Doesn't Sullivan Have an Award

Doesn’t Sullivan Have an Award for This Sort of Thing?
Interesting but not convincing stuff from Derbyshire today. He argues that Israel will eventually be swallowed up by the Arabs for the same reason he thinks Northern Ireland will be incorporated into Ireland Proper — “democracy is no match for terrorism.”

Oh really, John?

I, too, am a pessimist on Israel’s long-term chances — but only because not even SDI can defend again a suitcase nuke. And the barbarians only have to get lucky once to flatten Tel Aviv.

But saying we’re no match for terrorism, just two nights after Bush’s SOTUA, just four months into this campaign, just weeks into the government we installed in Afghanistan… well. I wonder if after Pearl harbor in 1941 and Kasserine Pass not much later, Derbyshire would have argued that “democracy is no match for fascism.” Or after Task Force Smith that “democracy is no match for Communism.”

Blair caved into the IRA. Israel damned near caved into the PLO in 1999, and was saved only by Arafat’s ill-timed intransigence. But as a Brit — whose George III caved into certain rabble after Yorktown — Derbyshire underestimates his American cousins yet again.