Quote Originally Posted by Eden View Post
you can see that constructing something like a coherent 'Why we Fight' narrative is doomed to failure.
I have to disagree. "What happened on Sept 11 is wrong and we want all the help we can get fighting it," was working: international banking restrictions, police around the world making arrests etc. It took a core value that almost all people agree with - massacring innocent civilians is wrong - and allowed them to adopt it to the own identities. (Canada can help by... The UK can help by... Egypt may understand the frustration but ...)

Fewer people signed up to "Saddam is part of the problem." Leaving aside the issue of whether that change was right or wrong, it is possible to have a broad consensus. (Even the Germans agree now that we were on the right side in WWII.)

Most people believe in the right to self defense. It's very hard to convince the world that we need to start a war, much easier to convince them that they should help us finish it.