Volume 54, Number 14 · September 27, 2007
His Toughness Problem—and Ours
By Ian Buruma
World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism
by Norman Podhoretz
Doubleday, 230 pp., $24.95
Not so long before the war in Iraq was launched, I was the only European at an American dinner party in Brussels. My fellow guests were a motley group of youngish diplomats, think-tank pundits, ex-spooks, and journalists, most of whom had established reputations as promoters of neoconservatism. Many topics were discussed, but two stand out in my memory: French wines and the 'projection of force.' Despite the praise for fine French wines, 'the Europeans' were rather sneered at, as namby-pamby, frivolous, anti-Semitic appeasers, too far gone in spineless pacifism and political decadence to share America's burden of projecting force to make the world safe for democracy. They spoke with great confidence about military matters, of which none of them, to my knowledge, had any personal experience.
Review, 5050 words
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