THE BOYS ON THE TRAIN
July 22, 2003
by Joe Sobran
I recently cited an anecdote related by C.S. Lewis,
but couldn't recall which of his books I'd read it in,
and I may have gotten it slightly wrong. I ran across the
story again last night in REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS, so
now I can quote Lewis's own words.
He was riding a train one night during World War II
in a compartment full of young English soldiers: "Their
conversation made it clear that they totally disbelieved
all that they had read in the papers about the wholesale
cruelties of the Nazi regime. They took it for granted,
without argument, that this was all lies, all propaganda
put out by our own government to 'pep up' our troops. And
the shattering thing was, that, believing this, they
expressed not the slightest anger. That our rulers should
falsely attribute the worst of crimes to some of their
fellow-men in order to induce other men to shed their
blood seemed to them a matter of course. They weren't
even particularly interested. They saw nothing wrong in
it."
I wonder how many people really believed all the
things President Bush and Prime Minister Blair of Britain
said about Saddam Hussein in order to "pep up" war fever.
Weren't these just the sort of charges politicians always
make when they want a war?
The current flap about whether Bush was lying in his
state of the Union speech seems to me somewhat overblown.
He said that British intelligence had "learned" -- not
"suspected" or "believed," but positively "learned" --
that "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant
quantities of uranium from Africa."
This turns out to be untrue. Bush says he regrets
having said it, but passed the buck to his intelligence
agencies. Ari Fleischer, his departing press secretary,
sought to minimize its significance by noting, "The
president has moved on. And, I think, frankly, much of
the country has moved on as well."
Well, the British public isn't moving on. They're
steamed. Blair may be forced to resign, especially since
the incident has now resulted in the apparent suicide of
a top government scientist.
The American media are steamed too. So are the
Democrats. They are raising sharp questions about Bush's
veracity and judgment, and about whether he exerted
pressure on those intelligence agencies to twist their
data to make Saddam appear even worse, and more menacing,
than he really was. Were we bamboozled into another
needless war?
But Fleischer is right. The country has moved on. It
was never really interested in whether Saddam had all
those "weapons of mass destruction," including nukes.
Nobody thought he would dare to attack this country even
if he had them. So it hardly matters now that he never
did have them.
Bush got his war, and he won it. That's why much of
the country still supports him and would do so even if it
were proved that he lied brazenly. He's perceived as a
"strong" president. Many people simply like strong
rulers. Millions of Russians still have a positive
opinion of Joe Stalin for the same reason.
But let's look for the silver lining. Much as I
despised Bill Clinton, I thought he performed an
invaluable service by lying so relentlessly: he increased
distrust and suspicion of government. He undermined the
overblown prestige of the presidency.
Bush, though less obviously mendacious, is
continuing this service. Of course his enemies will
accuse him of lying. What is more important is that from
now on, even his friends will never be quite sure they
can believe him. He has permanently devalued his own
words. The next time he tries to tell us that Iran or
North Korea poses a serious threat to us, even his most
ardent supporters will hesitate to express agreement, for
fear of sounding like his dupes or lackeys.
Even Bush may be wary of sounding like Bush. I doubt
that he will want to repeat such slogans as "axis of
evil," "weapons of mass destruction," "liberation," and
even "democracy" to justify future military action. Some
people who cheered this time may be hooting next time.
He will at least need a fresh verbal arsenal of
propaganda. And if Tony Blair pays the ultimate political
price for going along with him, he will also need to find
a new international sidekick.
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