Is dissent no longer the highest form of patriotism?
Not according to MSNBC hack Ed Schultz:
ED SCHULTZ: Republicans are attacking the Commander-in-Chief during a time of war! . . . There should be no debate: we should be kicking [Gaddafi's] ass . . . Whose side are you on, Sarah: are you with the terrorists, Sarah, or are you with the President of the United States? . . . And I have to ask the question tonight: where is the patriotism from all of these war-hawks? Where’s the patriotism of the Republican party? . . . What about being a patriot? . . . So the question now for the doubters who are out and about: why don’t you support the president? . . . We’ve been talking about the lack of patriotism from prominent Republicans . . . Laura [Flanders] what about the patriotism?
The “are you with the terrorists…or are you with the President of the United States?” question is morbidly ironic. Never mind that for years many figures on the left have explicitly sided with terrorists — Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan, etc, with Schultz ever once calling them out on that. In Libya in the current fight, no matter which side you choose, you end up on the side of terrorists.
Is anyone surprised at this? Opposition to OIF was never principled but was all about Bush-Bush-Bush… Now we have proof that should eliminate all doubt. To the Left war is only objectionable when prosecuted by a Republican administration. Whereas if the same war is prosecuted by a Democrat then the slightest criticism, even on a low tactical level, is grounds for a sedition charge!
I’m sorry, but what does patriotism (love of country) have to do with supporting the President in some yet to be appropriately monikered, foreign adventure in which we have little national interest (SECDEF), are not leading(Obama, Clinton), for which our military was volunteered by foreign powers(Obama) to conduct operations with ill-defined goals (what’s our goal today?).
I suppose we could look at this as a necessary operation to capture a terrorist who blew up a plane over Lockerbie, was convicted, imprisoned, then released after the Obama Administration exercised their influence on the British. Oh, but we aren’t even going after the guy who ordered, directed and funded the bombing.
But then it seems some on both sides, equate love of country with not questioning the guy with the cool temp job in Washington.
He is actually being darkly ironic. Remember how outraged liberals were during the Bush years when some conservatives criticized them for not supporting the President during wartime? They didn’t like the “you’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists” rhetoric. Now they’re throwing those words back in conservatives’ faces. Next thing you know, they’ll start talking about ODS – Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Which is stupid, because conservatives can say they’re just giving Obama the same treatment the liberals gave Bush. Well, not *exactly* the same treatment. I haven’t seen Obama hung in effigy yet. Nobody’s made any movies about assassinating him.
And that’s what passes for deep thought in some circles…
I teach at a fairly large urban university and am a keen student of bumper-sticker political pronouncements. From 2003 through 2009 the parking lots (particularly the faculty areas) were filled with short, violent and snappy anti-Bush tirades. There were pleas to “End this Illegal War”, calls to “Impeach Bush” and numerous versions of “War is Not the Answer.” One of the most popular was “Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism.” In some cases whole automobiles seemed papered over in Bush-hating, anti-war vitriol.
Today? Well lets just say that the bumper-sticker rhetoric is much more restrained. (Cars are also much cleaner.) At least our local leftists seem honestly perplexed by Mr. Obama’s decision and are scrambling for a justification. They don’t have the brazen shamelessness and lap-dog cravenness of Mr. Schultz who now demands that the President be unconditionally supported in the name of “patriotism.” Ed Schultz is suddenly a true-blue patriot? That quality really is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
chambers, the Daily Show had a clip of Sarah Palin misspeaking when commenting on the military action of many names. She said “squirmish.” Now, I happen to believe she misspoke in a very profound way. Definitely, for the Left, this adventure in Libya is a Squirmish.
As commented above in the Tatler, this R2P has concerning roots and already some in Norway have started the call to attack Israel. I wouldn’t be surprised if this hectoring about patriotism is to condition the public to knee-jerk support for Presidential adventures in hopes it would stall the American public from rising up should our military be volunteered in an anti-Israeli adventure by the Arab League.
“In Libya in the current fight, no matter which side you choose, you end up on the side of terrorists.”
It’s like boxing an exacta in a match race!
Seems to me if Ed Shultz sees racism in this instance, then he’d better look at these two gentlement on his show today and call them racists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrDus-ZOhmw&playnext=1&list=PL8CFF319F50B894A6(warning NSFW = not safe for whitey)
I doubt he has the cajones to call Louis or Malik Shabazz… but if he did, I might be impressed!
I assume that Ed now loves the military operation in Iraq and Afghanistan now too.
This does bring into focus the Obama Doctrine or something.
On one side, we have Khaddafi’s merry band of “screw ‘em” mercenaries
On the other side, we have a rag tag band of local jihadists with a “flicker” of al Qaeda
Ed Schultz and the Democrats are of course, siding with the “locals” with that “flicker”
I feel like I’ve seen this movie before.
I didn’t realize “kicking {Daffy’s} ass” was the mission, Ed. I think you’ll find, however, that we’re 100% behind our troops in whatever this kinetic action is trying to accomplish. It’s just that we don’t know what the hell their CinC is doing nor do we know if he knows what he’s doing. And we haven’t got a clue what victory is supposed to look like (although Obama has cautioned us in the past that we probably shouldn’t expect a formal surrender aboard a battleship).
I seem to recall plenty of criticism from the right about the way in which the Bush administration conducted the GWOT and the battles of Iraq and Afghanistan. We did try to refrain, however, from calling our troops baby killers and implying that they were stuck in Iraq because they were uneducated and stupid (remember “Halp us Jon Carry — We R stuck hear N Irak” LOL).