Sir, – Reading Mark O’Connell’s characteristically brilliant column (“Is there a better metaphor for the state of the world than Hegseth staff smashing Eisenhower’s globe?”, November 1st). I was reminded of another column, published on February 13th, 2003, also in The Irish Times.
O’Connell reads with great acuity the symbolism of the accidental damage done to Eisenhower’s globe in moving it to secretary of war, Pete Hegseth’s office a few months ago (“accidents happen” was the response to enquiries from the Pentagon), seeing in it a rich metaphor for the Trump administration’s blundering hyper-aggression in foreign policy.
In the article carried in The Irish Times in 2003, David Ignatius of the Washington Post warned that the Bush administration was, as it neared its invasion of Iraq, close to the “Ahab moment”. This was the point in Herman Melville’s great novel Moby Dick when Captain Ahab smashes the quadrant on his ship the Pequod, in his fury preferring to navigate by pursuit of the white whale alone.
The ensuing conquest and occupation of Iraq, ostensibly to winkle out weapons of mass destruction and to bring democracy to that country, was a disaster.
RM Block
Trump, ably assisted by buffoons like Hegseth, continues the demolition of the “liberal international order” started by Bush. It may well be that the assault on Iran has been Trump’s “Ahab moment”. – Yours, etc,
Conor McCarthy,
Monkstown,
Dublin.
