory says of his archrival. became tense and rancorous.” bling over such trivialities during He won reelection and continued World War II. Michael Warren is a staff writer caucusing with the Democrats but But what, one might ask, was the at THE WEEKLY STANDARD and a 2012 says he felt increasingly alienated president doing in Sweden while his Robert Novak journalism fellow. from what he now calls the “party

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 17 of disappointment.” Republicans him as a Republican,” says Jindal. “It for freedom, praising the idea that “the had been trying to woo him back for didn’t change who he was. It wasn’t individual must be free to pursue his or years, and his defection was immi- like he woke up one day and changed her own happiness, free from govern- nent by this spring, when the Loui- his positions on policies.” ment dependence and free from gov- siana Democratic party chairwoman, Jason Doré, the executive director of ernment control.” state senator Karen Carter Peterson, the Louisiana GOP, says Guillory’s sta- The video went as viral as a four- added the fi nal straw while debating tus as a prominent black elected offi - minute-plus political manifesto can, Republicans opposed to Obamacare’s cial has benefi ted the party as it seeks getting more than 900,000 views Medicaid expansion. to make inroads in the state’s large on YouTube. Fox News personali- “It’s not about how many federal African-American community (the ties Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto dollars we can receive. It’s not about highest percentage in the country after invited Guillory onto their programs. that. You ready? It’s about race,” said neighboring Mississippi). He’s already He made a trip to Washington, meet- Peterson, who is black, on the fl oor done seven town hall events on behalf ing with groups like the Heritage of the senate on May 28. “I know of the state party and is expected to Foundation and the House’s Repub- nobody wants to talk about that. It’s participate in more throughout the fall. lican Study Committee. about the race of this Afri- All the attention from can-American president.” conservatives in Louisiana Peterson’s remarks and across the country has touched off a firestorm, Guillory thinking about his with national papers and political future. He won’t be cable news picking up the up for reelection until 2015, story. But most pertinent for but it’s unlikely his district Guillory was the reaction of will vote for a Republican, his centenarian mother. She even a black one. Guillory was furious. might be better off running “My mom calls me and statewide, perhaps for lieu- says, ‘Elbert Lee, I heard tenant governor. He’s indi- this. You’re not any part of cated he may be interested in that, are you? You’re not the job, but political observ- saying anything like this, ers close to him suggest he are you?’ ” Guillory says. may consider jumping into “That was the last nudge the 2014 campaign for U.S. that I needed.” Senate. That seat’s held by A few days later, at a vulnerable Democrat Mary gathering of black conser- Elbert Lee Guillory in the Louisiana senate chamber Landrieu, and Republican vatives in Baton Rouge, House member Bill Cas- Guillory announced he had become But it’s outside Louisiana that Guil- sidy is already in the race. But a small a Republican. “We must educate our lory’s star has risen most rapidly. A few number of Louisiana conservatives say people and show them that there is days after his switch, he released a web they are unhappy with Cassidy and an alternative to the direction that video that he says was meant to explain are seeking a more conservative alter- the nation is being led in today,” to his constituents why he became a native. Guillory could fi t the bill, and Guillory told the crowd. “Today, the Republican, aptly titled “Why I Am besides, having him as one of two black party of disappointment has moved a Republican.” Filmed in the empty Republicans running for Senate next away from the majority of Louisi- state senate chamber, the slick video year (along with South Carolina’s Tim anans and away from the traditional features the well-dressed, soft-spoken Scott) might not be bad for a national values of America.” Guillory speaking directly into the party looking to broaden its appeal. Guillory says Democrats were prob- camera about his switch. Guillory won’t say what he’s think- ably happy to see him leave, while the “It is the right decision, not only for ing, though he says he hears from GOP welcomed him with open arms, me but for all my brothers and sisters people asking him to run for either mostly because they considered him in the black community,” he says. “You lieutenant governor or senator “every one of their own already. Republi- see, in recent history, the Democrat single day.” can governor Bobby Jindal, who calls party has created the illusion that their “If the coach calls me up,” he says, Guillory a friend and a “great leader,” agenda and their policies are what’s pointing heavenward, “and says, pushed to have him tapped as chair- best for black people.” ‘Guillory, I’m putting you into this man of the senate committee on retir- Guillory argues against what he calls position or that position,’ then I’ll be ees when he was still a Democrat. the Democrats’ agenda of dependency ready to do that. But I’ll wait for the

“I liked him as a Democrat. I like for blacks and touts the GOP’s respect coach to call.” ♦ / LANDOV TIMES-PICAYUNE

18 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 The Last 24 Notes Tom Day and the volunteer buglers who play ‘Taps’ at veterans’ funerals across America

BY MATT LABASH When Day was a 10-year-old kid, steeped in the thriving drum and bugle corps culture of mid-century Chicago, he Berwyn, Ill. fi rst volunteered to blow “Taps” for a returning Korean War om Day is not a man given to extravagance. casualty. Since then, he has personally played over 5,000 He thinks he’s living high on a reporter’s funerals. All on his own, with no recompense from the mili- nickel if he orders a beef sandwich to go tary or from the family for whom he is playing. On average, at the local Buona sub shop. He shops at he estimates, it costs him about fi ve hours for every funeral, Goodwill every Sunday, hoping to pick from the time he turns the ignition in his driveway until the Tup bargains, like his handsome $35 suits. But if there’s time he returns home. one superfl uity that Day especially can’t abide, it is that of He always arrives early to “fi nd my echo” (sizing up empty rhetoric. the acoustics of the church There’s been a lot of or cemetery for desired talk about “the troops” the effect), though “in 5,000 last many years: Support- funerals,” he says, “I think ing The Troops. Hugging only four were on time.” The Troops. Splitting A And then there’s the addi- Malt With The Troops. (At tional time he spends prac- least when not Forgetting ticing his bugle, getting The Troops, hurriedly pag- a haircut, polishing his ing past the “Faces of the brass, shining his shoes, Fallen” feature in your local making sure there’s no paper to get to the movie fi nger print smudges on the listings.) The talk usually bill of his lid. It’s essential comes from helmet-haired to “be squared away,” as he cable anchors or men with puts it, ever the Marine, in soft hands who type things order to pay proper respect for a living. They use those both to the deceased and who serve like polemical A Bugles Across America volunteer their families. Doing the mascots, to run up the score math, one fi gures Day has either for or against the war of the moment. But to Tom spent a good three solid years of his life standing at the Day, “duty . . . honor . . . sacrifi ce” aren’t just Memorial Day gravesides of strangers, blowing the last 24 notes they’ll buzzwords that trigger the Pavlovian anticipation of picnic ever have played for them above ground. foods and mattress-outlet sales. But what to some might seem like a nice gesture or a They are words that actually require something of him, morbid hobby was transformed into high calling in 2000. the dwindling resource you can’t buy more of: time. For the It was then that federal legislation passed stipulating that 73-year-old former Marine serves those who serve. Or rather, every honorably discharged veteran had the right to at least he serves those who have served. Day is the man who, both two uniformed military personnel to fold and present the on his own and through the 7,500-plus volunteers in the fl ag, and to sound “Taps” at their funeral. Day thought this organization he founded, Bugles Across America, has saved was good. The bad news, the fi ne print added, was that if a the tradition of playing live “Taps” at military funerals. bugler could not be found, a recording should be used. Finding a live bugler proved a mathematical impossi- Matt Labash is a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD. bility. With 1,800 vets dying every day (at one point, World

20 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 War II veterans were dying at the rate of one every two min- bugles in use throughout the military, and in 2010, they utes), the military had only 500 buglers to share the load. were responsible for “Taps” sounding at 185,000 of 236,000 Day estimates there’s considerably fewer now, with gen- requested military funerals. But to many vets’ families, eral cutbacks and sequestration. Honor guards were thus hearing human players on real horns is still important. initially directed to bring boom boxes to funerals, looking And Day’s friends at the Pentagon now tell him that his to stealthily place CD players behind tombstones, as they Bugles Across America (BAA) is covering around 35 per- prayed the disc didn’t skip or scratch, that the batteries cent of all live “Taps” playing throughout the nation, mak- didn’t fail, or worst of all, that instead of “Taps,” they hit the ing BAA perhaps the most desirable subcontractor ever, as wrong track and accidentally played “Reveille.” “Sounds its service doesn’t cost the military a penny. funny, but it’s happened,” Day growls. Day originally recruited horn players through his To add greater insult, the Defense Department then national network of friends, from a life spent around introduced what it calls “ceremonial bugles.” In the ven- drum and bugle corps, as well as in the military (Day erable Pentagon procurement tradition of the $435 ham- pulled an eight-year hitch in the Marine Corps, and later mer or the $600 toilet seat, the digital bugles cost $530 did a stint with the Navy Reserve after the Marines said a throw, and many purists/people- he was too old when, in his for- with-taste consider them abomina- ties, he tried to reenlist). “March- tions. Day’s volunteers, when they The digital bugles cost ing and music are my life,” Day call them anything printable, tend $530 a throw. Day’s says. In his spare time, as a retired to refer to these as “fake bugles,” state lottery worker, Day still does while Day himself just calls it volunteers tend to refer everything from judging the music “The Device.” As one Navy musi- to them as ‘fake bugles.’ units of JROTC groups for Chicago cian tells me, “This is it, it’s the last As one Navy musician schools to helping organize the song. Your veteran is dead. And it tells me, ‘This is it, city’s Memorial Day parade. looks like you’re playing him off it’s the last song. Your BAA started attracting media with something from Toys’R’Us.” attention shortly after 9/11. He was The digital bugle allows a funeral veteran is dead. And it on the front page of the Wall Street detail to hold up what looks like a looks like you’re playing Journal and on the network news. real instrument. But in its bell is him off with something The pieces helped swell his ranks. a cone-shaped, battery-powered elec- from Toys’R’Us.’ But the nonprofit operation, run tronic insert that with the push of a on a donor-based shoestring bud- button, plays a recorded version of get out of Day’s cramped basement “Taps” that sounds tinny with the reverb of a studio record- in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn, turns mostly on word- ing. “Buglers,” who are often just the fl ag-folders or other of-mouth: from funeral directors, stretched-thin military honor guard personnel who can’t play an instrument, are honor guards, and with direct requests from families who instructed to hold the device to their lips, in a pantomime want some momentousness lent to the last moments they’ll of playing. Internet videos and photos abound of faux- spend with their loved one. buglers holding the instrument to their nose, upside down, I meet Day one summer morning at his working-class or outstretched like a smelly fi sh. Often, “players” are not burglar-barred bungalow. All silver-haired and square- getting their mouthpiece to their lips in time after pushing angled, his fi re-hydrant build is still gunnery-sergeant the button. Or they might even put down the horn, mid- solid from the daily morning workouts he puts in on his song, after the insert malfunctions. It’s military funeral ski machine and Ab Coaster. His house, however, seems an honors, Milli Vanilli-edition. unlikely nerve-center for “Taps” HQ. The dining room is “God, that’s kind of stupid,” Day said to himself of the arrayed with American Girl dolls, which his third-grade- new policy. “So I called up the Pentagon and said, look, I’ll teacher wife collects. There’s also an ever-growing mob of fi nd some horn players for you.” The Pentagon’s attitude, stuffed pandas, which they both fi nd captivating. “I don’t he says, was initially a humoring, “Okay, you go ahead and know what the hell to do with them all,” says Day. “But I do that, bugle boy.” To which Day said, “Yeah, that’s what I like pandas. They’re black and white.” am.” And so, Day knew what he had to do. Descending into his wood-paneled basement offi ce with a low drop-ceiling, every square inch seems to be compet- early 8,000 volunteer “Taps” players later, Day ing with the next for justifi cation. Everything is in its place. has done just that. To be sure, it’s a drop in the Still, it is wall-to-wall exercise equipment and military col- N bucket. At last count, there were 16,000 digital lectibles (toy soldiers, uniform hats on mannequin heads)

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 21 and musical paraphernalia (bugles and trumpets, bugle- guy catches her in midfl ight,” he marvels. “She’s kicking shaped lamps, the lyrics to the old Shaker hymn “Simple her feet and everything. I thought, ‘Holy God.’ Luckily, I Gifts” papering the wall), with gobs more random memo- played before she did the jump.” rabilia (model cars, Grease posters and dolls, more pandas). Then there was the woman who approached the casket, It is here where he oversees BAA, keeping in touch with looked at her deceased loved one, and started screaming, his 50 state directors, all of whom are volunteers, arrang- running frantically to and fro. “I thought she was going to ing to send horns he buys off eBay to players in need, or to fall,” Day says. “I put my horn down, grabbed her, and said, audition new players over the phone. Day is not dictatorial, ‘What’s the matter?’ ” and is even eager to spread the publicity around. “Do good “That’s not my mother,” said the woman. “They’ve got things and tell people about it,” he tells recruits. The more the wrong person in the casket.” people know, the more will join, he fi gures. Another time, when Day was fi ring a three-shot salute But the one thing neither he nor his state direc- in honor of the deceased (in addition to playing “Taps,” tors will countenance is players who can’t blow a clean he often brings his own World War II-era M-1 rifl es for “Taps.” The performance is too high-stakes to gamble on. such purposes), the bayonet shot off, arced high into Day himself, ironically, doesn’t the air, then descended in what even read music—perhaps one looked like slow-motion, impal- of the only people inducted into ‘Taps’ by Tom Day ing the ground just six inches the Buglers Hall of Fame who from the priest’s foot. The priest can’t. But he puts a premium on later congratulated Day for han- musicianship. He has an eccen- dling the mishap gracefully, say- tric Vietnam vet in Florida who ‘Taps’ by G.P. ‘Chip’ Stickler ing, “I can’t wait to get back to calls about every month to audi- Aurora to tell the nuns how the tion. He fails every time. Day bugle player tried to kill me.” sent him a horn just to be nice, Day tells these stories with but he still won’t let him play The audio fi les embedded here are intended lightness, but takes no vet’s to be accessible to readers who have opened BAA funerals. “This is a onetime funeral lightly. Though most of this document in Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader. deal, and it’d better be good,” the time he’s playing for stran- They also can be found at weeklystandard.com. says Day. gers, he writes down the name of Once a player makes the cut, each one of the deceased in a log he or she is put in the BAA database. When an email request that he keeps on his desk, as though attempting not to for- from BAA’s website comes in—and they’re constantly get the people he’s never known. Some funerals are easier to streaming in (50 or so do on the day that I’m at his house)— remember than others. all horn players within a 100-mile radius of the request are Day has spent the bulk of his adult life teaching kids informed, and someone usually steps up to play the funeral, the ins and outs of drum and bugle corps. (In the seventies, sometimes driving hundreds of miles at his own expense. when living in California, he even helped cofound the Ana- Day’s players run the gamut. They are former military, as heim Kingsmen, who went on to win the fi rst Drum Corps well as lifetime civilians. Ages have ranged from 11 to 102. International world championship.) About a decade ago, They’ve been construction workers and chefs and songwrit- Day coached a group of Boy Scouts in a drum and bugle ers for the Oak Ridge Boys. They play in all manner of con- corps in nearby River Forest. The Scouts aged out and ditions, from a scorching golf course in Mesa, Arizona, to a moved on. Some even joined the military. frigid cemetery in Erie, Pennsylvania, where 40 angry geese But one day, about fi ve years ago, Day was about to play erupted from under a snow drift during a 21-gun salute. a funeral. One of his former Scouts, Joshua Harris, came to Day himself has seen all manner of curiosities at funer- the funeral, and said, “Hey Gunny, can I play ‘Echo Taps’ als, and relates the grim particulars with the gallows smirk with you?” He had learned “Taps” from Day, himself. They of a man who has spent much time around death. He played together that day. Then played a couple more funer- respects it, but unlike the amateur, is not made overly rev- als together. erential by its presence. There was the woman at the black Six months later, Josh, now 21, shipped out for Afghani- church who, in a highly emotional state, tried to jump into stan. “He was riding in his vehicle,” says Day. “They blew the casket with her veteran uncle. “She jumped like a half- the front end off. He and his buddy were killed. His parents back would over the line into the end zone. They were tak- called me to play. I thought, ‘Holy mackerel.’ But I’ve got to ing the casket out, and she wanted to be in there,” he says. do it.” Day told his wife, Donna, to stand graveside beside A burly funeral director was standing beside it. “The big him with water, “in case I fall apart.” While a military bugler

22 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 usually plays “Taps” in about 40 seconds, Day believes in on, says Day, it was: “If you have a job, give it to Tom.” playing slow, taking up to a minute and 10 seconds, wring- Which is how it went in the corporate world as well. ing the sad, sweet melancholy out of every last note. In a lengthy postmilitary career that involved a series of He was worried he’d chip a note, bugler-speak for screw- jobs in the fi nancial sector, one of his fi rst was working ing up, as John F. Kennedy’s “Taps” bugler, Keith White, for a seedy small-loan company, where the former Marine famously did, after standing in the drizzle for three hours at was drafted to do collections in Cabrini-Green, once con- Arlington National Cemetery while waiting to play. Some sidered the city’s most dangerous housing project. Figur- called White’s a mistake, but Day prefers to think of it as a ing he could use some rosary beads while praying for his “bugler’s tear.” With Josh’s family and many of the former safety, he stopped in at a religious store. There, he noticed 14-year-olds from Josh’s old Scout troop in attendance, Day cleric’s collars on sale for seven bucks. “Give me two,” he tried with all his might to play “Taps” for the kid that he’d told the clerk. After that, he did collections as “Father taught to play “Taps”: “I got that fi rst note out. A couple Tom.” Not only did he never get roughed up. But some of people started crying. The next phrase—more people. By the neighborhood toughs even guarded his car. the time I fi nished notes 22, 23, and 24, at least 100 people Each morning, after working out on the Ab Coaster, were crying. And me, too. That was but before practicing his bugle, something. That was really some- Day walks for three blocks around thing. That was the worst funeral his neighborhood with his daugh- I’ve ever done. And that includes ter, donning rubber gloves to pick my mom’s and dad’s.” up trash and the used prophylac- tics discarded by amorous visitors enerally speaking, Day is who’d parked there the night before. a glass-half-full kind of Most would curse God, or at least G guy. He was introduced the local police. But Day counts it to music as a 7-year-old. His father a blessing that at least such reckless Joe (whom Day still idolizes) was people are using birth control. a swashbuckling Marine biplane The daughter, 31-year-old Julie, gunner and pilot who died at 92. still lives with Day and his wife. He did everything from sparring She has cerebral palsy, autism, and with Joe Louis to swimming with an inoperable cyst on her brain. I Johnny Weissmuller to helping spend several hours with her while start the Civil Air Patrol in Illi- Tom Day and a photo of himself with his father I’m at Day’s. She’s funny and lively. nois in the forties. But his greatest in their Civil Air Patrol days She calls her dad “Uncle Tom,” just feat, in Tom’s eyes, might’ve been because, he says, “it pisses me off.” the time he safely landed his Luscombe Silvaire in the She’s adopted his PG-13 gunny-sergeant language—every tractor furrows of a cornfi eld without even telling his son other exclamation taking the form of “What the hell?” that they’d run out of gas. And she’s known, when riding down the road with Day, to When his father drove Day up to the Norwood Park fl ip an index fi nger instead of the bird, confusing passing Fieldhouse for his fi rst round of drum and bugle corps prac- motorists who look up to the sky, as though she’s directing tice, he eased the reluctant boy out of the car, then quickly their attention to something that they’re missing. drove away. Day was given a pair of decrepit cymbals. Julie is also a rich diet. She tries to fi nish Day’s sen- “They were the cruddiest things,” he recalls, but “I thought, tences and shoves papers at him, attempting fruitlessly to oh, this is great, because I liked to shine shoes.” Day took be helpful while he’s being interviewed by me. She boosts a the cymbals home and shined them up for hours with glass camera case out of my reporting bag, and it’s not altogether wax and brasso, playing them until his parents’ ears bled. clear she intends to give it back. Day says that at one point, “There’s something about taking a piece of crap, and a few years ago, she started shattering picture frames, using making it look good.” the glass to cut herself for whatever reason. When he took In one way or another, that’s what Day’s been doing her to a doctor-recommended shrink, the shrink tossed his whole life. In the Marines, he arrived at Parris Island them from his offi ce, insisting brusquely that he couldn’t already knowing how to take apart and reassemble an M-1 treat people with “special needs.” with his eyes closed. His drill instructor wanted to know “Come on, Julie,” Day said. “We’re doing this on our what gives. “I grew up in Chicago,” he told him. “We all own.”

THE WEEKLY STANDARD / MATT LABASH / MATT STANDARD THE WEEKLY had M-1s.” His DI said, “Okay, wiseguy.” But from then Day adjusted her meds, with experimentation, and she

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 23 is no longer cutting herself. She’s even started coming to “I’m scared every day, because what am I gonna do? How funerals with him again. He’s brought her to 65 or so, over am I gonna have her squared away?” Day has made arrange- the years. By this point, he says, she knows how the fl ag ments with the group Helping Hands, an organization that should be folded, and corrects the honor guard if she thinks assists people with disabilities. So she’ll have a place to live. they’re standing in the wrong place. He says it’s important But on a deeper level, he says, “You realize that, hey, not to take Julie to these places, to expose her to life. every cylinder is working in the right fashion. But she’s my I tell Tom that this sounds like a curious thing—expos- daughter, and I love her. And the only way I can show her ing Julie to life by having her stand graveside as he plays that I love her is to accept her and have her help with cer- “Taps.” Day says it’s not as strange as it sounds. She loves tain projects. My theory is if I take her every place I go, and the ceremony and watching expose her to all kinds of peo- her dad play. She likes col- ple, that whatever sinks in is lecting pinecones in the cem- I tell Tom that this sounds how I can educate her on sur- etery for her mother’s school like a curious thing—exposing vival when I’m gone.” projects. And it’s essential to Julie to life by having her stand Julie already knows how him that she see her old man graveside as he plays ‘Taps.’ Day wants to go. He wishes to bring comfort to others in be cremated, his ashes com- their darkest hour by “putting Day says it’s not as strange as it mingled with his father’s, warm breath through metal.” sounds. She loves the ceremony both of them “dumped over a He wants her to under- and watching her dad play. She wall down at Abraham Lin- stand that important things sees her old man bring comfort to coln National Cemetery. Not take time and real effort. others in their darkest hour. in the ground. Not in a con- Many choose push-button tainer or anything. Just out. convenience. “You’ve got your Because I’ve done a lot of phone, and your digital bugle, funerals there. I want to be and you’re all automated,” with all the guys I’ve buried.” he says. “Get the job done as The sound of this makes quickly as you can with the Julie strangely buoyant, as least amount of problems,” she’s watched Day play away Day says, mocking the digi- plenty of them. “You’re going tal bugler. “ ‘Oh, I did three to be like coffee [grounds], funerals today and pressed Uncle Tom!” she cheers. a button, and by golly, I sure feel good at the end of the day.’ n a muggy August Well, that’s their feeling, not afternoon, I enter mine. I put some air through O the grounds of a horn. I show up in perfect Gate of Heaven Cemetery uniform. And I help that fam- Day with daughter Julie in his memorabilia-fi lled basement in Silver Spring, Maryland. ily get through that fi nal time Since Day didn’t have any with their veteran. You got your digital, you jumped in the funerals scheduled while I was in Chicago, I’ve come car and drove off. But there’s no feeling, there’s no heart.” to see BAA in action and am here to meet G. P. “Chip” Day stays until the bitter end of each funeral, every Stickler, Day’s Maryland state director. Chip, a former single time. He stays until after the fl ag is presented, and jazz studio musician, is the instrumental music instruc- friends and family head to their cars. Though when invited tor at Broadfording Christian Academy in Hagerstown. I to a post-funeral meal by the family, he always declines. He get there an hour early. But Chip, crisply attired in BAA’s wants their last memory to be of him playing perfectly, not dress uniform after driving 80 miles on his own dime, got of “me getting spaghetti down the front of my uniform.” there an hour earlier still, to warm up and fi nd his echo, “Taps,” he says, “is my 24-note prayer. The preacher can with the brass and nickel-silver of his custom-made Bach talk. But my prayer for this veteran is my music.” Stradivarius bugle gleaming in the sun. Day also wants Julie to see his “Taps”-playing life, We’re joined by two of BAA’s youngest comers, “the because Day is afraid of death. Not of his own end, neces- future,” Chip calls them. Both bugle for their Boy Scout sarily. But of how she’ll cope once he’s gone. Lately, at 73, troops. There’s 11-year-old Avi Chittum, who wears tzitzit

he’s feeling the ruthless reminder of the actuarial tables. under his Boy Scout uniform. He cut out early from his LABASH / MATT STANDARD IMAGES: THE WEEKLY

24 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 Hebrew academy on the fi rst day of school to be here today. before the minister even does his part. I’m told military hon- And there’s 13-year-old Jonah Mittelstadt, also in his Scout ors were uncharacteristically conducted at the beginning, uniform, who says, “I’ve always wanted to honor my coun- so they wouldn’t have to sit through the entire service. The try, and this is a great way to do that.” When Jonah said world waits for no man, even at his own funeral. he wanted to play “Taps” for vets at funerals, his parents After the service concludes, the pesky journalist in me took it seriously enough that they made him practice for is still itching to connect to Scordato’s story, to hang his life a year before even letting him audition for Chip (which on some sort of narrative hook. Who was he? What did his he passed). Though the boys bring their horns, they’re military hitch look like? What did it all add up to? just observing today. Chip dispenses all sorts of tricks of But putting his horn away, Chip doesn’t seem as pressed. the trade to the boys: how to stand at parade rest, why you He often doesn’t know much about who he’s playing for. The should rub dryer sheets all over your head before playing important thing is that he plays for all of them. Chip him- (to keep the gnats out of your nose). But he tells me he’ll self has never served, so this is the covenant he keeps. He probably have the boys observing funerals for a good year plays for young men who die on the battlefi eld, and old men before they’re allowed to fl y solo. With the task at hand, who die in nursing homes. He plays for war heroes, and he there’s no such thing as too much preparation. plays for desk jockeys. “I have played funerals with 500 peo- Before the funeral party ple there, and I have played arrives, a three-person Coast where it’s just the preacher Guard honor team does. and me,” he says. “And I They look fresh-scrubbed don’t care if there’s nobody and nearly as young as the there but me. I will be there Boy Scouts. They go through to do that funeral. If we are flag-folding dry runs, and requested, we are there.” coordinate with Chip on his When nobody shows, cue to play. Chip and the Chip says, “It’s a very boys then take their positions sad thing. I don’t know if about 75 feet away, next to a he wasn’t well-liked, or cemetery border hedged with if he simply had no one to Leyland Cypresses, doing its grieve for him. Funerals are best to blunt the busy indif- not a fun job. But they’re a ference of a nearby offi ce park rewarding job. Because you and Taco Bell and Kohl’s. are honoring something that A group of 15 or so was done for you whether friends and family arrive. G. P. ‘Chip’ Stickler and apprentices you realize it or not. In this They have gathered today to day and age, there are peo- bury Frank Scordato, who was a U.S. Coast Guard ensign. ple who simply couldn’t give a rat’s patoot about the mil- Since I’m asked by Chip to stay a fair distance away, out of itary. But let me tell you something—if it wasn’t for the respect for the family, and since it’s bad form to interview military, they wouldn’t have the freedom not to care. And funeral attendees when you aren’t technically invited, I that’s something we have to look at from an honor stand- know no other details of the man’s life, including the age point. Whether you like them, whether you hate them— at which he died. The Washington Post death notice was no they put it on the line. It’s up to us to honor them.” help, and when I ask Chip for more biographical details, he With that, Chip starts up his Chevy Equinox with the says, “You know what I know.” “Bugler on Duty” decal on the door. He pulls out of Gate of Chip gets his cue, and with the Scouts by his side, he Heaven, past the Kohl’s and Taco Bell, to head 80 miles back blows a clean, mournful “Taps.” Like Day, he plays it slow, home. As I watch him go, after witnessing him carry out holding out a full eight-count between each bar. “As a piece the unique mission of the “Taps” player—one of removed of music,” Chip tells me, “It’s not hard. Yet it’s the hardest intimacy, putting the fi nal, perfect notes of punctuation on possible thing to play. It’s basically a chord. But when you’re a story that he hasn’t read—I’m reminded of the words of playing that as a trumpet player, you’re not concentrating on General Black Jack Logan, the father of Memorial Day, who the arpeggio but on the man in the casket. That makes it the in his 1868 order wrote: hardest 24 notes.” If other eyes grow dull, and other hands slack, and other hearts The honor guard doesn’t seem as emotionally freighted. cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well, as long as the light After folding and presenting the fl ag, they’re off to the car and warmth of life remain in us. ♦

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 25 The Muddle East Every idea President Obama had about pacifying the Muslim world turned out to be wrong

BY REUEL MARC GERECHT no longer has an American buffer against Iran’s far greater strength. If American airpower were still in Baghdad, f Congress refuses to support American military Tehran could not resupply Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah action against the Assad regime in Syria, and Presi- by air, and the Assad regime would lose the two resources dent Barack Obama declines to strike or strikes most critical to its survival. Al Qaeda and Islamic militancy meekly, will American power—that marriage of will, in general seem to have grown stronger globally even though resources, and perception—be diminished in the radical preachers can no longer denounce “American crusad- IMiddle East? If so, will the ramifi cations be severe? Could ers” along the Tigris and Euphrates. Al Qaeda now boasts, President Obama, like Iran-sanctions-supporting liber- along with Iran and its militant Iraqi allies, that it drove the als and conservatives who don’t want to intervene in Syria, Americans out of the country. skip this Levantine war and nevertheless come out swinging And then there is the Great Arab Revolt, which has against the nuke-seeking mullahs of the Islamic Republic? discombobulated the administration. Even in Libya, Might the triumph of Sunni jihadists in Syria actually be where the White House fi nally used some force “from worse than Bashar al-Assad’s survival? behind” our European allies to down Muammar Qaddafi , When it comes to the Middle East, Obama’s presidency it followed through with so discreet a footprint as to leave has largely been predicated on two ideas: A hegemonic American facilities and personnel in Benghazi at the mercy America is a bad thing, and the second Iraq war was a seri- of lightly armed Islamic radicals. ous mistake. We and Middle Eastern Muslims would coexist In Egypt, the administration’s confused response— more harmoniously, so Obama has thought, if Washington from the fall of Hosni Mubarak to the military coup were less bellicose. The fi ght against al Qaeda and support against Mohammad Morsi—has left America seeming for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process—once, and per- hapless, duplicitous, and weak. Any American president haps still, the epicenter of the president’s understanding of would have been in trouble in Egypt, but Obama’s sen- the region—would both advance if Washington were more sibilities—his early friendly outreach to Muslim despots dovish and reticent in the Middle East. The president’s and Iran, his reluctance to apply pressure to authoritarian vaunted 2009 Cairo speech, which was coolly received by Muslim rulers, and his obvious discomfort with the moral secular Egyptian democratic dissidents, the Muslim Broth- challenges of American power—made him particularly erhood, and the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, was the diffi dent. George W. Bush, the born-again American lib- personal outreach of a man who really believed that he, with erator who destroyed the Arab world’s most savage tyrant his mixed race and religious pedigree, was an ambassador and unleashed a tidal wave of confl icting emotions in the to a new age of better relations between Islam and the West. Middle East about imperialism, dictatorship, democracy, Time has been unkind to Obama. The American with- Arabism, and sectarian identity, is nearly forgotten in the drawal from Iraq has not left that country better off. Political region—except in Iraq. Barack Obama is now the Ameri- violence has risen as the United States’ mitigating infl uence can everyone in the region loves to hate. on internal politics, especially Prime Minister Nouri al-Mali- But what the withdrawal from Iraq started and the Great ki’s authoritarian proclivities, evaporated. Sunni terrorism Arab Revolt accelerated, the war in Syria has pushed into led by al Qaeda has skyrocketed. Iraq’s Shiite community, overdrive: the omnipresent perception in the Middle East of recovering slowly from Saddam Hussein’s depredations, American listlessness. In part, this is what President Obama intended. He wanted Middle Eastern Muslims to stop view- Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at the ing the United States as a looming hegemon maintaining Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a contributing editor a certain (unfriendly) order. He didn’t envision, however, to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, and the author of The Wave: how messy things could become as the Great Arab Revolt Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East. worked its way through the region. The United States and

26 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 Europe needed to lean in, to encourage patiently, with rhet- war (1980-88). Saudi Arabia, which backed Iraq, decisively oric, resources, and when necessary coercion, movement won that engagement. The Great Arab Revolt has forced toward a basic democratic order, and not to fear the omni- Tehran to fi ght the second round early, before its nuclear present Muslim complaint about Western intrusion. Ask an program produced a bomb. American, European, or Middle Easterner (including Israe- If Iran loses Syria, it loses 34 years of westward-look- lis) to identify an American national-security interest from ing foreign policy that sought to make the Islamic Repub- Morocco to Iran that President Obama would unhesitat- lic a player in the war against Israel and, more important, ingly fi ght for. The president probably would rally to Israel, the war against the West’s (read America’s) “cancerous” yet it’s not easy to pinpoint even that case with confi dence. intrusion into the Middle East. It loses its all-critical life- The Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical line to Hezbollah, the only true child of the Islamic Revo- weapons certainly isn’t one. Take away drones and substi- lution. Already, the dominant position of Hezbollah within tute American Special Forces, and even the battle against al Lebanese society is in question. Spiritually, it’s impossible Qaeda wouldn’t be a sure thing. Neither is stopping Iran’s to overstate how important the Syrian dictatorship and quest for an atomic bomb. And suppose Iran invaded a Lebanese Hezbollah are to the Islamic regime’s self-worth neighbor in a kind of reprise of the fi rst Gulf war: Given and unquestioned supremacy over Iranian society. When the size of the continuing military cutbacks under Obama, senior Revolutionary Guard commanders and clerical VIPs it’s not clear that the United States could successfully repel threaten the United States if it intercedes militarily against such an act of aggression, in the Assad, they are telling us how event it wanted to. Now imag- vital Alawite rule is to them. ine Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Russia, too, is there, uninhibited Guard Corps with nukes. Keep- about interceding in someone ing the Strait of Hormuz open— else’s internecine strife. Putin has Washington’s simplest task in comparatively little at stake in the region—is probably the only Syria: It’s merely the last outpost sure bet under Obama. of the Soviet Union’s Arab client- The president’s forward- states, and Russian aid to Assad leaning hollow rhetoric also diminishes the United States, hasn’t helped. He told the Syr- something Putin acutely enjoys. ian dictator in August 2011 that Until recently Obama he must go but failed to autho- appeared to have grasped only rize the CIA, let alone the U.S. vaguely the regional dynamics at Air Force, to do anything untoward. He ignored his fi rst play in Syria, or to have grasped them but not to care. One self-imposed red line on the use of chemical weapons, then has the impression that his concern about Iran’s role in Syria declared in June 2013 that in response to Assad’s use of has only become serious since Assad again fl outed the White chemical weapons the United States would start deliver- House’s red line on chemical weapons. Since then, Secretary ing weaponry to the Syrian opposition—but didn’t follow of State John Kerry—who as a senator, on behalf of President through. The president wants to diminish American power Obama, tried to make nice with Bashar al-Assad and his cos- in the Middle East while making demands of a dictator mopolitan wife—has much more sharply drawn the battle who was weaned on Machtpolitik. lines between the United States and Iran. It really shouldn’t The denizens of the region have a much clearer under- be that hard for the administration and the legion of Repub- standing of what’s at stake in Syria. This is not just a sectar- licans and Democrats who utter the phrase “civil war” as if it ian civil war between a heretical Shiite Alawite dictatorship were a talisman against American involvement to draw help- and the country’s Sunni majority (roughly 75 percent of ful historical parallels. The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 pit- the population). It’s the frontline in a struggle between two ted leftist Republicans against rightist Nationalists and was, blocs: conservative Sunni Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, as all schoolchildren were once taught, a testing ground for the United Arab Emirates) and Turkey (Prime Minister Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, which gave critical aid to Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees himself as the godfather of a new Francisco Franco’s ultimately victorious Nationalists. Span- Muslim Brotherhood-dominated order) versus Iran, Leba- ish Republicans were often an ugly, vicious fi ghting force, nese Hezbollah, and, somewhat reluctantly, Shiite Iraq. with morally repellent backers (the USSR). And as fascist Above all, it’s the second great tug of war between the dictators go, Franco was certainly not in the same league as Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia. The fi rst occurred just his German patron. But the overarching imperative should

THOMAS FLUHARTY after the Islamic Revolution and continued in the Iran-Iraq have been to deny Hitler and Mussolini a victory. It never

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 27 gained traction. Instead, the United Kingdom and France Washington, D.C., restaurant in 2011—a serious mistake. showed complacency about a fascist triumph in Spain. It was The United States has always had the capacity to recover a complicated struggle between unwholesome adversaries. from its bouts of listlessness and depression through its unri- Britain and France basically sat it out, to their later regret. valed capacity to bring pain to the enemy. But it certainly The Syrian civil war is as international as was the Span- cannot signal Tehran, or other aggressive regimes, its serious ish confl ict. It started as a rebellion against a savage dictator- intent by shooting cruise missiles at dispersed and buried ship, and the Assad regime successfully turned it into a battle chemical weapons. Given what happened in London when between two religious communities. The Syrian Sunnis are Prime Minister David Cameron lost a war vote in Parlia- strongly backed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two Wahhabi ment, both Syrian and Iranian leaders already view Obama’s states that have done untold damage to the modern Middle decision to go to Congress as confi rmation of America’s East with their well-funded Islamist missionary activity. In weakness. Assad apparently thinks he’s already won. The the Syrian confl ict, they have backed cruel Islamic radicals, ruling elites of both countries certainly don’t appreciate the some of whom are affi liated with al Qaeda. Sunni jihadists twists and turns of democratic politics, but they are probably will unquestionably be a big problem in post-Assad Syria not wrong to see Obama’s caution as timidity. since the Assad regime has done its best to destroy the Sunni It’s possible, of course, that the president and Congress social order. But Syria’s 17 million Sunnis are not Afghan could stand down in Syria and then stand up against Iran’s Pashtuns, whose village ethics mirror pretty closely the nuclear program, as some now argue. We could avoid a small primitive mores of the Taliban. Syria’s Sunnis culturally are war but commit ourselves to the possibility of a much big- much more cosmopolitan than Iraq’s Shiites, and in most ger one. But does this pass the pinch test? The American places even the Iraqi Shiites have successfully fought off desire to avoid war in Syria overlaps rather well with the the radical ethics of the Shiite Islamist hard core. Militarily, desire to avoid any U.S. military threat against the Islamic Sunni jihadists in Syria, especially those who are foreign, are Republic. The fear of the ripple effect, of quagmire, of ter- likely to encounter extreme resistance and enmity from the rorism, of years more of Middle Eastern Islamic messiness, vastly more numerous mainstream Sunnis the day after Ala- of the unknowns that always accompany military confl ict wite power is broken. is certainly much greater with preemption of Tehran than If Assad’s regime falls, the bulk of the Sunni Syrian offi - intervention in Syria. The two issues are not analogous to cer corps, currently held in check by the regime’s security the collapse of Vietnam and the defense of Western Europe services, will enter powerfully into this equation. There is no in the 1970s (and many Democrats who turned away from evidence that these men are jihadist sympathizers. In Iraq Vietnam also became increasingly accommodationist with jihadists have fed off minority Sunni grievances and revan- the Soviet Union everywhere else). Syria and Iran are near chist sentiments. The opposite is going to happen in Syria, neighbors. As the late Samuel Huntington might have put where the next government, whatever its shape, will be over- it, it’s the same oikoumene, for Allah’s sake. If we cave on one, whelmingly Sunni in composition. The future for holy war- we will, in all probability, cave on the other. riors in Syria isn’t at all bright. Only one thing is crystal clear: Assad used chemical The overarching foreign issue in Syria is Iran’s deter- weapons because he needed to. They are the ideal terror mination to maintain its strategic position in the Middle weapon for a regime with limited manpower fi ghting a rebel- East while it develops its nuclear capacity. Anything the lious population. Conventional weapons have been deadly in United States can do to upset the mullahs’ plans while Syria, but bombs, bullets, and artillery shells haven’t quieted the Muslim Middle East remains nonnuclear is worth the the opposition, which in some places (including the sub- effort. The odds are not great that a peaceful, diplomatic urbs of Damascus) is still gaining ground. Chemical weap- path exists to negotiate away the Iranian nuclear threat, ons could well do the trick. Terror weapons accomplish a lot but we do know that the only serious delay in Tehran’s with a little, and chemical weapons offer the possibility of nuclear program occurred after the American invasion of graduated escalation—also ideal if a dictator is feeling out Iraq in 2003. The display of American power has always the resolve of outraged Westerners. The odds are excellent made the clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, that Assad will use these weapons again and again until the who oversee the nuclear program, take notice. The best opposition cracks. If we are to stop their use, then Assad odds for countering Iran in the Levant without the Quds must fall. That so many in the West don’t see this, and are Force, the expeditionary branch of the Revolutionary unwilling to go to war to stop such an atrocity—to send a Guards, resorting to terrorism against the United States clear signal to tyrants elsewhere—only shows how far we’ve come from a massive American strike against Assad. Presi- come since 9/11. The Middle East’s power politics have, dent Obama ignored the Quds Force’s role in an attempted again, hit us head on. We are, perhaps, too “fatigued” this bombing operation against the Saudi ambassador in a time round for the challenge. ♦

28 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 Books&Arts

Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Yalta, February 1945 Winston in Focus A great man gets a second look. BY ANDREW ROBERTS

h, Winston, why?” Field events of 1939-45, and, in large part, he Marshal Jan Smuts is Churchill and Company succeeded. For all Smuts’s lamentations, said to have remon- Allies and Rivals in War and Peace we still tend to see the Second World strated with Churchill by David Dilks War through the eyes of the author of ‘Oover his war memoirs, which Smuts I. B. Tauris, 336 pp., $35 The Second World War. considered too self-serving. “Why did A scholar who has tried to break free you have to do that? You, more than of this Churchill-based narrative is anyone in the world, could have writ- with Roosevelt, Hitler, and Mussolini Professor David Dilks, one of Britain’s ten as no one else could have written dead—and Stalin not a natural author— most distinguished historians. “Writ- the true history of the war.” Churchill’s his only possible front-rank rival in the ing of Churchill with admiration,” retort about his six volumes is charac- war memoir stakes would be Charles de he states, “I have also tried to apply the teristic, but also perfectly reasonable: Gaulle, who did indeed write excellent critical scrutiny which he would have “These are my story. If someone else reminiscences but not ones that could expected.” There are few writers better likes to write his story, let him.” touch Churchill’s for massive, interna- qualifi ed to do this: Dilks was research Churchill must have guessed that, tional bestsellerdom. More important, assistant to Anthony Eden and Har- though, Churchill wanted to dominate old Macmillan and is the author of a Andrew Roberts is the author, most recently, the historiography of the confl ict, to two-volume account of Lord Curzon of The Storm of War: A New History construct the intellectual prism through in India, as well as the fi rst volume

of the Second World War. which subsequent historians viewed the of an as-yet-unfi nished life of Neville POPPERFOTO / GETTY IMAGES

30 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 Chamberlain. He has thus been steeped Stalin, but also Chamberlain, Eden, Dilks posits a number of intriguing in Churchill studies at one remove for Attlee, Eisenhower, the chiefs of staff, possibilities that are worthy of investi- almost all of his intellectual life. his private secretaries, Poles such as gation: that Churchill’s life was prob- Churchill and Company comprises Sikorski and Stanisław Mikołajczyk, ably saved at the Battle of Omdurman several unpublished papers delivered Russians like Molotov and Malenkov because of a longstanding injury to his to conferences in addition to three and Khrushchev, and the common- shoulder, which forced him to carry lectures that have been recast due to wealth premiers Curtin, Menzies, a pistol instead of a sword; that, in the change of style “between the sobriety Mackenzie King, Fraser, and Smuts. the words of his friend Desmond of the written word and the fl ourishes of However much some of them might Morton, “physical danger . . . gave him the spoken.” Overall, Dilks does indeed have disliked and distrusted Churchill a thrill almost of a sexual nature”; that treat Churchill with admiration, while at different periods of their careers, Churchill did not, in fact, suffer from accepting that “he was neither by nature Dilks noted how “almost all regarded the depression so often attributed to a good listener nor always sensitive to him with awe.” Those who didn’t—such him with minimal actual proof; and the thoughts of those around him.” The as Stalin—tended to have the kind of even that “there was no gulf of ideology only time, it seems, that Churchill fell personalities that were deliberately between [Chamberlain] and Churchill silent was when he was behind an easel. calibrated never to regard other liv- in the realm of international affairs.” For those who savor British under- ing beings with anything approaching Few will concur with every one of the statement and irony, this book will awe. One who certainly didn’t treat author’s conclusions, of course—not present a cornucopia of delight, as Churchill with awe—at least in the least that Britain nearly went to war Churchill’s own wit is refl ected through economics sphere—was John Maynard with France in May 1945. the author’s famously dry humor. “In Keynes, who is put down by Dilks in This book will certainly dispel old age,” Dilks writes of Churchill, for this delightful formulation: forever the lazy assertion that Great example, “he did not feel called upon Britain somehow “stood alone” in the to deny with vigor the story that he had Keynes’ own remark that practical year and fi ve days between the fall of men of affairs are often the slaves of once described de Gaulle as resembling some defunct economist has not lost France in June 1940 and Hitler’s inva- a female llama surprised in her bath.” its piquancy now that the defunct sion of Russia in June 1941. In perhaps The fi rst 16 words of that 31-word sen- economist is Keynes himself. his best essay, Dilks shows how the tence might seem at fi rst sight extrane- British Empire and Commonwealth ous; but, in fact—along with the llama’s ilks presents Churchill as a late- “consistently had more divisions in gender—it renders it all the funnier. Ddeveloper who didn’t discover a fi ghting contact with the enemy than This book is studded with such lines of love of learning until he was 22, possibly the U.S. until the summer of 1944, not Churchill’s, several of which I have not the result of his never having attended only in Africa and Europe but also heard before, despite having written university. Nonetheless, Churchill in Asia.” Not until 1944 did the U.S. about him for a quarter of a century. “radiated a coiled energy” that, once Army Air Forces drop more bombs This book covers Churchill’s love unleashed, was impressive. He might on the enemy than did the empire and affair with France, the contribution of have inherited some of it from his commonwealth forces. the British Commonwealth to the war maternal grandfather, Leonard Jerome, The description of the contributions effort, British-Polish relations from whose wife once remarked to his mis- to victory made by Canada, Australia, 1941 to 1945, “Operation Unthinkable” tress, “My dear, I understand what New Zealand, South Africa, the West (i.e., war planning against Russia in you feel. He is so irresistible.” Indies, and India—which all fought 1945), Churchill’s “solitary pilgrimage” Throughout his life, Churchill from the start of the war in Septem- towards a Cold War settlement with the collected people at the head of their ber 1939 to its fi nish in September Russians during his peacetime minis- fi elds—“Nature’s princes,” in Dilks’s 1945—is at times deeply moving. “On try, the relations between Churchill and words—such as the special forces war- Churchill’s own admission,” records Eden, and between him and Stalin, riors T. E. Lawrence and Orde Win- Dilks, “it was not until late in the war and much else besides. It puts up an gate, the painters Sir John Lavery and that he realized fully what a small coun- argument with which some readers will Paul Maze, the strategists Charles Por- try Britain is.” The reason being that, be unfamiliar: that in dealing with Ger- tal and Harold Alexander, the orators all his life hitherto, the empire and many before the First World War, and John Morley and Joseph Chamberlain, commonwealth had allowed him to with the Russians at Yalta and in the the statesmen Arthur Balfour and Lord ignore that blatant geographical fact. 1950s, Churchill used much the same Rosebery, and the premiers Herbert “Never in the fi eld of human argu- appeasing language that has forever Asquith and David Lloyd George. ment,” states Dilks, “can the name of a destroyed Chamberlain’s reputation for Having known all the true greats of single thinker have been prayed in aid having employed it towards Hitler. his day, the wilderness years of the by so many politicians . . . or advanced The book concentrates on Churchill’s thirties, when the midgets took over, in support of so many propositions quite relationships with rivals and allies, were presumably less painful for him incompatible.” It is true, and Churchill particularly Roosevelt, de Gaulle, and than they otherwise might have been. would undoubtedly react with contempt

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 31 at the way in which modern politicians attempt to squeeze his words into their A ideologies, regardless of context. A clas- B& sic case today is the way that Churchill is presented as having supported a European superstate in his great post- Indivisible Man war speeches at Zurich and the Hague, which, when read carefully, clearly Albert Murray, 1916-2013. state that he wanted Britain to be BY EDWIN M. YODER JR. “associated with” but certainly not part of such an endeavor. (Churchill had his own view of how contempt should ince mine is hardly a house- be employed, saying in 1954, “As you hold name, I can count on know, contempt is not contempt if a few fi ngers the occasions you have to take any trouble express- when I’ve been interviewed. ing it. It has got to be quite involuntary, SBut one encounter remains as clear as and if possible unconscious.”) the day it happened. Apart from its dry wit, the best thing To begin at the true beginning: about Churchill and Company is the way It happens that, by a set of curious it uses history to provoke renegade chances, I was taken one spring day in thoughts. “We have had nothing else the 1960s to a party at Ralph Ellison’s but wars since Democracy took charge,” New York apartment. I knew him as wrote Churchill in November 1947. He the author of the much-lauded 1952 had a point: Are democrats more inher- novel Invisible Man and through Allen ently violent than the aristocrats—many Tate’s slightly patronizing assurance of them Churchill’s relations—who ran that he was a “Southern gentleman.” the British Empire in the 19th century Ellison was expecting eminent com- (in which Churchill spent the fi rst 25 pany, including his guest of honor, years of his life) and who avoided all Walker Percy. But he was gracious to an major wars for a full 60 years after the uninvited stranger and bade me to make Crimea? I suspect so. Aristocrats had myself at home. more to lose from global confl agration, As I wandered, probably spying Albert Murray, 1974 after all. Another thought the book on his bookshelves, I was suddenly provokes is: For all that Churchill was accosted by Ellison’s friend and fel- able writers who, with no experience denounced as a warmonger for wanting low alumnus of the Tuskegee Institute of everyday black life, labeled Harlem to intervene in the Russian civil war in Albert Murray—archivist, wit, novel- a “ghetto.” For him, it was “the very 1919—“to strangle Bolshevism in its ist, polemicist, and retired Air Force stuff of romance . . . [like] Chaucer’s cradle,” as he characteristically phrased major. He discarded the usual ceremo- England, Cervantes’ Spain, Rabelais’ it—imagine the traumas mankind nies of introduction and showered me France,” where “musicians and ath- would have been saved if his counsel with an impromptu mix of punning letes are far more numerous, more had prevailed over the supposedly jazz-talk, spiced with allusions to symbolic and infl uential . . . than wiser heads around the cabinet table. Faulkner, Joyce, Uncle Remus tales, criminals and addicts.” Ditto if the Dardanelles campaign had and Harlem street patois. Soon after our initial meeting, Albert been better executed. Or if Britain In my amused astonishment I visited Greensboro, where I was then a had aggressively taken on Hitler as could only stand mute, but that was no newspaper editor. He knew my native soon as he came to power in 1933. problem: He professed to fi nd in my city as the scene of signifi cant strides It is extraordinary how often silent gestures of response a Southern in the civil rights struggle, and North Churchill’s career was damaged by the “seed-store/feed-store” sensibility of Carolina as a center of good newspa- things about which he was ultimately which he greatly approved. And thus pers. He was at work on a book that proved right—and yet, paradoxically, began a fascinating friendship that soon would be published as South to a how it was enhanced by other things endured until recently, when Albert Very Old Place (1971), and he was on a (such as the Norwegian expedition of Murray died in his beloved Harlem at pilgrimage up and down the East Coast 1940) about which he was wrong. By the age of 97. I say “beloved” because in search of the classic Southern sensi- making us refl ect on the preternatu- he loathed the lazy clichés of fashion- bility, as he defi ned and ratifi ed it. He ral unfairness of politics, in a way that had called on Robert Penn Warren and has a happy ending, Professor Dilks has Edwin M. Yoder Jr. is the author, most recently, C. Vann Woodward in New Haven,

scored a palpable hit. ♦ of Vacancy: A Judicial Misadventure. and I was fl attered to be included in POST / GETTY IMAGES THE WASHINGTON

32 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 the quest. But he was pretty vague life” (as it was then called) could be chauvinist of Negro culture around.” about my qualifi cations, apart from seen only as “a pathetic manifestation Our last of many visits was typi- my having “fair-haired North Carolina of black cowardice, self-hatred, escap- cal. He came as a visiting professor to boy good looks [and] the twinkle which ism and self-destructiveness corroborat- Lexington, Virginia, in the mid-1990s, always lights up his expression when- ing [white] notions of black inferiority.” as frisky and iconoclastic as ever. I ever some topic engages him . . . that This, indeed, was an era when many mainly recall, from our evenings of Uncle Remus-derived twinkle of humor phony voices were being heard and talk, Albert’s commentary on a Toni and the absurd.” heeded—the era of Leonard Bernstein’s Morrison novel (Beloved, 1987) in My mute responses to his unique fatuous radical-chic party for the Black which a slave woman murders her interrogative monologues functioned, Panthers and Tom Wolfe’s memorable daughter to avoid the latter’s enslave- he said, as a “range fi nder, [so] that all essay about white bureaucratic suck- ment. For Albert, the idea, though you have to do is allude to some char- ups. Albert had the guts to say what inspired by an actual event, was acter and situation . . . and listen for others silently thought. beyond silly. Whatever the evils of the Remus overtones in the feedback.” Looking back, Albert Murray’s sig- slavery, death was worse, and infanti- I was embarrassed to confess that nal service to the discussion of race was cide, after all, was a grave crime. I wish my last exposure to Uncle Remus that he was bold and literate enough to I had a transcript, for paraphrase does had been in the third grade; and distinguish stuff from shinola, to iden- slight justice to Albert’s superb riffs hadn’t Joel Chandler Harris’s version tify and damn patronizing claptrap. He upon writerly foolishness and much of slave idiom grown, over the years, was, I wrote in my review of The Omni- else. He embodied as no other of my grossly politically incorrect? No mat- Americans, “so free of the defensive acquaintance the “omni-American,” ter. Albert had gathered that I was a fetishes of contemporary black-think mixed culture he loved, championed, fellow devotee of fi ctitious characters that he may indeed be the greatest and greatly enriched. ♦ like Uncle Remus that were, for him, classic reference points. He identifi ed me, too, as a sort of B A journalistic godson of Jonathan Dan- & iels, the Raleigh editor who had written A Southerner Discovers the South (1938). In fact, Albert spoke more volubly Classical Revival about Daniels than about my own dubious qualifi cations as a repository Germany breaks from its past to embrace the past. of Southern sensibility. I offered to BY MARK FALCOFF put him in touch with Daniels, but— “You remind Yoder,” Albert wrote in his account, “that it is not really Jona- Berlin the building that stood in its place for than Daniels himself in the fl esh that isitors wending their way nearly 250 years, Berlin’s old imperial you have come to make personal con- down the Unter den Lin- palace, or Stadtschloss. tact with . . . but rather (as metaphysi- den towards the river The German capital will thus join cal as it might sound), the idea . . . of Spree are nowadays sud- Potsdam, Dresden, Braunschweig, and Jonathan Daniels. ‘The Jonathan Dan- denlyV brought up short by an oddly Hanover in celebrating the country’s iels fallout, man. Among the younger shaped, bizarre-looking structure reunifi cation by re-creating historic fellows. . . . Like yourself.’ ” that seems completely out of place city centers destroyed during World I was able to offer partial repayment among the neoclassical palaces and War II. In the case of the Berlin palace, for the honor of being Albert’s sort-of the imposing Renaissance-style Prot- however, the political and historical subject in a review of his trademark estant cathedral. It is the Humboldt implications are even more poignant, treatise, The Omni-Americans (1970). Forum, which currently houses muse- because, for half a century, the same He had guessed, probably during our ums, foundations, and libraries. In site was occupied by the East Ger- fi rst encounter in New York, that, some ways, it resembles nothing so man Palace of the Republic. This having grown up in a world richly sat- much as a package hastily cobbled was a relatively low-rise steel and urated by black idiom, habit, and cul- together with duct tape, clashing glass monstrosity, a kind of social- ture—albeit paternalistically—I would even with some of the modern struc- ist version of the International style affi rm his impassioned conviction that tures nearby. But sometime late in the that, apart from its unloveliness, was the sensibility we shared was “incon- next decade, it will be completely dis- environmentally toxic. Nonetheless, testably mulatto,” a complex blend of assembled and replaced by a version of to the extent that a true East German racial infl uences. identity existed (and to some extent It deeply irked Albert that, at this Mark Falcoff is a writer and translator continues to exist), this building was yeasty time (the late sixties), “Negro in Washington and Munich. its architectural signature.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 33 It is no secret that many people the kaiser’s capital residence, though, notably from Hans Sharoun, one of (though probably not many archi- in fact, Wilhelm II was the only the regime’s favorite architects. As tects) hate “modern” buildings and emperor to actually live there. During it was, Ulbricht compromised and long for the kinds of urban settings the revolutionary events of 1918 and allowed some of the more important that make Rome, Florence, Paris, and after the fall of the monarchy, it was sculptures to be saved and taken St. Petersburg such rich destinations briefl y put under the control of revolu- to an engineering site in Berlin- for visitors. In the case of Germany, tionary sailors to prevent the plunder- Heinersdorf (then an industrial sub- however, the country’s problematic ing of its contents; during the Weimar urb), where hundreds of fragments relationship with its past, and par- Republic, some of its 1,000 rooms were were meticulously arranged in huts. ticularly its recent past, has made the rented out or used for public events. Unfortunately, the site was eventu- subject of reconstruction one of acute Part of the structure is housed in the ally bulldozed; only the best pieces controversy. The unfortunate German Kunstgewerbemuseum collection. were saved for museums. However, at the time of their removal, some 5,000 photographs were taken and have been preserved. After the founding of the GDR, the site was cleared. In its place was a huge empty square for parades and demonstrations, fl anked by the Pal- ace of the Republic, the Ministerial Council building, and the Foreign Ministry (that last is still in use). But to expand the ceremonial spaces, all of the surrounding buildings, includ- ing private dwellings, were removed. As a consequence, architectural his- torian Rainer Haubrich points out in Das neue Berliner Schloss (2012), “many places have lost their bearings. Streets lead to nowhere; squares lack balance [Fassung], buildings lack a corresponding counterface. . . . Even The Berlin Stadtschloss, ca. 1900 passersby who do not know the his- tory of the place can readily sense that addiction to ugly modern architecture The building remained relatively at some time a huge building must (the rebuilt synagogue in Dresden, undamaged through much of the Sec- have stood on the site.” for example) makes it all the more ond World War, but it was hit for the Even if only preserved in old paint- remarkable that the Bundestag has fi rst time in May 1944, when daylight ings and photographs, the Stadtschloss appropriated more than half-a-billion bombing of the German capital began. continued to exercise a fascination, dollars to bring the Stadtschloss back It was largely destroyed in early Feb- one to which even leading members of to life, thus restoring old sightlines ruary 1945, in the biggest air attack of the East German elite were not wholly and cityscapes. Even more reassur- the war. Even so, the structure was so immune. Returning from his fi rst visit ing is the fact that, in public opinion solidly built that the outer walls, and to Paris and Madrid in 1988 (where he polls, the most enthusiastic support- some of the interior ones, survived. was dazzled by the architectural gran- ers of reconstruction are young Ger- Indeed, it was even possible, in 1946, deur), President Erich Honecker actu- mans in the 18-24 cohort. to hold Berlin’s fi rst big postwar art ally raised the question of Stadtschloss Like most of Europe’s great monu- exhibit in the building’s White Room. reconstruction. Two years later, the ments, Berlin’s town palace was built The founding of the German Dem- Palace of the Republic was closed as a over a long period of time, involving sev- ocratic Republic in 1949 rang the result of environmental contamination. eral successive generations of architects death knell for the Stadtschloss. Wal- Since the GDR had already begun— and artisans. The building was begun by ter Ulbricht had a somewhat morbid rather fi tfully, it is true—the recon- Andreas Schlüter (1664?-1714), the fi rst interest in architecture and ordered struction of Dresden, one can only important master of the late Baroque the surviving parts of the building speculate what might have eventually style in Germany; but the cupola, its completely demolished (along with happened. In any case, the Palace of most commanding feature, was com- Potsdam’s town palace and the Uni- the Republic was unceremoniously pleted only in 1853. With the founding versity Church in Leipzig). There dismantled by a unifi ed German gov- of the Second Reich in 1871, it became were sotto voce protests at the time, ernment during 2006-08.

34 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 Some years before the fall of the just how historicist the building would survived the war, and the collection Berlin Wall, interest in the Stadtschloss be allowed to be. Perhaps not surpris- includes 40 DVDs containing digital was reviving in the Federal Republic. In ingly, attitudes towards architecture images of the exterior and courtyard 1982, a young German architect named corresponded roughly to points along façades of the Stadtschloss in very Tischler Peschken published a book the ideological spectrum, with the high resolution. In addition, there are on the building, which caught the Christian Democrats/Christian Social precise measurements, dating to 1879, attention of Wilhelm von Boddien, a Union and Free Democrats favoring that were discovered at the Berlin Frankfurt businessman and civic leader. a full restoration of the exterior, the Land Registry Offi ce as recently as Boddien proceeded to found an associa- Social Democrats wanting to reduce a decade ago. All these fi ndings have tion to raise funds to build an architec- the Baroque façades by half, and the been creatively assembled and coordi- tural model, which can be seen today in Greens by three-quarters. nated via computer, allowing 3,000 dec- one of the rooms of the restored Char- Stella’s plan is a compromise. It fol- orative motifs to be reproduced, stone lottenburg Palace in the city’s Western lows the spirit of Schlüter, but carries it by stone, to within a millimeter—a task sector. More important, Boddien’s group through in more contemporary terms. never before attempted. began intensive lobbying and private A massive external stone wall about Although it was thought that carv- fundraising—something fairly ing Baroque fi gures in sand- unusual for noncharitable causes stone was a lost art, in Spandau, in Germany—culminating in a a workshop has been estab- vote of the Bundestag in 2002 to lished under the leadership of authorize reconstruction. Quite two stone sculptors, Mathias possibly one of the turning Körner and Eckhart Boehm, points was the full-size depiction who both trained in the classical on canvas of the Schloss’s west- tradition and are fully familiar ern façade by a French artist in with the stylistic peculiarities of 1993, which allowed politicians Schlüter. Each element will fi rst as well as the general public to be done in plaster, and will then see what they would be getting. be approved by a committee of Once a decision was made to art historians before orders are rebuild, architects from all over given to produce it in sandstone. the world were invited to submit The Franco Stella version All the surviving fragments of plans, and some 158 proposals the original Stadtschloss have were offered. To the surprise of many, three feet thick will be constructed, to been moved here as well. the winner of the competition was which decorative elements of natural The task ahead is certainly not an Franco Stella, an architect in Vicenza, stone will be attached. Three sides of easy one, and the palace may not open Italy, and former professor at the Uni- the old Baroque façade will be recon- on schedule (in 2019). There are nearly versity of Genoa. Although he had pre- structed; the fourth side, facing east (as 500 windows, some as large as garage viously been involved in some work in well as parts of the building facing the doors, and more than 2,000 feet of façade West Berlin, he was a virtual unknown Spree), will be modern. The cupola will has to be reconstructed, complete with in the German architectural scene. His be rebuilt, but will not attempt to rep- fi gures such as a cudgel-swinging Her- victory was not graciously accepted licate the exact details of the original. cules. Forty-seven eagles with wide- by all the other competitors, one of No effort will be made to reproduce the spread wings will hang on the roof, the whom even took him to court. The prewar interior; it will be fully func- largest of which will have a wingspan loudest critic of Stella’s design was, tional, with spaces for theater and musi- of eight-and-a-half feet. not surprisingly, Philipp Oswalt, who cal performances, museum collections, While some critics persist in call- today is the director of the Bauhaus and the Prussian State Library. But it is ing the project “kitsch” and “counter- Foundation in Dessau. Like many the exterior that counts, anyway: The feit,” the restoration project represents modernists, Oswalt objected to Stel- main point is to restore what Rainer a turning point in Germany’s postwar la’s historicism, which (in his view) Haubrich calls “the turning point and and post-Cold War normalization, as threatened an architectural counter- anchor of Berlin’s historic center.” well as a reaffi rmation of the more pride- revolution in Germany. As one of his For some time, it was thought—and ful aspects of its history and identity. Bauhaus colleagues put it after the German advocates of modern architec- At a time when civic beauty is under Bundestag vote, “How should we feel ture hoped—that rebuilding a Baroque attack everywhere by trendy nihilists about replicas being forced upon us Renaissance palace in Berlin would and intimidated arts commissions, the by the will of the people?” prove a practical impossibility. In fact, restoration of the Stadtschloss strikes How indeed. this has not proven to be the case: a blow on behalf of beleaguered lovers Even after the affi rmative vote, there A collection of 20,000 photographs of classical architecture—wherever

NEWSCOM were still differences of opinion as to of Prussian buildings (1855-1920) they might be. ♦

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 35 to Cambridge to become a physician. B A College life around the turn of the & 17th century was no picnic: Harvey slept in an unheated attic with three other students and was roused by a Living in Vein bell at 4 A.M. so that he could be at church by 5, at class by 6, and in class Remember the man who invented modern medicine. till 10 at night. BY JOSHUA GELERNTER Despite the conditions, Harvey thrived as a student and won the Mat- thew Parker Scholarship, the fi rst medical scholarship ever awarded in England. It required its benefi ciary be “able, learned, and worthy” and not be “deformed, dumb, lame, maimed, mutilated, sick, invalid, or Welsh.” Harvey advanced rapidly, excelling in his studies and dominating the thesis- defense shows called “disputations.” At disputations, teams of students would debate each other in “smooth, vivid, masculine” Latin. Harvey was the master arguer of his college and some- times ended his matches by shouting “Tuo gladio jugulabo!” (“Now I will slit your throat with your own [rhetori- cal] sword!”) The crowds that turned out to watch these disputations would cheer him like a king returning from William Harvey explains the circulation of the blood to Charles I. victory. After a few terms embarrass- ing his Cambridge peers, he set off for cience doesn’t make a splash in Europe’s fi nest school of medicine, the news too often. But a year William Harvey the University of Padua. or so ago, when the CERN labs A Life in Circulation Padua was a big change from the announced that they might by Thomas Wright stringency of Cambridge. In the early Shave observed the “God particle,” Oxford, 288 pp., $29.95 1600s, Englishmen regarded Italy everyone got very excited. A year of as the world capital of atheism and peer-review later, it appears they were debauchery; Padua worked hard to right: After a 50-year search, the Higgs mostly to the accumulated work of prove them right. Hordes of students boson has been found. a few dozen big minds belonging to waded through the manure-fi lled “God particle” is a silly, press-hype men everyone’s heard of: Newton streets to duel each other, Tybalt-style. sort of name; but fi nding the Higgs and Einstein, Mendel and Darwin, Drunken doctoral candidates would boson is, genuinely, a big deal. It Watson and Crick, and so forth. But rampage through shops and monas- confi rms the existence of the Higgs none of their discoveries would have teries, smashing things; monks and fi eld, the hitherto-theoretical fi eld happened if controlled-experiment, shopkeepers would riot and try to set that imbues objects with mass. Under- cause-and-effect science hadn’t taken the university and its students on fi re. standing mass will help us understand over from the Aristotelian method Even the anatomy lectures that had gravity and time, and all the other sun- of anecdotal deduction. That switch drawn Harvey from Cambridge were dry, interconnected pieces of physics. happened 300 years ago, when a man in on the chaos, featuring dissections It’s a big step towards understanding named William Harvey discovered of freshly killed Paduans pilfered why the world works the way it does. that blood circulates—and acciden- from open-casket funerals. Finding the Higgs boson means tally invented hard science. Despite the anarchy, the university that the knowledge-for-knowledge’s- Harvey was born in 1578 to Thomas assembled a faculty featuring some of the sake reservoir is fi lling up. And the Harvey, a yeoman landowner in Kent, generation’s great minds (Galileo was reservoir’s high-water mark is owed England. The elder Harvey’s ambition head of the mathematics department), in life was to have successful sons, so and the experience set Harvey down

Joshua Gelernter is a writer in Connecticut. he packed his fi rstborn William off a path that would change the world NYPL / SCIENCE SOURCE GETTY IMAGES

36 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 of science. And the world, generally. misunderstood the human body (and And for all his hard work, cour- In Harvey’s time, all medicine was no one was willing to take Harvey’s age, and brilliance, which shaped based on the work of the Greek phi- word over Galen’s), Harvey had to the modern world and gave birth losopher Galen, who had been dead make his conclusions undeniable. So, to the practice of medicine that has for 1,400 years. Galen believed that in effect, he went on tour, performing prolonged millions of lives, William health depended on the balance of experiments for everyone to see. It Harvey is remembered today by just the four humors—yellow and black took 10 years to perfect the demon- about no one. He is not revered, like bile, blood, and phlegm—and that the stration, but he made his point, and Einstein and Darwin; he is never heart’s role was to keep the humors changed medicine. He also made a mentioned in high school curricula; regulated. Blood, he thought, came bigger point that changed science: and no one would credit him as the from the liver. Doctors disputing The way to prove something is to show ancestor of the Higgs boson discov- Galen’s work were rare: Contradicting it to be true. Reproducible, Harvey- ery. But William Harvey: A Life in Cir- Galen was a good way to get black- style experimentation has been the culation is an important step towards listed, and inductees of the College of standard ever since. setting this injustice straight. ♦ Physicians in London swore an oath never to speak disrespectfully of him. But at wild and crazy Padua, one of A Harvey’s teachers cut open a heart and B& observed that Galen had made a mis- take in describing one of the cham- ber walls as porous. A small mistake, With a Grain of Salt it appeared, and Galen’s reputation at large remained untarnished. In Who and what, exactly, is the chef du jour? Harvey’s eyes, however, the veneer of BY ELI LEHRER infallibility had been cracked. William Harvey, M.D., left Padua in 1602, returned to England, joined he show’s hero has huge important not only for what the show the College of Physicians, took the muscles, wisecracking side- does, but for what it says about the respect-for-Galen oath—and began kicks, and a mysterious direction and transformation of real- to conduct private experiments in a origin. In each episode, ity programming in America. home laboratory. His curiosity had The performs feats beyond the abilities Like every superhero show, Restau- been roused: It was time, he decided, of mere mortals. He fi ghts for values rant: Impossible focuses around its hero. to reexamine the heart’s functions, that just about everyone shares, and he And Irvine looks the part: At 48, he’s a through a series of impartial, Galen- dispenses common-sense wisdom in a fantastic physical specimen—the Food free experiments. way that seems profound. Each episode Network’s most prominent publicity According to Galen, the heart, after ends, satisfyingly, with him leaving the shot has him in a T-shirt, holding a receiving blood from the liver, heated place he visits better than he found it. whisk and fl exing his enormous bicep. and distributed it throughout the The hero, in short, is a superhero. In Furthermore, like any good super- body, where it was absorbed by mus- this case, his name is Robert Irvine, and hero, Irvine has a spectacular origin cle. But when Harvey began vivisect- he stars in a cooking show. story—at least, as he tells it. In media ing animals, he noticed that the heart At a glance, the show in question, accounts, the tale goes something like wasn’t so much receiving blood as it Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network, this: Born in humble circumstances was sucking it in with forceful expan- Wednesdays, 9 P.M.), doesn’t seem that and possessed of near-superhuman sions. And he noticed—in his eureka! unusual. In fact, there are at least three cooking skills, he was handpicked to moment—that the heart pumps out other shows (the highest rated of which design the wedding cake for Charles a whole lot of blood—much more, is Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares, with Gor- and Diana while in high school. He he was certain, than the body could don Ramsay) with very similar prem- joined the Royal Navy at 15, and possibly absorb. If the blood wasn’t ises involving turning around failing from there the culinary prodigy went being absorbed, it was being recycled; restaurants. The fi x-a-failing-business on to another series of great adven- so blood wasn’t being distributed and format isn’t new, either; it dates back to tures, serving on the royal yacht and used up, it was being circulated. Har- the 1990s BBC series Troubleshooter. cooking in the White House for the vey was forced to conclude that the But if its form is anything but orig- president. In the meantime, he was world of medicine—the entire phi- inal, the way that Restaurant: Impos- knighted by Queen Elizabeth (not losophy of the humors—was based on sible combines superhero and reality just any knighthood, he lets people a false premise. television is at least worth noting. It’s know, but the highest kind) and was Of course, since no one wanted to given a castle in recognition of his hear that every physician in Europe Eli Lehrer is president of the R Street Institute. culinary achievements.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 37 On the show, he accomplishes himself (in South Carolina) both opened sounds great in theory and probably his superheroic feats with aplomb. after he began to appear regularly on works for some restaurants some of Driving his Lexus to a variety of television and get middling reviews the time. But, in fact, almost all res- family-owned establishments of little on TripAdvisor and Yelp. His cook- taurants (probably including Irvine’s culinary distinction, he quickly takes books haven’t been huge bestsellers, own) serve some frozen food for a rea- command. The visit typically starts and a lot of the reviewers fi nd his son: While more expensive, it’s less with Irvine entering and expressing recipes unworkable. To a large extent, labor intensive to prepare, and can disgust with everything about the the “Robert Irvine” who has appeared be kept frozen until needed. In some restaurant’s physical environs. Then, on the Food Network during the past cases—fi sh purchased to be served of course, comes his time to watch decade is a fi ctional character whose inland, for example—it’s arguably of a food service. His comments are biography and abilities bear only a better quality, too. Even in the best always cutting: “This is awful” and tangential relationship to the former restaurants, items like brown sauce “This is horrible” are pretty typical. Royal Navy cook with the same name. and bacon are almost always bought (One recent episode drew giggles on partly precooked and frozen. Internet message boards when Irvine The show’s faults, however, are easy remarked that the food at a restaurant to overlook: Restaurant: Impossible’s wasn’t “that bad.”) satisfying, if formulaic, plots com- Next, working with one of his bined with Irvine’s charisma make it rotating designer sidekicks—mostly compelling, if dumb, television. And attractive females with muscles nearly for all its fi ctionalization, the combi- as impressive as Irvine’s own—he nation of remodeling, publicity, and devises a plan to remake the restau- Irvine’s recipes does seem to have rant’s interior, typically in a high saved a number of restaurants. The cheap-chic fashion. (The total bud- blog Food Network Gossip fi nds that get is $10,000.) Irvine next offers 45 of the 65 restaurants the show has fast-paced common-sense lectures on visited remain open, an impressive kitchen cleanliness, the need for fresh number given that all claimed to have ingredients, and the importance of been on the verge of closing their careful food costing. He might also doors before Irvine arrived. spool out a few tasty recipes that he Furthermore, Restaurant: Impos- promises will be hugely profi table for sible’s adaptation of nearly all the the proprietors. tropes of the superhero show provides Though harsh about food quality, another important data point about Irvine offers a sympathetic ear: He’ll the way reality shows have come full Robert Irvine help reconcile feuding couples, disci- circle. Although there are plenty of pline wayward staff, and put the restau- And the show itself doesn’t bear reality shows on television that fol- rant on the right track. Along the way, much more of a relationship to reality. low typical themes, such as investigat- there are usually a few slip-ups in the As the New York Times has reported, ing unusual people (A&E’s Hoarders) interior remake—wrong carpet, bro- the “48-hour” restaurant makeover or providing a sort of “extreme game ken mirrors—that the jack-of-all-trades actually takes months of planning, show” setting (CBS’s long-running Irvine solves with his typical brilliance. with boxes of materials shipped to Survivor), reality television has already The show ends with a huge crowd the restaurant well in advance. Irvine, brought in any number of other coming into the newly refreshed res- who wields a sledgehammer in the genres. For example: a sitcom with a taurant, oohing over the décor and show’s opening credits, has little or heavy dose of comedy (IFC’s Whisker showing appreciation of the dishes no involvement with this part of the Wars); angsty, sometimes gripping, that Irvine has added to the menu. process. And the $10,000 budget, teen dramas (MTV’s Teen Mom and its This makes for good drama, and apparently, refers to materials only: spinoffs); and, in the ultimate example Irvine’s larger-than-life personality Labor, the biggest cost for most con- of things coming full circle, a mostly makes him a winning character. struction projects, isn’t included. scripted crime drama with profes- But like all other superheroes, Even Irvine’s prepackaged advice, sional actors in the cast (Discovery Robert Irvine is a fi ctional creation. which sounds like common sense Channel’s Amish Mafi a). Irvine, as a 2008 St. Petersburg Times at fi rst blush, is actually a vast over- Restaurant: Impossible adds a super- investigation revealed, isn’t a knight, simplifi cation. In Irvine’s world, res- hero to this mix. Yes, it’s a fi ctional pro- didn’t cook directly for the royal fam- taurants can always make more money gram, and a formulaic one at that. And ily, and had only a brief stint in a and turn themselves around by replac- no, it doesn’t teach much about restau- menial role in the White House Mess. ing frozen ingredients with tastier, rant management. But as a superhero

The only two restaurants he has run cheaper-to-prepare, fresh ones. This saga, it’s pretty darn good. ♦ PRESS ASSOCIATED

38 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 In the end, In a World... is okay. I’ve B A seen better, I’ve seen worse—and that’s & only this week. So why did everybody in Utah go crazy for it? Because it was the one-eyed man Still Small Voice this year at Sundance. At fi lm festivals, people watch four or fi ve movies a day, Sundance gives birth to yet another meh-sterpiece. and so many of them (most of which BY JOHN PODHORETZ will never see the light of day) are so unimaginably wretched that anything even minimally competent or involv- ing seems like Shakespeare. The same sense of overload clearly affected the market atmosphere at Sundance, where In a World... sparked a bidding war between distributors who battled each other for the multimillion-dollar rights to put it out into the marketplace. The businessmen at Sundance are all panning for gold. Over the past quarter- century, Sundance has been the source of instant wealth and fame as small movies came out of nowhere and scored not only critical plaudits but huge box offi ce numbers—from Sex, Lies, and Lake Bell Videotape (1989) to The Blair Witch Project (1999) to Napoleon Dynamite t is said that in the land of the around town recording weird accents (2004) to Little Miss Sunshine (2006). blind, the one-eyed man is so she can learn to duplicate them. But, as is the case with all gold king—and when it comes to Carol is the daughter of the reigning rushes, some people begin to fantasize American movies, the land of star of the voice-over business, an that there are riches trapped in a lump Ithe blind is the Sundance Film Fes- aged popinjay wonderfully played by of coal. Ludicrous deals are struck tival. Every January, Fred Melamed. every year. A horrible and drippy thing independent fi lmmakers The movie begins called The Spitfi re Grill launched a feed- looking for distributors In a World... when her father kicks ing frenzy in 1996 and was eventually fi ght to get their fi lms Directed by Lake Bell Carol out of his house bought for $10 million, all of which shown at the festival so he can shack up with was lost when the public got a chance in Utah. Followers of a seemingly airheaded to see it. The same happened with a cinema news are bom- girlfriend younger than dreadful comedy called Hamlet 2 in barded with reports of the Sundance his own kids. One day, at the stu- 2008. These movies failed not only attendees responding with standing dio where she helps actors with their because they were bad, but because ovations to this fi lm or that fi lm, only to accents, Carol offhandedly records a they were marketed as something spe- fi nd that when the movie is released voice-over herself. It’s a business domi- cial when they really were not. months later, it’s just, as the young nated by men with plummy voices, so The point here is that hype is not people say these days, meh. her work is something new, and she just a problem for studio block busters The latest such meh-sterpiece is In begins to make a career of it as well. whose marketing divisions make you a World..., a movie written and directed This is all reasonably interesting, sick and tired of such movies long by its fetching star, Lake Bell. She won as is the stutter-step romance between before they ever get to your local best screenplay for it at Sundance, Carol and the incredibly hesitant man- theater. A comparable sort of weari- where it was received “jubilantly,” ager of the recording studio (Demetri ness can set in among those for whom according to Deadline.com. Martin). Less good and less new are the movie going really is an ingrained cul- In the fi lm, Carol Solomon (Bell) plot developments centered around tural habit—the very people who go to makes an uncertain living as a voice the recording of a big, new trailer and the art houses and smaller theaters that coach in Los Angeles. She wanders a wildly overserious subplot about the are the natural homes for Sundance conjugal dissatisfaction of Carol’s sister, movies—when modest fare is over- John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary, an unpleasant hotel concierge married praised and oversold. After all, a one-

is THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s movie critic. to a lovely guy (Rob Corddry). eyed man still only has one eye. ♦ ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 39 “On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed evidence of the alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian regime PARODY as ‘absolutely unconvincing.’” —Associated Press, September 2, 2013

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013