Blown away by self-loathing

The British seem at least as prone to navel gazing as the Americans. Thus, it is plausible to suppose that Tony Blair is in trouble as a result of American abuses at Abu Ghraib, as this report from the Financial Times claims. The Financial Times cites no polling data to support its claim, however. Perhaps the British don’t poll as often as we do here. It so, then maybe they aren’t as inclined as we are to look at their navels, after all.
But the Financial Times is. Consider the following statement, reprehensible enough to have been uttered by Ted Kennedy: “The rationale for the invasion of Iraq had shifted to the restoration of human rights and the rule of law – an argument blown away by the horrifying treatment of the prisoners.” Yup, to the navel gazers at this journal, the notion that the American/British engagement in Iraq might help restore human rights and the rule of law after years of Saddam’s tyranny is “blown away” (not made more difficult to present to the Iraqis, or momentarily set back, but blown away) by the conduct of some American prison guards. If the self-loathing elites in the U.S. and Britain really have this little faith in the ability of their nations to occupy the moral high ground in the confrontation with barbarian jihadists and fascists, then Rocket Man is certainly justified in wondering whether either country can fight a war, and thus whether either can defend itself against terrorism.