Giving Out Chances

Here's an item that ties together a couple of recent posts. Glenn Greenwald has been following the saga of Jonah Goldberg's upcoming speech at the University of Massachusetts. You remember Goldberg--he was lately mooning over Moussolini in the National Review blog (though, he was quick to point out, not necessarily for the reasons you might think). This time around, he's set to present "All I Am Saying Is Give War a Chance" (alluding to the subject of this post) to the UMass Republican Club. (According to Google, he's given it before.) Goldberg, of course, has never been in the military. (He rather famously explained his other "priorities.") I think it's pretty safe to say that few--if any--UMass College Republicans have served, either. So I was prepared to make some sort of quip about how the Army recruiters might want to pull themselves away from trolling for high school students at the mall and look into renting table space at Goldberg's presentation.

But that was before it got interesting. According to Greenwald, Jonah is uncomfortable with the attention he's receiving. What he calls his "hate mail" has expanded quite a bit, and he says the event has to beef up its security more than normal. In other words, Goldberg may have to face some opposition opinion. In response, he put out a call for "friendlies" to attend, as well.

But isn't this exactly the situation you'd expect Jonah to be looking for? What better way to cement his position as warrior philosopher than to take on all comers over the issue and really show us what it means to "give war a chance"?