Jamie Kirchick published an email this morning he received from an “internationally-renowned journalist” whose parents endured World War II, and who suspects we — Americans, the British — aren’t tough enough now.
After detailing the incredible challenges faced by her family in 1940, even after a German bomb destroyed their home, Kirchick’s emailer explained that “they never for one moment wanted to give in or make peace and they never doubted ultimate victory.” Apparently, it’s because that generation had “grit.”
It seems nobody much has it now. But unless the US and UK – the two countries that really matter – have more grit than Al Qaeda, we could lose. This doesn’t mean we have to stay in Iraq forever. We have to box clever too. But the one thing I am sure of is that these two countries have to be united…. [T]he rest of the world knows in its bones that these two countries are closer to standing for decency and democracy than any other combination. Of course they’re far from perfect. They’re just the best we’ve got, the last best hope of mankind, as Churchill put it. They didn’t invade Europe to control it but to hand those countries back to their own people, and they did it twice. This means that, for all the cacophony of criticism they currently endure, they command more respect than any other combination of powers. […]
Grit used to be the Anglo virtue – absolutely grim perseverance through long, terrible reverses – though often laughing at oneself, mocking one’s political leaders, trying to drown one’s sorrows in warm beer and Glen Miller’s music- but just never wavering. Wavering was for the Italians and French maybe, but not if you were serious. The Germans didn’t waver. The Russians didn’t waver. So for heaven’s sake why should we? I mourn the loss of grit.
Maybe I’m grit-impaired, but I have no idea what this person is talking about.
I suspect he or she wrote this 700-word email, and Kirchick published it, as some kind of argument on behalf of staying in Iraq longer. If the Brits in 1940 could endure seemingly insurmountable odds against the Germans, then American and British forces can continue to get in the middle of Iraq’s civil war. It would demonstrate “grit.”
I obviously don’t know Kirchick’s emailer, but his or her argument — I hesitate to even call it an “argument” — doesn’t make a lot of sense. Iraq in 2007 is comparable to England in 1940 how, exactly?
It’s likely that some conservatives, including Kirchick, find this email message appealing because it reinforces their image of themselves. They want to pursue a failed strategy because they’re “tough.” To withdraw is to be “defeated” and to show “weakness,” so machismo should rule the day. If that means falling in a ditch and continuing to dig, so be it. This isn’t about doing what’s right, or pursuing a sensible foreign policy, it’s about showing “grit.”
But this is madness. Opponents of Bush’s Iraq policy aren’t weak — we simply want a policy that makes sense, protects our national security interests, and offers some hope for the future.
I found Christopher Orr’s take to be spot-on.
…I find it rather irritating when entirely nonideological character traits are put to ideological ends — especially so, when those ends are implied but unstated. The correspondent writes, “This doesn’t mean we have to stay in Iraq forever,” insinuating that it does mean we have to stay in Iraq for now. What else does it mean? It’s hard to say, apart from America and Britain remaining “united” and our not coming to resemble the “wavering” Italians and French.
The whole letter seems a fairly transparent critique of liberals, but assiduously avoids making any actual political claims that could be rebutted…. Perhaps it’s just me, but I tend to think that these paeans to “grit” would be considerably more persuasive if the people singing them were a little more forthright about what it is, exactly, they’re trying to say.
Of course, if recent history is any guide, Kirchick doesn’t actually agree with the email he published, but simply offered it to “be provocative and stir some debate.”