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
I guess you didn't know any of the 3,000 victims of the WTC.
SO WHAT? i think you missed the point of the article.
I was pointing out that McCain has spent a decade aiding and abetting those inside the country that hate America.
I am not going to roll the dice on this election.
It may be fun to spout this intellectual stuff on Freepr, but I am not going to “try out’ Obama. As for all the other issues that I don’t like McCain’s stand on...oh well, the only thing, the only thing, that matters is the war on Terror....carbon credits? who cares?
i am not waiting for Israel to “take care of Iran.
Yes, your point is well taken that often he has sided with those NOT conservative. but as sowell points out, McCain does NOT hate america ( neither does Lieberman) and will defend America if there ever is ambivalence with the rest of the pols.
Just wondering. How does opening the border even wider by not enforcing and giving another 30 million amnesty show something other than hate for America(ns)?
“I guess you didn’t know any of the 3,000 victims of the WTC. “
>>>>>>>.................
You are right I do not, NOR do I know the 16,000+ victims killed by Illegals Here in the USA..OR the 400+ killed in Baltimore last year by Home grown Thugs..which one of the above should you worry about the most?
Which one of the above gets all the attention?
Fools swallow propaganda and call it truth..conservatives look at facts and make rational choices.
My source is the Detroit Free Press article by Tim O'Brien. One of Michael Chertoff’s press releases from the Department of Homeland Security and The Chigago Tribune and U.S. Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Peter Roskam (R-Ill). All have issued statements relative to the securing of identy and the plans that have/are being floated in Congress.
Forgive the delay, but in addition to loving my country, my family and my Lord, they expect me to earn a living, keep house and take the dog and trash out. Geez. ;-0
LOL, no problem.
I'll take a gander and see what I can find to support, or disprove, that this is coming.
I may be moving to the Philippines sooner than I thought.
Ping. An excellent article.
God speed. Military transfer? Son leaves (keep your fingers crossed) for Quantico on July 4. I said if it took me a lifetime I’d make my promises good. When he was little I promised to send him to camp and buy him a swing set. Well, life happens while you’re busy making plans and let’s just say that until Dad returned, times were tough.
However, he is now going to “camp” and he will get a huge “swing set” to play with, I feel certain.
Oooops, sorry bout that.
No, I already did my time in the military.
When I retire, it will be to the Philippines.
So far out in the boonies that ID chips won't matter.
Oh. I guess I have OCS on the brain. We’ve lived it for three months now.
I’m sure the Philippines are lovely, but we need folks here. I and others must simply make up our minds that we make our stand HERE. Semper Fi (from Mom, that is)!
I'm sure President Obama will be much better for you...
Ooooooo, I'm skeeeeered.
This country didn't fold under Roosevelt, Carter, or Clinton. I don't expect it to fold under Obomba either.
WOW.
Roosevelt was president about 70 years ago and we still have not recovered from some of his actions. Carter was president 30 years ago and we are now fighting the Islamofascists he allowed to take root during his presidency. I don't think the country will "fold" under Obama, but if you don't think it will be severely damaged you are sadly mistaken.
On the bright side, you will have your moral victory.
I would be inclined to agree with you if there was any viable opposition in the House and Senate. If conservatives held those then Obama's ability to do damage would be minimized. As it sits he would have unfettered ability to do damage.
It seems to me that you just want a 'go along to get along' attitude that has been prevalent over the past 20 years.
THAT is what has given us a liberal, OK I'll be generous, a left leaning moderate, as the GOP (read conservative party) candidate.
If you want to keep going in that direction, be my guest.
I will no longer be an enabler for the leftward movement of the GOP.
I don’t believe the Democrats want destruction of the U.S. What they want is politics and a world that does not yet exist, except on there little Hill in Washington. The result of both parties acting like there is no world beside Washington (including our own citizens) has created tremendous blowback, but the machine on the Hill refuses to acknowledge any of it.
I disagree with you, I believe they do. Most Daily Kos - Geo. Soros leftist, Obama supporters want want to topple old institutions in the pattern of Mao's cultural revolution.
They want a Democrat Socialist hegemony with no political opposition and the elimination of the Electoral college, think John Lennon's "Imagine!"
They want all Global Warming deniers dead or impoverished and silenced by oppressive tax penalties.
They want to nationalize Business and Industry in order to make, in their minds, "every one equal" and assure that no CEO or banker will earn more that the laziest among them.
Most would even like to change our Nation's name to more completely sever all ties to a nation founded by a bunch of non diverse old men.
In short they want our nation's destruction.
That sounds a lot more like a state fascist society, not dissimilar to Nazi Germany an even worse scenerio then just a socialist state. You make good points and I don’t have a good counter argument nor do the Democrats deserve a defense. Suggesting suing OPEC and nationalizing energy, attempting DC gun ban (which of course sets a model and precedence for all courts) are very troubling developments. Fortunately, whether we are attempted to be taxed into submission, 60 million of us already own guns and we stocked up after 911. Good luck if they try fascism in America, this is not pre-world war II Germany where the population always relied on it’s military for arms.
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