Okay, that’s old news, definitely, but, well, sometimes one can’t help repeating one’s self. A couple of days ago, I ran a piece nominating Daniel Drezner, David French, Jay Nordlinger, and Ross Douthat as candidates for that wishy-washy band of stand asiders who, in death, stand outside the gates of Hell, rejected by God and Satan alike, for their attempt to find a “third way” to deal with Donald Trump’s atrocious assassination of a high-ranking official in the Iranian military, Qassem Soleimani. Well, in perhaps the most predictable event of the new year, one which could eventually prove to be in fact the most predictable event of the whole new decade, David “Mr. Morality” Brooks, the man who praised himself for leaving his wife of 27 years for a woman 23 years his junior, has joined their number. Even in Dante’s time, there were so many that “I could not have guessed that death had undone so many,” but, clearly, the situation is shortly due to get much, much worse.
To get down to specifics with Dave, he’s able to write a whole column about, you know, murder, without even mentioning the term, except to accuse the Iranians of engaging in “genocide”, which is not true. Yes, Iran’s record in the Middle East is bloody, but so is Israel’s (a country that goes unmentioned by Mr. Brooks), and so is ours. Apparently, assassination is just a tool for Mr. Brooks. It can be constructive, it can be destructive. So let’s not get all hysterical like those crazy left-wing Democrats, who think that murdering high-ranking government officials might lead to war! Those wackos! Like those genocidal Iranians might do something crazy just because we murdered one of their highest ranking generals! Don’t be silly!
It is noticeable—and laughable—and contemptible—that the tediously moral Mr. Brooks doesn’t even mention the question of the morality of the act. Instead, he has to huff and puff and look at the “big picture”, asserting that Donald Trump “has made us all stupid”, pretending he still has the contempt for Mr. Trump that he did display after Trump won first the Republican nomination, and then the presidency, when in fact he is now eager to cover for Mr. Trump’s crimes by neglecting all mention of them. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Brooks wrote, in a column called “The Republican Fausts”
[I]if the last 10 days have made anything clear, it’s this: The Republican Fausts are in an untenable position. The deal they’ve struck with the devil comes at too high a price. It really will cost them their soul.
Well, Davey, you got that one right. Except, I guess, you won’t be outside the gates of Hell. You’ll be inside.
