If there was ever any doubt about why Slate is unsuccessful in making itself relevant again, this column by Kaplan should remove it once and for all. It is, in the venacular, a target rich environment. There is so much here, I hardly know where to begin.
Kaplan;’s main premise is a hit on President Bush, of course. But as usual, he has to make up some things, and completely ignore others to draw the conclusions he does.
Says Kaplan:
As late as a year ago, around the time of the attack’s first anniversary, the bloom had not yet entirely worn off. On Sept. 8, 2002, the French president, Jacques Chirac, repeated the words of Le Monde as if they were his own—”We are all Americans”—and added that these feelings “haven’t disappeared,” that “when the chips are down, the French and Americans have always stood together and have never failed to be there for one another.”
Kaplan’s complaint here, of course is that the President didn’t capitalize on this sentiment, from Chirac and similar from other suposed allies. Only trouble is Kaplan doesn’t understand politics at all, if he doesn’t understand, as most do that the context of this statement of Chirac’s can be found in lesser amounts on any stable floor. Both France and German involvement in the support of the people we were and are trying to extinguish was transparent even on the day Chirac made that statement; They could not and still cannot be trusted. Leadership, in many situations, including this one, does require unilateral action.
Kaplan’s inability to see this leaves either his honesty or his greymater in doubt… and frankly, I’m unclear which is a worse scenario for America.
