LONDON -- It seemed possible, briefly, after Sept. 11, that the destroyers of the World Trade Center had crashed us into the perfect civil society. Strangers spoke kindly and with interest to each other. Trivia disappeared from the newspapers. Leaders of the opposition parties in Britain stood just behind Prime Minister Tony Blair's shoulders and never dreamed of stabbing him in the back.
There is nothing like war to infuse the flabby body politic with energy and purpose. At first sight, the old notion that democracy best flourishes during war seemed to be coming true.
But last week Blair went on stage before the Welsh Assembly to combat growing war weariness -- to urge us not to slump back into our comfort zone. "The Taliban have one hope," he said. "That we are decadent. That we lack the . . . courage to take them on; that we might begin, but we won't finish."