Posted on 11/20/2005 1:56:27 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
On Sunday evening last, sharing a birthday celebration at a Vietnamese restaurant on Buford Highway, I am struck anew with a profound sense of guilt.
It has started before, while strolling through the Vietnamese bakery next door, looking at the friendly faces of diners. Many who look my way are old enough to have experienced the war.
My impulse, resisted, is to go to them and ask: Do you still feel our betrayal?
Next door, a young woman, 30 or 35, thoroughly Americanized in manner, shape and dress, walks past with a child, a girl of 8 or 10, so wholly and completely American that she could never find comfort or peace in the land of her grandparents' birth.
Just as I am anguished by the betrayal that brought her here, I am abidingly grateful to live in a nation that received them with the promise that they could in every sense become one of us, equally entitled to ascend to the reaches of their labors and abilities.
To have betrayed them is one crime. To have held them to a caste system, as France is revealed to have done to immigrants from former colonies, would have been an injustice so indecent as to bring shame to those who share the ideals of our Founding Fathers.
Once this nation makes a commitment, as it has done in promising an opportunity for freedom to the people of Iraq, those who accept our word as moral contract are no longer abstractions. They are flesh-and-blood people who look into our eyes and into our national character, assessing our will and our values.
Ultimately, they look into our hearts to determine whether having taken that step into danger that we cajoled, we are there to cover their back.
For us, it is the moment that defines the worth of our Constitution, that defines this generation's relationship with the dead and those who fought and sacrificed for the liberties we profess.
Last week was a defining moment as well in our national discussion about Iraq. It started promisingly enough with a thoughtful speech by U.S. Sen. Joe
Lieberman (D-Conn.), during a debate over the defense authorization bill. But it grew ugly, and dangerous.
That's because the national Democratic Party has retreated to its core — and on national security matters, that is the embittered anti-war left.
As now configured, this is a party that cannot be trusted when the nation is at risk. Its blindness to evil will get people hurt. It will, by its fixation on poll numbers, say to the people of Iraq who have trusted our word, that it is a pledge written on insufficient funds. It will, as was the case with the 200,000 rebellious Shiites that Saddam Hussein slaughtered in the aftermath of Desert Storm, leave Iraq exposed to the vengeful brutality of unchecked evil.
This party rushes to hide its pacifism and its relativism in single file behind imagery — first the "peace mom" radical Cindy Sheehan and, when she was spent, behind the valor of U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a Vietnam veteran who last week provided cover to his anti-war colleagues by declaring, "It's time to bring the troops home."
It is left, then, to Lieberman, Al Gore's vice presidential candidate in 2000, to spark any ray of hope that the party of FDR and Harry Truman has not become a backward-looking party that can't be trusted with liberty's franchise.
"The questions raised about prewar intelligence are not irrelevant . . . but they are nowhere as important and relevant as how we successfully complete our mission in Iraq and protect the 150,000 men and women in uniform who are fighting for us there," Lieberman said.
"The danger is that by spending so much time on the past here, we contribute to a drop in public support. Terrorists know that they cannot defeat us in Iraq, but they also know they can defeat us in America by breaking the will and steadfast support of the American people for this cause."
That is the voice of the Democratic Party America once embraced. It is the voice of the Democratic Party that held the South. It is the voice of a party America can trust when our people are threatened.
But it is not the voice that now dominates — and defines — today's national Democratic Party. That voice will get defenders hurt and trusting souls betrayed.
— Jim Wooten is associate editorial page editor. His column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
That is both the ethical core and psychological heart of what it means to be a part of the left. That is where the gratification comes from. To see yourself as a social redeemer. To feel anointed. In other words: To be progressive is itself the most satisfying narcissism.
That is why it is of little concern to them that their socialist schemes have run aground, burying millions of human beings in their wake. That is why they don't care that their panaceas have caused more human suffering than all the injustices they have ever challenged. That is why they never learn from their "mistakes." That is why the continuance of Them is more important than any truth.
If you were active in the so-called "peace" movement or in the radical wing of the civil rights causes, why would you tell the truth? Why would you tell people that no, you weren't really a "peace activist," except in the sense that you were against America's war. Why would you draw attention to the fact that while you called yourselves "peace activists," you didn't oppose the Communists' war, and were gratified when America's enemies won?
What you were really against was not war at all, but American "imperialism" and American capitalism. What you truly hated was America's democracy, which you knew to be a "sham" because it was controlled by money in the end. That's why you wanted to "Bring the Troops Home," as your slogan said. Because if America's troops came home, America would lose and the Communists would win. And the progressive future would be one step closer.
But you never had the honesty-then or now-to admit that. You told the lie then to maintain your influence and increase your power to do good (as only the Chosen can). And you keep on telling the lie for the same reason.
Why would you admit that, despite your tactical support for civil rights, you weren't really committed to civil rights as Americans understand rights? What you really wanted was to overthrow the very Constitution that guaranteed those rights, based as it is on private property and the individual-both of which you despise.
It is because America is a democracy and the people endorse it, that the left's anti-American, but "progressive" agendas can only be achieved by deceiving the people. This is the cross the left has to bear: The better world is only achievable by lying to the very people they propose to redeem. ..............Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left - Hillary Clinton and the Third Way
Just nailed it. 100% right on. Surprised they printed it.
Shocked!
Jim Wooten is the token "moderate" on the AJC's editorial page.
Jim Wooten is a conservative.
If the "moderates" feel strongly about the issue, it is a pretty clear indication that the Democrat Party leadership seriously screwed up coming out of the closet and declaring in front of God and everyone that they really are the Surrender party.
good post...
Tolik? Hammer time.
Bump!
That's because the national Democratic Party has retreated to its core — and on national security matters, that is the embittered anti-war left.And on domestic matters, the core of the Democratic Party is the embittered anti-business left.
To be progressive is itself the most satisfying narcissism. That is why it is of little concern to them that their socialist schemes have run aground, burying millions of human beings in their wake. That is why they don't care that their panaceas have caused more human suffering than all the injustices they have ever challenged.Socialism is fundamentally anti-human. It is an ideology of death. It is ghoulish in the extreme.
I read John Murtha's four points yesterday and came up with these translations. It's my belief that the liberal left would rather we lose this battle....
The Honorable John Murtha’s Plan
“To immediately redeploy U.S. troops consistent with the safety of U.S. forces”
Translation: Success in Iraq is getting too close for comfort for my anti-victory democrat party and we can’t allow GWB have a victory in his legacy!
“To create a quick reaction force in the region”
Translation: US troops are face to face with the enemy in Iraq with our side positioned for every strategic advantage. This is too easy for our side! In order to be less arrogant, we must move our troops to an adjoining country so the terrorists have a fair chance to chose battles and battlefields.
“To create an over- the- horizon presence of Marines”
Translation: Let’s use the failed strategy of sitting our Marines just over the horizon…just cause it was a disaster in Lebanon we should ignore history & take a chance with their lives that the terrorists won’t bomb their barracks again.
“To diplomatically pursue security and stability in Iraq”
Translation: The UN and especially super diplomats like the French know way more than we do about security and stability ….just think how GWB would squirm if he had to follow a UN security battle plan for every fight involving the US military (think Somalia) and the French know a thing or two about stability, just think what a talking point for the next election we democrats could construe if there were french style terrorist riots in the US—it would be like having 1,000 Katrinas to blame on the republicans!
WOW, this came from AJC........I'm surprised, very surprised
Nailed it. Rush Limbaugh is exactly right. The Democrats have positioned themselves so that only America's defeat can save them. It is sickening that a major political party is being run by people who would rather see their own country defeated rather then admit they are completely wrong about the War. Funny how they are always nagging Bush to "Admit he has made mistakes" but are completely unwilling to face their OWN errors.
Wow. Just nailed it. Just amazing how brilliant Freepers are early on a Sunday.
When the existence and relevance of the democrat party rests on the virtue and reliability of Joe Lieberman, this nation no longer has two functioning major parties.
It's that nasty old capitalism that drives prosperity and freedom. The left wants to kill that mechanism.
WOW!!!
Thankyou for posting this Cincinatus' Wife.
Fantastic articles.
America Wake UP: Iraq DID contain TERRORISTS and WMDs.
Democrats on the Hill pledge their allegiance to their party leaders, not to those who elect them. And a fine extreme, loony left they are - kissing the feet of dictators and bowing to anti-American sentiment around the world
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