Archive for February, 2004

“Civilization and Its Enemies” by Lee Harris

Wednesday, February 25th, 2004

“Civilization and Its Enemies” by Lee Harris

In a brilliant response to the quandaries of 9/11, a ferociously independent thinker argues that only the United States has the moral credibility to lead.

By Ann Marlowe

Feb 25, 2004 | When I am exasperated by some stupidity or cupidity in the Third World, I sometimes find myself thinking how much simpler it would be if we just gave them all statehood. Yes, just invite them into the United States — the annoying countries with oil, the annoying countries without oil, the ones where Christians and animists are killing each other, the ones where Muslims and Christians are killing each other, the ones where Muslims and animists are killing each other, and even the small charming countries that do not exasperate — if they want to join.

Half their people want to come here anyway; instead of worrying about visas and quotas and green cards and policing our borders, we could make there become a lot more like here, with decent-paying jobs and free public education and the rule of law and freedom of speech and the newspapers to prove it, with driver’s licenses and auto insurance and real roads and building permits and trash pickup and all of the rest of it. Farewell to child labor, honor killings, female infanticide, illiteracy, casual bribery. Liberals will have to stop whining about wars for oil, because the oil will be ours, and conservatives will have to stop whining about foreign aid, which won’t be foreign anymore. European intellectuals will have to stop comparing Ariel Sharon to Hitler, because the Palestinians will have a state, and it will be one of ours. (more…)