• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

West Haven Voice

West Haven’s only independent news source - By and For West Haven

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Archive
  • Advertise With Us!
  • Classified
  • Announcements
  • Contact Us
  • Web Exclusive
    • Kids Activity Pages

Where is our National honor?

September 18, 2024 By whvoice

By Rich Lowry

Syndicated Columnist

What happened to national honor?

Famously, a message from President Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, John Hay, electrified the 1904 Republican convention: “This Government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.”

Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy Greek-American, had been kidnapped in Morocco by a bandit named Ahmed al-Raisuli. Hay’s line served as a U.S. ultimatum to bring the affair, after the United deployment of the U.S. Navy to Morocco and drawn-out negotiations, to a conclusion.

We’ve come a long way from the time when the kidnapping of one American, whose citizenship was actually a little murky, elicited a thunderous reaction as a matter of national principle.

Needless to say, no one is ever going to mistake Joe Biden for TR, one of the most compelling figures in American history, but the president couldn’t be a better representative of our attenuated sense of national honor.

A terrorist group killed and kidnapped U.S. citizens and is still holding them in horrific conditions, and the U.S. government has been doing a tap dance between the terrorists and an Israeli government fighting and bleeding to try to save them.

U.S. officials condemn Hamas, yet there is none of the righteous fury one would expect of a government whose citizens have been subjected to such grotesque mistreatment.

When Hamas murdered Hersh Goldberg-Polin in cold blood, President Biden blamed Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for his recalcitrance in negotiations — even though Hamas took the hostages, Hamas has refused to release them, Hamas has a policy of killing them if there is some chance they could get rescued, and Hamas threatens to do the same again.

We’ve imposed no significant consequences on Iran for its sponsorship of a terror group with American blood on its hands.

We are mealy-mouthed and skittish, a super power constrained by its unwillingness to fully take its own side in a fight.

We should feel a profound sense of national embarrassment, but Joe Biden doesn’t embarrass easily. He left U.S. citizens behind in Afghanistan and has failed to neutralize a rag-tag band of rebels who continue to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea despite the presence of the U.S. Navy.

Back in 1904, when Perdicaris was released and saw U.S. vessels in the water outside Tangier, he exulted at “such proof of his country’s solicitude for its citizens and for the honor of its flag.”

Biden is now falling short not just of the TR standard, but that set by Lord Palmerston, the great British foreign secretary, under much less provocation. In 1850, Palmerston sent the Royal Navy to vindicate the interests of David Pacifico, a British citizen and Jew born in Gibraltar, who was seeking recompense from the Greek government for the destruction of his property.

Responding to his critics, Palmerston delivered a nearly five-hour speech describing the question in the matter as, “whether, as the Roman, in days of old, held himself free from indignity, when he could say Civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]; so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England, will protect him against injustice and wrong.”

Of course, the sentiments of Hay and Palmerston are from long ago. It is likely that Joe Biden and the people around him feel about those attitudes the way John Kerry felt after Vladimir Putin went into Ukraine the first time in 2014: “You just don’t, in the 21st century, behave in 19th century fashion.”

National honor, in any robust sense, presumably strikes them as atavistic and chauvinistic, too simplistic and unyielding for the demands of our complicated times. Hamas, though, isn’t playing by 21st-century rules. It is acting by the same bloody-minded imperatives of barbarians from any time or place. We may think we are responding with great subtlety and sophistication, but we shouldn’t be surprised if they consider us weaklings and fools.

Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.

(c) 2024 by King Features Synd., Inc.

Filed Under: 091924, Lowry, Opinion

Primary Sidebar

Seach our site

Follow us on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

The week in photos ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

The week in photos – May 8, 2025

westhavenvoice.com

The week in photos – May 8, 2025 May 8, 2025 By whvoice Leave a Comment Washington School set to open With the opening set for May 22, Gilbane Construction crews are placing fixtures and other equip...
6 days ago
View Comments
  • likes Like 0
  • Comments: 0
  • Shares: 0
Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

New Briefs - tax relief program, dog license info, Westies Care, and more.. ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

News Briefs

westhavenvoice.com

News Briefs May 8, 2025 By whvoice Leave a Comment Tax relief applications accepted The assessor’s office is accepting applications by appointment for tax relief programs for elderly and disabled ho...
6 days ago
View Comments
  • likes Like 0
  • Comments: 0
  • Shares: 0
Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Boardwalk facility named for Joe Carr ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Boardwalk facility named for Joe Carr

westhavenvoice.com

Boardwalk facility named for Joe Carr May 8, 2025 By whvoice Leave a Comment Family members of the late Department of Public Works laborer and driver Joe Carr pause beneath the sign that the city dedi...
6 days ago
View Comments
  • likes Like love 3
  • Comments: 0
  • Shares: 0
Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Grant aids VA neighborhood upgrades ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Grant aids VA neighborhood upgrades

westhavenvoice.com

Grant aids VA neighborhood upgrades May 7, 2025 By whvoice Leave a Comment Mayor Dorinda Borer speaks during a news conference with Gov. Ned Lamont, second from right, at City Hall on Monday announcin...
6 days ago
View Comments
  • likes Like 0
  • Comments: 0
  • Shares: 0
Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Load more

 

 

West Haven’s Calendar

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
West Haven Calendar
2 years ago
West Haven Calendar

Thursday Night Live (This one's on Friday!!!)

... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Thursday Night Live (This one's on Friday!!!)

tockify.com

Fri 23 Jun, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM [EDT]: Event by Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce, CT Old Grove Park Public · Anyone on or off Facebook West Haven summer concerts are back! Join us in West Haven thi...
View Comments
  • likes Like 0
  • Comments: 1
  • Shares: 0
Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

1 CommentsComment on Facebook

West Haven Calendar
2 years ago
West Haven Calendar

Mark Your West Haven Calendar

tockify.com/west.haven.calendar/detail/442/1686776400000

Business After Hours West Haven Veterans Museum
... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Business After Hours West Haven Veterans Museum

tockify.com

Wed 14 Jun, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM [EDT]: Business After Hours West Haven Veterans Museum West Haven Veterans Museum & Learning Center Event by Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce, CT West Haven Veterans ...
View Comments
  • likes Like 0
  • Comments: 0
  • Shares: 0
Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

West Haven Calendar
2 years ago
West Haven Calendar

Added for June 10th & 11th

tockify.com/west.haven.calendar/detail/443/1686405600000

West Haven Historical Society Open House
... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

West Haven Historical Society Open House

tockify.com

Sat 10 Jun, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM [EDT]:
View Comments
  • likes Like 2
  • Comments: 1
  • Shares: 0
Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

1 CommentsComment on Facebook

Load more

Footer

Address

West Haven Voice
840 Boston Post Road
West Haven, CT

 

Contact us

Call (203) 934-6397

Contact form

SITE NAVIGATION

HOME
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
ADVERTISE!
CLASSIFIED
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CONTACT US
WEB EXCLUSIVE

FIND US IN PRINT

Our print edition is available each Thursday. Here is a list of locations!

Letters Policy

Information on submitting letters to us.

Our submission deadlines.

Copyright © 2025 West Haven Voice, LLC