Monday, November 09, 2009

November 9, 1989-The Atheism That Failed

Ross Douthot encapsulates many of my views on the end of the Cold War. It seems like yesterday, but college freshman were not alive when the Soviet Union existed. The President of the United States thought begging for the Olympics and picking up a Nobel Prize worth a trip to Europe, but not the celebrations over the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall.

I don't think Douthot is right about permanence. Europe, in particular, does not seem permanently in the camp of liberal democracy to me but overall he is correct. Islamicism threatens us with nuclear strikes that will destroy cities but not the West. Russia can immiserate many on its borders but cannot export its pathologies anymore.

November 11 now commemorates the end of the war to end wars. November 9 truly is the day the credible threat of Armageddon ended. Those of us who thought the day would never come are now amazed it was so long ago.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't think he's picked up his Nobel prize yet, and, yes, he's "wasting" time instead recognizing the victims of the Fort Hood shoot-out.

MLR