Here, under the rubric “U.S. Economy,” are some headlines posted on RealClearPolitics this morning.
- Jobless Claims Jump to 6-Mo High
- Market Signals Fears on Economy
- Big Trade Gap Sign of Weak Growth
- Analysts Predict Market Malaise
A bit further down the page there is a section headed “President Obama.” Under that rubric we find:
- Obama: Worst of Recession is Over
- Could Meet With Iran President
- Approval Falls to New Danger Zone
- Weary Aides Head for Exit
Which set is right? Yesterday in this space, reflecting on Obama’s enthusiastic commendation of Ramadan and all things Muslim, I wrote that Obama is historically unprecedented as an American President. What I had in mind was his apparent equivocation about the nation he was elected to lead. As many commentators have observed, Obama is a “post-national” or “trans-national” political figure. In this, he mirrors the left-liberal, “progressive” consensus the world over—well, in Europe and the North America, which pretty much defines the habitat of that consensus. Somehow, the soil is quite right for it elsewhere: you might get a hard-edged revolutionary leftism in South America or Southeast Asia, but those are inhospitable climes for the elite, politically correct progressivism that has embraced the post- or trans-national solution to the problems of governance.
The problem (well, one of many problems) with having a post- or trans-national President is that America remains (if I may so put it) a pre-post-national country. Outside the ivy-bowered halls of academia, the newsrooms of the so-called “mainstream media,” and the chambers of left-leaning politicians, people in America are, by and large, national not post-national in their patriotic affiliation. (What would it mean, by the way, to be a “post-national patriot”? “Patriot” derives from patrios, of or relating to one’s fatherland, i.e., a particular place. Here, as elsewhere, there is a deep wisdom in etymology.) In other words, most Americans are proud of their country. They like it that America is rich, powerful, and generous. (Furthermore, I suspect, for most people, pleasure in the contemplation of their country proceeds more or less in that order.)
Barack Obama is not like most Americans, however. He eschews — he positively frowns upon — talk of national “exceptionalism,” American or any other variety (but especially American or British pretensions to exceptional status). He never misses an opportunity to apologize for America, most recently, I believe, on August 6 when he dispatched a delegation to Japan to “apologize” for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In other words, he apologized for saving a few million Japanese lives, hundreds of thousands of American lives, and ending the war in August 1945 instead of many months later.
Dear Roger:
The US started modern total warfare with Grant and Sherman and continued with the bombing of Cities and civilian populations in Germany and Japan in the Second World War capped by the drop of the two atomic weapons. Obama is finally right on something. Both the natural law and the Church condemn this as a violation of just war theory. Some day we will pay for it in this country. It is never permissible to directly kill innocent people. The end does not justify the means. Shame on us.
I’m a firm believer in the concept of total war. There is no such thing as a limited engagement, only an engagement that leaves the enemy alive to fight another day. There is no such thing as a conflict where choosing NOT to press an advantage increases ones chances of victory. Fighting to lose, fighting a defensive war, only guarantees that that the conflict will be extended, costing more lives and more resources. Fighting to win, fighting to utterly destroy the enemy and his ability to wage war upon you, results in conflicts that are relatively short, and decisive.
The reason why killing civilians is a bad tactic is because they aren’t generally the ones shooting back at you. In warfare, you destroy those enemies who are most dangerous, not those who are least. If the enemy surrenders, they will be spared. Otherwise you save them for last.
There are exceptions to this however. If destroying centers of heavy industry will reduce the ability of the enemy to supply its front line forces with weapons and other resources, then you do so. You bomb them until the rubble is reduced to rubble. The fact that there are civilians in the area, living in their homes, or working in those factories, is irrelevant. Women, children, all dead. You do what it takes to win, no matter what that is, and without apology. Apologizing for winning is a good way to find oneself in another war. Our enemies must never question our resolve. They must never question our willingness to kill every m*****f******g last one of them, and grind their bones to make our bread.
People like Obama foolishly believe that our enemies are our enemies because they don’t like us. Bullshit. Our enemies are our enemies because they are evil. We are part of the free world, a world that stands together. The nations of the free world don’t always agree on everything, but at the end of the day we support one another because liberty promotes virtue. We are good. Our enemies are comprised of the not-so-free world. Dictatorships, oligarchies, prison states. It is better to be feared than loved when you cannot have both. Doing what is necessary to be loved by those who are evil means becoming evil ourselves, and that is non-negotiable. Support our friends and allies, undermine and destroy our enemies, and maintain the strength necessary to do both, and there will be peace on earth. Fail to do this and there will be endless war.
the real tragedy of the atomic bomb is that it was not available two or three years earlier–think how many lives would have been saved in europe and asia if the u.s.a.
had been able to drop one on berlin in 1943
“Obama is a “post-national” or “trans-national” political figure. In this, he mirrors the left-liberal, “progressive” consensus the world over—well, in Europe and the North America, which pretty much defines the habitat of that consensus.”
You’re missing that the current government of Japan is part of that group, too.
http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/are-japans-dpj-really-democrats/
The overseas English-language press likes to describe the DPJ government as “center-left”. The three most important people in the government today are Prime Minister Kan Naoto, whose political career started with the Socialist Democratic Federation; Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku Yoshito, whose political career started with the Socialist Party; and Secretary-General Edano Yukio, who hangs out with people in the Kakumaru Faction, a radical Marxist group.
You have it backwards, CJ. Total war leads to total victory. The Confederacy, supported by my kin, knew it was all over. The Third Reich knew it was finished. Peace. No DMZ, no guerrilla resistance in the mountains. Limited war keeps war going. Korea, Israel, etc.
Gary O, you have it exactly right. “Just” wars with evenly matched opponents burn up a lot of lives. Wars that are over quickly because they are so unevenly matched, save lives. That is why saving money by cutting back the defense budget is a false economy.
We seem to have entered one of those periods where the elites have decided that they can thoroughly redesign a fiendishly complex system of human interaction and account for every effect of the changes. Right up there with “We’re from the government and we’re here to help.” is, “I have a brilliant Idea. It will solve all our problems. Don’t worry, I’ve thought of everything.”
I am surprised that before apologizing to Japan’s leftist government over the dropping of the atomic bombs Obama did not consult the even more leftist government of China. The Chinese have interestingly different views on the course of World War II ( for them 1937-45)
Why does Obama not also apologize to Germany over the fire-bombing of Hamburg in 1943 when more civilian lives were lost in a night than due to either atomic bomb.OK that was the British RAF but,hey, does Obama care about history…or indeed know any?