Via Perfessor Bill

Hugo Gurdon of the National Post writes: Jingoism came of age in 1878 when Disraeli sent a British fleet to the Eastern Mediterranean to counter Russian expansion in Turkish waters. It was good policy to contain the Russian empire in its Tsarist phase, just as it was in its Soviet phase. But, as with the war against Islamism and the coming battle with Iraq, some enthusiasts for the policy were of a type calculated to prompt stamping and whinnying in the liberal stable.

The music hall Jingo song that became popular at the time was enlivened by splendidly gore-chilling stuff about the Russian bear, "all bent on blood and robbery [having] crawled out of his lair," and the martial anthem crowed about the "thrashing" that the lion administered to the bear every now and again when old bruin got uppity. But the core and most quoted view of the jingoist was:

'We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do
We've got the ships,we've got the men
And got the money too.'

Not a word of this is objectionable. It is, rather, a cardinal statement of the right way to approach war -- not as desirable in itself but as something that, if unavoidable, should be undertaken with the vigour, determination, weaponry, soldiery and financial commitment necessary to secure victory…

The lesson isn't the one suggested by peacenik lapel buttons that "War is not the answer." The answer depends on the nature of the question. And if you're enquiring about the best way to eliminate the threat posed by a dictator such as Saddam Hussein, who is building weapons of mass destruction and who is probably behind terrorism on U.S. soil, then war may well be the answer. War resulting in decisive victory and defeat has, historically, been highly effective in settling issues between otherwise irreconcilable enemies...