I love Arnold Kling.   He's a fantastic, incisive, level-headed, non-partisan writer who has a knack for communicating complex in simple, layman's terms.  

This time, he's taking on David Brooks' Bobo's In Paradise & the Iraq war -

In July of 2001, I wrote an essay criticizing Brooks and the Bobos. In it, I said,

Bobos put up little or no moral resistance to some forms of antisocial behavior. This aspect of the Bobo mindset is captured in such labels as "nonjudgmentalism," "ethical relativism," and "tolerance for diverse points of view."

...the common thread in Bobo moral attitudes is laziness. For most Bobos, their outlook does not reflect an intellectual commitment to ethical relativism. Instead, it results from a fear of confrontation.

...The over-arching commandment of Bobo-ism is "Thou shalt not confront."

In his recent column on Iraq, I was struck at how closely Brooks adhered to the pre-9/11 Bobo mentality that I identified. He refers to the hawkish position with which he disagrees as "confrontationalist." September 11 changes nothing for the Bobos. "Thou shalt not confront" is still the commandment.

"Thou Shalt Not Confront" elegantly captures so many of the things I've been critical of for the past few years - PostModernism, Relativism, Fear of Power, Cultural Assessments, False Choices, and so on - in a phrase that's perfect for dinner table debate.   What's Kerry's core problem in dealing with terrorists?   Whether or not the terrorists believe Kerry adheres to "Thou Shalt Not Confront".     Merits aside, when in a war - particularly one against a broad philosophy rather than a single coherent sovereign - the cojones question is tragically central.   Kerry's got 50 days to convince us he's got 'em.

The phrase captures the central US vs. France/Germany fault line quite elegantly.   To confront requires power.   It requres self-assuredness.   It requires conviction.   And it's rarely entirely polite.

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UPDATE - "Thou Shalt Not Confront" in action in the tussle over Iran -

VIENNA, Austria - A U.S.-European rift surfaced Tuesday over how harshly to deal with Iran and its suspect nuclear program, with the Europeans ignoring American suggestions and circulating their own recommendations to other delegates at a key meeting of the U.N. atomic agency.

...The Americans asked the draft include an Oct. 31 deadline. The EU text remained vaguer in demands and in a time frame, asking only that IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei submit a comprehensive report before November for evaluation by the board.

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