Speak Like a President, Madam VP
Nasrallah’s death is no time for equivocation.
By David
Frum
September 28, 2024,
9 AM ET
Kamala Harris has campaigned as the tough-on-dictators
candidate for president. The Democrat scores points off Donald Trump for his
truckling and cringing to Vladimir Putin, for swapping love letters with Kim
Jong Un.
Today—this very day—the vice president has her best
opportunity to prove her toughness and assert her national-security
credibility. She can issue a statement on Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah,
the Hezbollah leader and terrorist in chief. “The Middle East is a better and
safer place without Nasrallah.” Full stop. No diplomatic balancing, no
process-speak.
Yes, obviously, there will be complexities ahead. What will
Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, do in response? The U.S. government pays skilled
regional experts to worry about such contingencies. But a big problem with
Harris’s public image is that she often lets those skilled experts choose her
words for her. They push her to say too much, which means saying nothing, which
means Americans don’t feel they know her.
In too many cases, Harris’s words seem focus-grouped to
please every imaginable constituency. The trouble is, at exactly the moment
when communications staffers are satisfied they have pleased everybody, they
have, in fact, left everybody frightened that the candidate is confused and
hesitant. Strong leaders get in front of public opinion. Strong leaders make
choices and accept consequences.
Sometimes the best way to halt an escalation cycle is to
demonstrate how unafraid you are of the escalation cycle.
On October 29, 1983, Hezbollah detonated truck bombs at the
barracks of the U.S. Marines keeping the peace in Lebanon after the 1982 war
between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. More Marines died
than in any single day since the landing on Iwo Jima during
the Second World War. That blood debt has never been fully paid. Israel’s
forceful strikes on Hezbollah this year have delivered justice for Americans
too.
Leadership isn’t always straightforward, but a great leader
should know when to be simple and direct. A very bad man has met the violent
death he inflicted on so many others. No American leader should feel frightened
of expressing a lack of sorrow. The menu can sometimes call for word salad.
Today, the menu calls for word meat-and-potatoes.
“Nasrallah dead? Good.” That’s the message Harris should send. Say it clear.
Say it firm. Say it like a president.
