THERE'S ONLY 32 DAYS UNTIL THE ELECTION.
PLEASE HELP ME TAKE BACK THE SENATE!
Posted on 10/04/2002 5:53:03 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Something wondrous happened a few weeks ago, though not many of us noticed. But if we stop for a moment and look around we'll see the difference. Sept 11, 2001 has been laid to rest and we needn't trouble ourselves with it any longer. To be sure, our national memory had been stretched well past its tragically short limits prior to the first anniversary commemorative events. Even before the year was up, American purposefulness was beginning to ebb due to worries about how difficult, expensive and bothersome a victory against terrorism might be, and perhaps due to a little boredom as well.
With that "once more for old time sake" outpouring of grief we've grasped what has become all-important in this country; "closure". This is sadly indicative of how far we have fallen since the Second World War, when we carried the memories of Pearl Harbor through all the bloody years of that conflict. One would think the deliberate slaughter of 3000 civilians in a time of relative peace would be even more poignant then an attack on servicemen at a then-distant territorial outpost, in a world already in flames. Then again we're not our grandparents, and that sixty years gone by may as well be a thousand.
The political left could not be happier with our realization of closure, or boredom; whichever you prefer. They've been forced to curb their ideological proclivities for far too long, and the task was by no means an easy one. Hope of finding survivors in the wreckage of the World Trade Center had not yet faded when displays of patriotism were being derided by the radical-left. More mainstream leftists, otherwise known as "Democrats", waited just a bit longer before falling back into historic form and attempting to gain political advantage with charges of "shadow governments", "missed signals" and presidential "cowboyism". The closing of anniversary observances brought a collective exhalation and rapturous return to the left's ideological roots.
True to their heritage, Democrats again wished to postpone, ignore or abstain from dealing with vital and pressing matters of national security. Not surprisingly, the same cast of characters that sought to weaken our resolve during the Cold War and relinquish our right of self-defense to the United Nations during the 1990's has led the charge. Exemplifying the Democrat's version of dogged determination, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin boldly called for a congressional resolution that in-turn called for a UN resolution, which would somehow succeed in disarming Iraq where nearly 20 others over the past decade have not.
Illegitimate Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, rather than showing that he is indeed a vertebrate, instead displayed his leadership with calls for a "debate", then for a delay of that debate, for answers to ever-changing "questions", through the expression of nebulous "concerns", and with a juvenile tantrum based on a misleading quote in some newspaper.
The left has wielded charges that President Bush and the Republicans have "politicized" the war. And they have expressed revulsion at the mention of the war as a midterm campaign issue. The press, with offerings like "General Karl Rove, Reporting for Duty" in Time Magazine, have done their best to lend credibility to these claims. But if this president, or any other, has a vision of national security, it is unclear why he shouldn't endeavor to have it prevail by strengthening his hand in the legislature. If after Dec. 7, 1941, Republicans desired a negotiated settlement with the Japanese, would FDR not have been justified in seeking to increase Democrat representation in Congress in order to prosecute the war?
Recycled presidential candidate Al Gore has condemned the Bush White House for attempting to take the war to Iraq. Perhaps more accurately, he and others like him reject the inclusion of Saddam Hussein's regime as at all related. He instead believes that we should focus on the perpetrators of the Sept. 11th attacks who have, according to him, "thus far gotten away with it".
Ranking Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy agrees and contends that we have only,
"broken up the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan and scattered its operatives across many lands."
Attacking Iraq, he argues, would damage our "war against Al Qaida". He is the first to declare a war on Al Qaida specifically. From the moments following the attacks it has been made abundantly clear that we fight "terrorism" in general, not simply the followers of Osama bin Laden. Iraq has been known to support international terrorism for decades. So long as tyrants like Hussein survive, bin Laden and his kind will remain "scattered" in sympathetic countries, and they may therefore get away with it.
To the extent that such Democrats, and likeminded Republicans, believe Iraq to be an issue at all, they defer judgment on a course of action to the hallowed United Nations. But faith in some mythical integrity or altruism of the UN is not only verifiably misplaced, it bears a chilling resemblance to the dogged loyalty of the hardcore left to socialism, despite the wholesale oppression and genocidal horrors committed in its name.
The founding ideals of the UN may be based in democratic egalitarianism, but as with any democratic institution, it survives only so long as the participants support and exhibit a reverence for it. A good percentage of the UN consists of totalitarian nations whose memberships are illegitimate according to the UN's own Charter, due to their rejection of human rights, abuse of women and in some cases tolerance of slavery. Another sizable percentage is comprised of nations either sympathetic or beholden to them based on narrow economic concerns. Others are motivated by basic anti-Americanism. Betting US security on such a body looks increasingly like trusting our children to an organization designed to protect them, which is infested with pedophiles and various other abusers.
With regard to Iraq, their willingness to entertain unending subterfuge from Saddam's regime indicates complicity, impotent, or utter stupidly. Any one of which precludes our need for United Nations approval.
American homage to multilateralism is more a reflection of the successful spread of the left's moral relativist worldview and the desire on their part to dismiss concerns of war and peace in favor of creeping social programs. National defense is just too messy, and a bad gamble when seeking to solidify domestic political power.
The above-mentioned Democrat personalities by no means represent all of those who feel liberated by the fading of 9/11 into distant memory. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) has simmered throughout the past year though he occasionally let his ultra-leftist sympathies be known. He, at one point, equated US actions in Afghanistan to those of Al Qaida and charged that the blood of Americans was being "avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan".
In a speech given days after the anniversary, he celebrated closure and his deliverance from the previous year's damnable patriotism. It began in poetic verse, recalling the carnage of Sept. 11th and heralding America's "eternal principles of unity" and "brotherhood". But the pleasantries were quickly dispensed with,
" That Iraq possessed and used such weapons, they did so, quite sad to say, with the knowledge of, and sometimes with materials from, the United States..."
With their highly publicized "peace mission" to Iraq, Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA) and David E. Bonior (D-MI) could hardly contain their delight at being set free. Both men voted against the Gulf War in 1991 and now condemn the current Bush Administration for "provoking" a new one.
McDermott did consent to the use of force in Afghanistan, but this appeared to be more a result of national outrage than any philosophical agreement with the effort. Judging from his rhetoric weeks later, it was clear that the vote left a foul taste in his mouth, and that he actually considered military action to be unwarranted,
"It smacks of certain arrogance we can ill afford at this crucial juncture in our nation's history. I'm not so sure President Bush, members of his administration or the military have thought this action out completely or fully examined America's cause."
With that long, painful year of obligatory deference to American grief now over, McDermott feels free to charge the Bush administration with having the inclination to "lie" to facilitate what he sees as an unjustifiable war on Iraq. Not only was he anxious to accuse the White House of deception, lacking any foundation other than his own ideological prejudices, with Bonior standing dutifully at his side, he was breathless to give Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt.
"I think you have to take the Iraqis on their face value ... They should be given a chance, otherwise we're trying to provoke them into war" — Rep. McDermott
Rather than a window to the truth, the Iraqi citizenry bears the face of those who live under the constant threat of torture and death. Iraq's leaders, for their part, are the face of mass murder and homicidal expansionism. But one must be willing to see it.
When touring a medical facility the congressional leftists lamented the plight of Iraq's children, and condemned western sanctions as the cause. But they were certainly better off than the countless others killed by Saddam's chemical weapons. What was not asked of the tour guides was how many Iraqi children might be helped with the billions being diverted to the country's weapons of mass destruction programs, or how much medicine could be purchased with the $25,000-a-head bounty paid to Palestinian terrorists for dead Israeli civilians.
Making such statements from the capital of a brutal dictatorship, and sworn enemy of the United States, was not only wrongheaded but also smacked of treason. Whether one rejects the label as excessive or not, the fact remains that a powerful propaganda tool was delivered into Hussein's lap, which was subsequently broadcast throughout the Arab and larger-world.
Rep. Bonior's tacit support for terrorists did not begin in Baghdad. He has accepted and defended financial campaign backing from supporters of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. His flirtation with treason is also well established. As Soviet-backed communism expanded to the mainland of the Western Hemisphere and approached the southern border of the United States, Bonior led a delegation of congressional Democrats to Nicaragua to advise communist dictator Daniel Ortega on public relations methods to help end US aid to anti-Marxist forces. This while he had access to sensitive information as a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Just as telling as McDermott and Bonior's activities are the lack of condemnation, and scattered words of encouragement from the rest the Democrat Party. After all, how important is a victory in the war on terrorism when compared to the political value of a swipe against a Republican president, with the world looking on?
Similarly liberated by the end of 9/11 grief, antiwar radicals have crawled out from under their rocks and taken to the streets to damn our bloody "American hegemony". Their counterparts in the entertainment industry have followed suit. Rob Reiner may now craft Gore's speeches and Barbara Streisand can play footsie with Richard Gephardt, and thereby save the world from George W. Bush. Ed Asner, Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon can buy full page ads in the New York Times asserting that, "Nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers", and somehow convince themselves that the US is coercive and that Iraqi citizens have a say in their nation's destiny. And maybe, just maybe, the war on terrorism will end before it ever began.
Remembering is so difficult, and closure is a marvelous thing. It's nice to be back to normal, is it not? I wonder how long it'll last? I wonder how painful the next wakeup call will be?
A direct quote from Simon: "And let's face it, we have not been hit in a year. That's a long time." CAN YOU IMAGINE!
A direct quote from Simon: "And let's face it, we have not been hit in a year. That's a long time."The fact that we have not been 'hit' testifies to America's new resolve under the present Administration.
Thinking I had become immune to Liberal foolishness, I was jolted by this idiocy.
PLEASE HELP ME TAKE BACK THE SENATE!
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Exterminating as many RATS as possible this November 5th is a National Necessity...no longer must the Party of Fear continue to hold back the greatness of American potential!!
FReegards...MUD
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