Posted on 05/19/2004 2:54:18 AM PDT by Theodore R.
What do we offer the world?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 19, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
"So, how do we advance the cause of female emancipation in the Muslim world?" asks Richard Perle in "An End to Evil." He replies, "We need to remind the women of Islam ceaselessly: Our enemies are the same as theirs; our victory will be theirs as well."
Well, the neoconservative cause "of female emancipation in the Muslim world" was probably set back a bit by the photo shoot of Pfc. Lynndie England and the "Girls Gone Wild" of Abu Ghraib prison.
Indeed, the filmed orgies among U.S. military police outside the cells of Iraqi prisoners, the S&M humiliation of Muslim men, the sexual torment of their women raise a question. Exactly what are the "values" the West has to teach the Islamic world?
"This war ... is about – deeply about – sex," declaims neocon Charles Krauthammer. Militant Islam is "threatened by the West because of our twin doctrines of equality and sexual liberation."
But whose "twin doctrines" is Krauthammer talking about? The sexual liberation he calls our doctrine belongs to a '60s revolution that devout Christians, Jews and Muslims have been resisting for years.
What does Krauthammer mean by sexual liberation? The right of "tweeners" and teenage girls to dress and behave like Britney Spears? Their right to condoms in junior high? Their right to abortion without parental consent?
If conservatives reject the "equality" preached by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, NARAL and the National Organization for Women, why seek to impose it on the Islamic world? Why not stand beside Islam, and against Hollywood and Hillary?
In June 2002 at West Point, President Bush said, "Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time and in every place."
But even John Kerry does not agree with George Bush on the morality of homosexual unions and stem-cell research. On such issues, conservative Americans have more in common with devout Muslims than with liberal Democrats.
The president notwithstanding, Americans no longer agree on what is moral truth. For as someone said a few years back, there is a cultural war going on in this country – a religious war. It is about who we are, what we believe and what we stand for as a people.
What some of us view as the moral descent of a great and Godly republic into imperial decadence, neocons see as their big chance to rule the world.
In Georgia, recently, the president declared to great applause: "I can't tell you how proud I am of our commitment to values. ... That commitment to values is going to be an integral part of our foreign policy as we move forward. These aren't American values, these are universal values. Values that speak universal truths."
But what universal values is he talking about? If he intends to impose the values of MTV America on the Muslim world in the name of a "world democratic revolution," he will provoke and incite a war of civilizations America cannot win because Americans do not want to fight it. This may be the neocons' war. It is not our war.
When Bush speaks of freedom as God's gift to humanity, does he mean the First Amendment freedom of Larry Flynt to produce pornography and of Salman Rushdie to publish "The Satanic Verses" – a book considered blasphemous to the Islamic faith? If the Islamic world rejects this notion of freedom, why is it our duty to change their thinking? Why are they wrong?
When the president speaks of freedom, does he mean the First Amendment prohibition against our children reading the Bible and being taught the Ten Commandments in school?
If the president wishes to fight a moral crusade, he should know the enemy is inside the gates. The great moral and cultural threats to our civilization come not from outside America, but from within. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The war for the soul of America is not going to be lost or won in Fallujah.
Unfortunately, Pagan America of 2004 has far less to offer the world in cultural fare than did Christian America of 1954. Many of the movies, books, magazines, TV shows, videos and much of the music we export to the world are as poisonous as the narcotics the Royal Navy forced on the Chinese people in the Opium Wars.
A society that accepts the killing of a third of its babies as women's "emancipation," that considers homosexual marriage to be social progress, that hands out contraceptives to 13-year-old girls at junior high ought to be seeking out a confessional – better yet, an exorcist – rather than striding into a pulpit like Elmer Gantry to lecture mankind on the superiority of "American values."
Pat was sucking up to every left wing special interest he could find to try and get anyone's vote...I particularly liked how he went and groveled to Al Sharpton and his people.
Then there was pat trying to interest Marcy Kaptur into being his running mate...before he picked the wacko. Marcy Kaptur, Democrat, Ohio (Toledo)...one of the biggest abortion supporters in Congress.
pat's just couldn't catch a break with the left.
Yes, pat does have a head...which appears to have been separated at birth from Michael Moore's arse.
You are correct.
But never let full disclosure get in your way.
Lenora Fulani was Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign chair.
And that "black woman, Ezola Foster," the "good pro-life, small government conservative" was Pat's second pick, only after Buchanan was turned down by Jimmy Hoffa Jr., the pro-abortion, big government union boss.
In honest response, I see the cultural waning, but do not see the collapse coming, in fact I think the waning may be slowing quite a bit in comparison to 5 or 6 years ago. It is very hard to judge, though, while living through it.
Most of my responses on this thread have dealt with the idea that somehow we as Americans can learn how to be moral people by observing or uniting with Islam. It is just a ridiculous idea. Islamic culture has never been the paragon of moral society, and it isn't even when compared to the lowest point of American morality.
He also courted Marcy Kaptur, the very pro-abortion Democrat from Ohio.
I do. America defeated Japan with the late Soviet help (Soviets crushed the Kwantung Army on the continent). And so Soviets defeated Germany with the American help (opening of the second front in the West and supplies).
The Soviest only moved against Japan when the war was already won. Then they tried to gobble up as much land as they could.
Yeah, I forgot about her.
Some short list, huh?
Hoffa, Kaptur... and wasn't Trafficant mentioned?
Certainly not an immoral method.
Erocc does not share the concept of morality which was prevalent in this country in 1954.
He's part of the problem PJB discusses.
He did give his speech to Sharpton and his people. Reverant Al wasn't buying it. Now that would have made a good team, pat buchanan and Al Sharpton.
But you have neatly avoided my point. The Japanese were and are a Nation. Changing their policies did not make them a nation. Iraq is not a nation. It is an administrative unit, comprising several nations. The idea that we should make a nation out of them is absurd. Only the people of a nation can make a nation. It is not something that can be imposed upon them, as a Government may be imposed. It involves having common purpose, common lines of descent. The geography is secondary.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
Wow..those Soviets really did us a favor in the Pacific..I've changed my whole view of WW2 and what I've read with your brilliant analysis../s
You have a vivid imagination, since Pat never met with, much less groveled to, Sharpton.
Of course, the relevance of any of this to Pat's column of today is not explained. Apparently, the goal is always to attack Buchanan and to ignore his arguments.
OK. You explain why they exist.
In any case, the dietary restrictions are not universal MORAL prescriptions.
Well, they tried to balance out US takeover of Western Europe :)
This is quite possibly the worst piece of drivel Pat Buchanan ever wrote.
Hey CW - Is the black pro-life conservative Mrs. Foster that Pat picked for VP the 'wacko' you refer to?
Hey, what's happening to me?
I'm starting to agree with Buchanan.
After being publicly turned down by the previous two pro-abortion choices.
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