Posted on 06/05/2008 7:17:44 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober — if not grim — assessment of where we are.
Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When Election Day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home.
This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world — Iran — is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb.
The point when they get that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran’s nuclear bomb will be the terrorists’ nuclear bomb — and they can make 9/11 look like child’s play.
All the options that are on the table right now will be swept off the table forever. Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand — however outrageous those demands might be — or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds.
All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.
Just as the Nazis did not find it enough to simply kill people in their concentration camps, but had to humiliate and dehumanize them first, so we can expect terrorists with nuclear weapons to both humiliate us and force us to humiliate ourselves, before they finally start killing us.
They have already telegraphed their punches with their sadistic beheadings of innocent civilians, and with the popularity of videotapes of those beheadings in the Middle East.
They have already telegraphed their intention to dictate to us with such things as Osama bin Laden’s threats to target those places in America that did not vote the way he prescribed in the 2004 elections. He could not back up those threats then but he may be able to in a very few years.
The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s — and our “leaders” and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the “leaders” and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.
We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.
What does this have to do with today’s presidential candidates? It has everything to do with them.
One of these candidates will determine what we are going to do to stop Iran from going nuclear— or whether we are going to do anything other than talk, as Western leaders talked in the 1930s.
There is one big difference between now and the 1930s. Although the West’s lack of military preparedness and its political irresolution led to three solid years of devastating losses to Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, nevertheless when all the West’s industrial and military forces were finally mobilized, the democracies were able to turn the tide and win decisively.
But you cannot lose a nuclear war for three years and then come back. You cannot even sustain the will to resist for three years when you are first broken down morally by threats and then devastated by nuclear bombs.
Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes president of the United States next January.
At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate or of indulging our emotions by voting for some third party candidate to show our displeasure — at the cost of putting someone in the White House who is not up to the job.
Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.
On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.
— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
Ditto on what the smart guy said.
Thomas Sowell for President!!
I have the utmost respect for Dr. Sowell but I don’t think people are going to believe that once Iran has a bomb, American cities are going to start blowing up. The left will easily blow off this kind of stuff as fear mongering...like we’ve heard before they’ll say and people will believe them. Don’t get me wrong, I DO think Iran, if at all possible, will distribute nuclear technology to it’s asymmetrical terrorist armies. But the key question is when will they be able to do that and what can they distribute. Getting their first nuke isn’t going to put them in the position to pass out nukes like AK-47s. On the other hand, dirty bombs and the like may become more common and THAT might be enough to again waken the sleeping giant.
McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman... But then, I suppose it is only one decade of aiding those that hate America.
I wake up in the morning and it’s a no-brainer, but then by the end of the day when I’ve seen him opening the place he puts his pie, I’m not so sure again whether it wouldn’t be better to immanentize the eschaton. War is inevitable.
As usual, Thomas Sowell’s unsentimental intellect cuts right to the heart of the matter.
I think war with Iran is inevitable, but not total war. I think total with China will probably happen in the next decade.
Amen!
I agree those were bad, but logically speaking, if you remove all of the emotions from this, Obama will be worse.
BTTT
The doctor is in the house!!!!
Nope. Once Iran gets the bomb, ITS cities are going to start blowing up, courtesy of Israel. No way Israel does not launch a first strike to prevent a nuclear attack on Tel Aviv or Haifa. Then the sh!t will really hit the fan. We haven’t seen an actual nuclear war, but we will if Iran gets nukes.
Yeah, I think we’re lurching toward total war, much like Sowell said, once you’re over the falls it’s too late to go back. Remember how 9-11 seemed to change everything overnight?
Fear Fear Fear the Obuma vote for anyone but Obuma
Fear Fear Fear the Obuma..
The McCain supporters :only one issue do they spue.
It’s too late guys, Most of US on FR will not swallow the
lesser of two evils this go round.
but keep it up the joke is on you.
So what is McCains agenda? He wants illegal immigration legalized, carbon credits, no energy development, bailouts for mortgage companies, massive inflation, free speech eliminated, etc. etc. And the scariest part is that he has shown that he can put the coalition together to get it done.
If we elect Obama what will happen? Nothing, and the Israeli's will nuke Iran to oblivion.
I almost like the option of electing Hussein. Having a known enemy in charge might be better than having a traitor in charge. What is the old saying, better an enemy in front than a knife in the back.
That’s a scenario that makes a lot more sense to me but not American cities first.
In my opinion, it’s not so much about waking the sleeping giant as it is ignoring the nattering anti-American leftists in our midst.
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