Without Blinkers

The object of war is peace. If that sounds Orwellian, try this: the object of work is leisure. The object of saving is spending. The purpose of fighting is to stop fighting. That may start to make sense, but never to the Guardian. It ran the headline Rebranding Bush as Man of Peace to describe the sudden outbreak of diplomatic breakthroughs that have deluged the foreign ministries of the world. The problem, it seems, is to account for:

1. the North Korea agreement to allow US inspectors to visit their nuclear complexes;
2. the reception of an Israeli humanitarian delegation to Teheran;
3. the acceptance of US humanitarian assistance to the earthquake victims in Iran;
4. the Libyan decision to abandon its WMD program;
5. the growing international participation in the rebuilding or Iraq; and
6. the dispatch of envoy John Wolf to Israel to restart talks with the Palestinians.

The Guardian's explanation is simple. "The White House has retreated from its doctrine of regime change and pre-emptive military action and is returning to traditional diplomacy in an effort to repackage George Bush as a president for peace." There is an alternative explanation. These developments are the first fruits of American victory. Lest this sound too far-fetched, the Guardian may recall that their beloved United Nations was the direct result of victory over Nazism and Japanese militarism. It did not represent an attempt by Roosevelt and Churchill to repackage themselves as peaceful leaders, at the last moment, after more than 5 years of war.

The object of a good Leftist upbringing is to instill the correct standpoint, viewpoint and method so that the well-bred Marxist is never mislead by the obvious. That up is down and down is up requires education to perceive. Albert Camus and George Orwell went wrong and left the Party precisely because they thought they could trust their minds. It is a mistake that Guardian subscribers seek never to repeat.