Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Philip Weiss and Zo‰ Heller

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Zo‰ Heller

Onward, Christian Pols

Posted Tuesday, June 8, 1999, at 10:28 AM ET

Dear Philip,

How mercurial you are. One minute you're insisting on frivolity and the weather, the next, you're sending foam-flecked diatribes about the monstrosities of war.

Actually, I'm not so surprised by your feelings about the air strikes. I think they're pretty widely shared--particularly your belief that the war would have come to a swifter conclusion had NATO been willing to commit ground troops from the start. That, for me, is the real objection to Clinton's "No ground troops" position. I'm probably not as anxious as you about "fair play" in war--messing up the other side while sustaining as little damage to your own is the objective of war, isn't it?--but, like you, I have found the hand-wringing about putting our boys at risk a bit hard to take.

I'm reminded of the time, a few years ago, when that U.S. Air Force pilot got stuck behind enemy lines in Bosnia for a couple of days. The whole country got caught up in this sentimental hysteria about his fate. When he was finally rescued and brought home, there was endless ooh-aahing about the fact that the poor laddie had eaten insects to survive. He got decorated and interviewed and cooed over and finally, if memory serves me right, he got wheeled out at the Republican Party Convention as a symbol of all that was good and noble about America. It felt like treason to say so at the time, but what I really felt was, He was just doing his job, for Christ's sake! If you expend all your hero worship on someone like that, what do you have left for real heroes? I'm not desperate to see members of the armed forces getting killed and maimed, but since Vietnam, this country seems to have gotten caught up in the dangerous delusion that you can wage righteous wars without spilling a single drop of American blood.

A change of subject: I like A.N. Wilson's piece in the New York Times today about the spread of religiosity in U.S. politics. One of the examples he cites is Al Gore's recent speech to the Sally Army in which he remarked that "Americans are still the most decent people on earth. America has the highest level of religious belief and observance of any nation." Yuck. There was a time, not so long ago, when President Bush could joke to a meeting of Southern Baptists that he was "the only person in the room who'd been born just once." I doubt any politician would risk that sort of irreverence today. Clinton never misses an opportunity to be filmed, swaying along to a Baptist choir, doing his "I'm down with it," white man's overbite thing. And look at the Bush-child, George W., who is running around telling anyone who'll listen that he's recommitted his life to Jesus Christ. The first presidential candidate to stand up and proclaim his/her atheism gets my vote.

Love,
Zoë

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Zo‰ Heller

Onward, Christian Pols

Posted Tuesday, June 8, 1999, at 10:28 AM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Philip Weiss is a novelist and a columnist for the New York Observer. Zo‰ Heller lives in New York and writes for British papers.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
The Great Debate
Marcus | Forget Biden. I'd like to see McCain face off against Palin.
Toles: Another McCain SurpriseStumped: Where's Palin's Baby?