Never Forget

For some reason some of you still like to hold on to the notion that Sullivan is in fact a reasonable person. Let's remember what he published on September 16, 2001, and what he considers to be one of his "greatest hits."

The terrorists have done the rest. The middle part of the country - the great red zone that voted for Bush - is clearly ready for war. The decadent Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead - and may well mount what amounts to a fifth column.

Actually, that isn't what he published on September 16, 2001, despite what it says at the bottom of the page. What he actually published, but has now edited though it remains in Nexis's archive, was this:

The terrorists have done the rest. The middle part of the country -the great red zone that voted for Bush -is clearly ready for war. The decadent left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead -and may well mount a fifth column.

And, two days later he wrote:

But we might as well be aware of the enemy within the West itself - a paralyzing, pseudo-clever, morally nihilist fifth column that will surely ramp up its hatred in the days and months ahead.

Sullivan was one of the earliest adopters of the idea that the most appropriate response to September 11 was to figure how to to use it to pit American against American.