So Close, so Far
No, no, no….
The problems in Iraq, in the radical Middle East at large—with democratization, with nuclearization, with Islamism—are not, repeat not, a lack of dialogue with Syria and Iran.
We know what both rogue states wish and it is our exit from the Middle East and thus a free hand to undermine the newly established democracies of Lebanon and Iraq—in the manner that all autocracies must destroy their antitheses.
They both sponsor and harbor terrorists for a reason—to undermine anything Western: a Western-leaning Lebanese democracy, a Western-style democracy in Iraq, a Westernized Israel, or soldiers of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Syria, as we see once again with the killing of Pierre Gemayel, is practicing serial murdering in Lebanon. I was on the Hugh Hewitt show last night, and he was right to make the point that Syria is like the Nazi regime of the late 1930s that sent its agents into Eastern Europe and Austria to assassinate and undermine republican leaders, to pave the way for the ‘necessary’ and ‘welcome’ entrance of the order-bringing Wehrmacht into a ‘brother’ state.
Iran is a rogue nation that seeks bombs to use them against the region’s only viable democracy in Israel. Neither Damascus nor Teheran can tolerate a democratic Iraq—no more than the Soviet Union would have allowed the Baltic Republics to have pro-Western democracies or Nazi Germany wished to be a partner in peace with republican Czechoslovakia.
Yes, yes, we need perhaps to have a national “dialogue”, but not over talking to Iran and Syria—but instead whether we wish to continue to fight and win this war.
Tell us it ain’t so?
As I understood the President, whether in his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech or his ‘with us or against us’ construct, the United States is no longer seeking Clintonian short-term, stop-gap palliatives of cruise missiles and federal indictments. Instead we are at war with both terrorists in the field, and the regimes that sponsor, pay, and host them. In such an existential struggle, democracy is as destabilizing to them as jihadism is to us, and so we promote it whenever we can as the right and smart thing to do—especially given the hysterical hatred toward it voiced by bin Laden and Dr. Zawahiri.
And for all the conundrum, the war against the jihadists is still going well. Iran and Syria are striking out because they feel surrounded—democratic Turkey on one side, Israel on the other, with nearby democracies struggling to become established in Kurdistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is being dismantled, and a Europe galvanizing against Islamic fascism. Even the impotent UN is beginning to stir against Iran and Syria. If we can stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq, we can bring enormous pressure on both these two rogue nations. So why give up now—which is what talking to these amoral governments constitutes, given our previous rhetoric and vow to quit the appeasement?
Cui Bono?
But why would either Damascus or Teheran wish to talk? The answer is plain. The former wants to profess to cool it a bit in destabilizing Iraq in exchange for us turning a blind eye in Lebanon; the latter wants to act like stopping the sending of agents of our destruction into Iraq in exchange for cooling our rhetoric about their bomb. What we would be doing in essence by “dialoguing” is saying to both the democracies in Lebanon and Israel, “Sorry, but we have to find a way out of Iraq, and these fascists will promise to turn away from us if they can turn on you.”
All this is dressed up with realist “maturity” and “concern” but it would be consistent with those who brought us Iran-Contra, aid to both Iran and Iraq in their war, stopping before Baghdad, hugs with the House of Saud that paid money to those who killed Americans, and on and on. If Syria and Iran can be assured of a truce, that we won’t destabilize them at home or stop their adventurism abroad, then they might let us save face in Iraq. That they would ever honor such a deal is absurd, that we would ever believe they would is worse than absurd.
For five long years many of us have praised this administration’s constancy and idealism, in removing the Taliban and Saddam, and then staying on to do the hard, the easily caricatured work of democratization. The liberal hawks have long bailed. The paleos have turned venomous in their criticism. Many of the neo-cons have sought escape by blaming the flawed occupation for ruining their supposedly perfect three-week take-down of Saddam. But there are millions of us still out there who, Jacksonian in spirit, close ranks and will support our troops wherever they are. But we simply cannot ask Americans to die in Anbar province while talking to the Iranians and Syrians who are doing their best through surrogates in killing them.
The Cowardly Way
This Michael Richards mea culpa about his racist outburst against hecklers is pathetic—mentioning Katrina and war as he tossed out banalities about the nation’s “hate” and “rage.” The outburst and the apparent apology are right up there with the Judith Regan creepy confessional about her grotesque O.J. non-book event.
Let me get his Seinfeldian logic: a hip, sort of leftist cynic unloads on some impolite blacks in his audience with language right out of the Ku Klux Klan lexicon, and then tries to weasel out of it by suggesting some rage unleashed by things like the Katrina diaster? Apparently he thinks that hip nihilists like himself can’t be redneck racists. And if they slip up and show that they are, then it’s only because they suffer from a temporary sort of Bush-derangement syndrome brought on by the general “rage” unleashed in the country.
We need a new word in the vocabulary for this increasingly common syndrome where a liberal spouts far right nonsense that no conservative would utter and then blames his outburst apparently on the conservative climate. We all thought that the apology would be the alcohol or abused childhood common refuge, so surely “rage” is something new. Do we all suffer from it, or just Richards that evening?
And what is this new throat-clearing about the “war made me do it” (e.g. Richards’ reference to the “rage” between “this country and another nation”)? Even Mel Gibson sought cover in that idea of global conflict when his anti-Semitic rage boiled over in his cups (“The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”). Apparently he thought the Iraqi and Lebanon fighting was both “the world” and were caused by the “Jews.”
Still waiting…
We are still waiting on the announcement that next year’s funds will be cut off for the Patriot Act and wiretaps. And surely Guantanamo will be defunded, with timetables mandated for troop withdrawal. That would be the natural conclusion from the Democratic rhetoric that equated Bush’s policies and our soldiers carrying them out so often with Nazis and terrorists.
Instead we get a few wild calls for ending the draft or quitting the war, in between the Speaker to be’s efforts to promote a checkered Murtha in the midst of a campaign to stomp out corruption. Of course, the reason for the stasis is that the Democrats deep down sort of believe that we haven’t had another 9/11 just possibly because of these programs and are hesitant to trust their luck in letting terrorists phone with impunity and be worry-free about detention.
Jihadist cowardice
China and Russia both have a history of rough treatment of their own Muslim minorities, the Uighurs and Chechnyans. Indeed, Muslims in western China are not even allowed to use public address systems to amplify their daily prayers. And the Chinese government cuts deals with the most autocratic of Middle Eastern regimes in its eternal quest for oil. No need to mention the Russian stance—Grozny says it all.
Then why has not bin Laden and Dr. Zawahiri turned jihadist attention to either country? While neither has troops in the Middle East, each might at least warrant some hateful rhetoric, inasmuch as their policies make the Danish cartoonists or the poor Pope pale in comparison.
The answer is, as we know, that China and Russia are not only strong like the United States, but, unlike America, wildly unpredictable and seemingly a little crazy. No jihadist quite knows what would be the reaction to a campaign of suicide bombing on Moscow or Beijing, and, more importantly, no rogue nation that sponsors Islamic fascists wishes to find out. What Middle Eastern state wishes to discover what being on the receiving end of a Russian nuclear version of the Beslan or Moscow theater “rescues” might look like?
Second, neither Russia nor China excites the appetites of the Islamists. The fundamentalists have a sort of peeping-tom ailment, of wanting to emigrate to Europe, to come to the United States, to buy an I-pod or satellite dish, to experience Western material bounty and personal freedom, and then almost immediately damn us for the desires and passions we apparently so easily excite. In Londistan, the obvious question arises, why in the world do not these Pakistani youth who profess such hatred of Britain simply emigrate back to the outlands of Pakistan where they can enjoy religious purity free from a decadent West?
The answer is not just that life then would not be free and bountiful and subsidized, but also quite lonely, and void of guilt-ridden rich Westerners who can be bribed, humiliated and, above all, forced to give attention to those who have otherwise not warranted it by any traditional method of accomplishment.
Which brings us to the concluding thought.
Most in the West profess, albeit secretly, that these particular, regional and perceived Middle East grievances really are connected. We nod in approval to each pundit and expert as they deceive us by convoluted exegeses—the West Bank is not Lebanon that is not the Taliban that is not Iraq that is not the Iranian bomb-making that is not Wahhabism, that is not…
But inside perhaps we know that they are really akin to the generic hatred that our fathers battled in Nazism, Italian fascism, and Japanese militarism—disjointed, often unconnected ideologies of evil that, nevertheless, found their common purpose—surely enough to go to war together—in hating liberal Western society.
And we all know, for all our self-doubt and self-loathing, that the West really is strong, at least strong enough to smash jihadists and their patrons.
So apparently we are in another Phony War circa October 1939 to May 1940, awaiting the provocation—another 9/11? A nuclear strike on Israel? A full-fledged brazen Syrian invasion of Lebanon? A terrorist killing of the Pope or mass murder in Paris or Berlin?— that sets us off.
And we know that like a Nazi Germany that invaded Russia and declared war on the United States, or a Japan that bombed Pearl Harbor and hoped for our instant surrender, that these jihadists have not a clue about the danger they are courting, apparently thinking that most Americans care only about Mark Foley’s email or Britni Spears’ divorce.
But tragically time will tell for these naïve and self-destructive killers. Their clock is ticking…
I think that we may be approaching a point of no return in the West, or maybe the world, because it is obvious the experiments both of democracy and multiculturalism are proving to be resounding failures thanks solely to the radical variable of human nature. Perhaps humanity, taken as a whole, really isn’t capable of living freely mixed among one another, because too many people in one place are going to have too many non-compatible ideologies and cultural attitudes, and can never be united. America is the strongest nation in the world, for now, but not much longer, because so much of our populace feels no affinity or loyalty to either the nation or their fellow citizens, and new immigrants are not even expected to pretend to assimilate into our culture any more, but rather are allowed to come not as immigrants at all, but as colonists and conquerors, and any resistance to them is loudly denounced as racism.
Democracies always commit suicide, and many ideologies, such as Marxism and Islam, which specialise in murder, are simply incompatible with anything else because of their totalitarian nature, although the two have seemed to blend together quite nicely in various places. Democracy requires much of those it shelters, but unfortunately, those tasked with maintaining the benefits of democracy, i.e. voters and the elected, are often too stupid, too greedy, or both, to do the right thing at the right time, and the rest of the time, too idealistic to see reality. America was not born as a democracy, but she shall die one, and quite soon, it appears, along with all the other democracies of the world, because a combined Islamic/Marxist ideology of hatred and conquest grows stronger every day and sharpens its focus on our destruction while we waste our time and resources bickering among ourselves. This would be bad enough if the bickering were simply about how best to combat the problem, but it is mostly about whether there is even a problem to combat.
A nation divided against itself cannot stand, and we are more ideologically divided now even than during the civil war, and out enemies are far more numerous and better armed than ever before. Not only are we surrounded and outnumbered, fully half of our population supports the enemy. The odds of our survival are not good, and victory at this point is a near-certain impossibility, given that American voters just elected the party of treason to near-total control of the government. The fact that our enemies rejoiced at the election results tells all one needs to know about the future. All we can look forward to from this point is an inevitable defeat in Iraq, then Afghanistan, then in our own streets, as our nation descends into ethnic and ideological civil war, with every nation on earth, as well as half of all our own citizens, cheering for our destruction, even those who could not exist without us, because self destruction is obviously written into our genetic code. We, as a nation and a people, have failed the test of Liberty, which demands vigilence and sacrifice from all it shelters, and now the innocent must suffer with the guilty.
Professor, I hope you are right vis a vis your concluding paragraphs. I think what many of us loosely associated with the limited-government “right” fear is the seeming inability of the left in general to label evil for what it is and to combat it. The recent election sent a mild shiver down my spine but I rest hopefully, perhaps naively, in the hope that it is one thing to snipe at Gitmo, foreign-to-domestic wiretaps, secret interrogation facilities, etc, and quite another to lead the nation in Congress and realize that yes, you may have to rely on these tools when you lead. I liken the situation to a child’s throwing a fit over not getting some toy and suddenly finding that the father signed them up to work the deep-fryer at McDonald’s in order to earn the money to pay for it. Reality is a very solid thing, not to be equivocated or wished away. May the dems find a measure of wisdom as they assume the reins.
I agree that soliciting Syrian and Iranian dialog on this issue is illogical. Can we not recognize these regimes for what they are and what their goals are in the ME? Sometimes I think what amazing things the west could do in the ME if they were united with us against autocracy and for self-determination. As it stands, we can only more countries in the world take a firmer stand against the naked Syrian power grab in Lebanon that is in the works.
I’m coming to the conclusion that it will take another 9/11 or nuke attack on Israel for Americans to really wake up.
The really scary thing is that the Islamofascists just continue with their incremental campaign and the Left (Murtha and Pelosi)and Media just allows us to surrender and quit.
There was a saying that I heard years ago that went, “If you treat yourself as a doormat, you can’t complain when people scape off their shoes on you.”
It seems we are content as a nation to become simply half the world’s doormat and half the world’s ATM machine.
People used to come to this country for what it stood for and against. They wanted to “wear the colors” and join the home team.
Now they come scalp the tickets and threaten the refs.
We have absolutely lost a sense of ourselves. Our own media operates as a propaganda arm, it can no longer even be seriously argued otherwise, AGAINST our country.
The fashion themselves as WORLD populists and we seem by our very existence, to be antithetical to everything they stand for and against. That is, if America stands for it or against it…especially when it comes to other nations and especially our own national defense…you can wager heavily that our media will be against it, and us.
As will their blind, unthinking, groupthink faithful. The World Populists are no longer American, they simply reside here.
The new arrivals (illegal with intent to acquire money to send home to the country they love, or amoral with intent to maim, injure and kill)are not American in intent or design. For the most part, they are ANTI-AMERICAN…or at best…ambivalent Americans)
People who root against America and all she stands for, now have a foothold in our information stream, in our voting booths and indeed in our halls of government.
The World Populists and the raging, frothing World Fascists make interesting bedfellows. The reason that their rhetoric often is a mirror image…. is becoming clearer each day.
re: what it would take for us to actually fight this war all out to win it? at minimum, it’ll take an American city or four getting vaporized…
my opinion of the current administration has sunk so low that – outside of being suitably “horrified and saddened” in all our public pronouncements and maybe pledging to help with a memorial of some kind, I don’t think the guy in the White House would do a single bloody thing in retaliation for Iran making good on its promise to wipe Israel off the map. Holocaust II here we come…unless Israel can figure out a way to take out the Mullah’s nuke program on their own…it’s for damn sure the US under this admin. isn’t going to help do it.
lest I be lumped in with the “neocons [who] have sought escape” I’m *still* in favor of fighting and winning this war…both the GWOT and the Iraq portion of it…I just don’t think this admin. has the stomach for it anymore…and, in fact, has done such a bad job of “selling” the need for it to the American public while using half-measures (at best) to fight it, W and his minions may well have made it politically impossible for the next President or two to continue it, even if they are inclined to. Right now, that’s looking like George W Bush’s biggest legacy to me…starting a noble and necessary enterprise, but refusing to do what needs doing to win it and then quitting on it himself. There’s a lot of anti-war sentiment out there, yes, but a lot of the discontent is also of the nature of “if you’re going to fight this war, then go all out to win, and if you’re not willing to do that, then bring our guys home.” That’s a much different sentiment than the “nothing is worth fighting for” crowd has, and those of us neocons who want to fight to win get kind of sick of continually being lumped in with the other crowd, Mr. Hanson. I want the US to fight and win…but doing warfare half-a**ed and on the cheap like this admin. has tried to do in both Afghanistan and Iraq isn’t doing anything other than filling body bags.
The more I ponder it, the more it crystalizes.
Our media beat us down, relentlessly with the false impression (beginning on day 1) that our intentions were ignoble and that we DESERVED defeat.
Their mindless lemmings parroted them in a groupthink mantra.
And they won a war of attrition. This was easy for the World Populists, because they and their followers are merely Timeshare Americans. They don’t live here in their hearts, they drop by to catch a tan when the mood suits them.
Our media and their Timeshare American fellow travelers make the world think less of us, then gleefully point out that the world they made hate us…actually does.
This bootstrapping argument is presented as if it’s a notion not originated and enhanced by the Ministry of Media (including their Hollywood branch). Quite a neat trick.
And the Timeshare Americans truly don’t care who they let into the house, what is done to destroy it, or who might come after them…as long as we remain behind to clean up the mess.
A few comments from another Jacksonian (literally) and from a former American student in England and France during the “phony War.”
Professor Hanson is right on target. It’s as if he had been there in person, so well does he portray the moods prevailing at the time. True, we didn’t have TV, much less the blogosphere, but we did have short-wave radio, which had its own sense of immediacy. In fact, absent the distractions of visuals, it probably conveyed the essence of oratory more faithfully than TV or the web. I probably did not miss hearing a single major speech given by Roosevelt, Churchhill, Hitler or Mussolini during the period from the occupation of the Saar through the Battle of Britain.
Such oratory is missing today, from Roosevelt’s “I hate war!” to Sir Winston’s dismissal of Mussolini as “a mere utensil of his master’s will.”
In autumn 1939, in a London still redolent of Empire despite fashionable Fabian socialism, fresh earth from anti-aircraft emplacements began to mound in Hyde Park whilst French Poilus whiled time away in the imaginary safety of the Maginot line. One could sense some enormous psychic imbalance of forces. We now know that on the allied side one path led to eventual victory, even at terrible cost; the other led to Vichy.
Here is one veteran of WWII who thanks God for the validity of historical perception and the clear voice of Dr. Hanson. I just pray that it is heard throughout the land, but most especially in the mind and heart of President George W. Bush.
I wrote a short story inspired by a Belmont Club comment about what would have happened if Bin Laden had hit a tower in Beijing.
Six months later, our story opens with a Red Army Lt. soaking his hot feet in the Suez Canal….
And yes, the crazy, unpredictable bit was hit on too…had the Red Army shoot random walkers on the street as policy to ‘be crazier than the locals’.
As to the neocon situation, I have hope. Case One–the Too Slow War works. Bush is a hero…Yeah! Case Two…something horrible happens like Atlanta gets nuked. Terrorist problem is completely resolved within a maximum of one week…major areas of the MidEast glow in the dark for a thousand years. Case Three–the jihadi chip away at us with suicide bombers in America, and the MSM counsels surrender. Problem is the American people eventually get what they want if they want it long enough. Reagan’s Morning in America came after Nixon, Ford, and Carter. A more neocon reality based (although perhaps more harsh than iteration one) approach would be back. Granted the decade long political battle would be immensely frustrating, but eventually unless something truly gets broken, we’d do the right thing. And breaking America is a lot easier said than done unless you’re God Almighty, and despite the jihadists’ delusions, I don’t think they work for Him.
I suspect this battle is the Last Hurrah of the Left. Remember the Soviets looked strong until they folded.
Tennwriter
relax everybody its out of our hands. The fuse is lit, Israel will
will slap all these weakkneed liberals (Patton-like) back to sanity when she does the inevitable
and nukes Tehran.
RE: Jihadist cowardice
The real reason that jihadost attack Russia and China less than the US is that they know that neither China or Russia have a “free MSM” ready willing and able to aid and abet them and undercut the regime.
Without the left-wing dominated MSM acting as a Fifth Column the jihadists wouldn’t have a PRAYER!
I think that this is simple.
Topple Iranian leadership; balkanize the country into the ten or twelve main ethnicities. Lebanon rescued. Syria slumbers. Islam mellows. World peace results.
Or we let Iran go nuclear, terrorists are funded, Europe flips, Israel destroyed, South America goes socialist, and low level warfare accomodated. The sun sets on the Western world.
My bet is the latter.
America is the only force which can make the choice due to American exceptionalism. We have lost our way and our will. The pendulum has swung with isolationism and appeasement as the next phase.
Bribes, payola, multiculturalism, surrender of personal responsibility, and populism have beaten our arrayed armies. Dry rot from within.
Soon it will be too late. It may already be.
A deeply appreciated sense of Historical position. In light of Mr. Hansons article , it is further proof of the possibility of any ordinary American to distinguish between what is entertained via MSM , i.e ,surrender to Jihadist Ideology, or to invoke the power of Truth upon their murderous intents. Ideas written upon the table of the soul of man will prevail, having been laid there by the Creator;
immutable truths, and as Victor David Hanson has aptly written, has made our nation strong. We are truly in a Time forseen by the prophets,
a Polarization of Ideas. We must weather the storms of the Islamic ideologies, and return once more to the peaceful shores of Righteousness, mutual respect, and
truth. There is no more Neutral ground left for America to buy.
Why not simply position an Ohio-class ICBM submarine in the Mediterranean Sea and authorize it to aim its missiles at Damascus, Tehran, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, and every other Islamic capital across the Middle East, THEN offer to negotiate with Assad and the mullahs? If they fail to adhere to our demands, BOOM!!!! They all earn one-way tickets to the Land of Mushroom Clouds and Radioactive Ashtrays. I would enjoy watching President Bush pursue this course of action additionally as an incentive for the Middle Eastern petrodollar dictatorship cadre to form an Islamic ecumenical alliance among the Kurds, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and any relatively moderate Shiites and Sunnis still in Iraq. Certainly, solving the Arab-Israeli conflict exclusively on America and Israel’s terms will be a special bonus.
Right now, pretty much the only thing impelling me to hold off the nuclear option for Islam’s global jihad against the West and squarely support continuation of the central front of the Bush Doctrine — namely, the mission to water and nurture further the seeds of liberal democracy in the Middle East — is the grace of the Spirit of the Heavenly Father. Evangelical Christians, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, surely recognize that time is running out to conduct missionary work independent of the Bush administration to win hearts and minds with the love and peace of Jesus Christ. We can and will prevail if and only if we utilize our spiritual and temporal weapons to the utmost extent possible, constrained not by moral and cultural relativism and political correctness — inherent illusions — but ONLY by any limits that exist to our mission. (I sound a bit like Charles Krauthammer in that last sentence, don’t I?)
I agree with Dr. Hanson on every point, and those who posted comments, I would say we have the same fears and it is our fears that control our actions and comments.
President Bush is afraid to take decisive action against Syria and Iran because he fears the consequences. Would the rest of Islam retaliate? I don’t think so. If we destroyed Iran they would be too scared to and Syria would quickly sue for peace, stop aiding Iraqi insurgents and beg to help. Oh, would they beg! Peace in the ME is a single decison away, the right decision — fight to win!
The first commentator, Improbulus Maximus, may well be right; western civilization 1.0 is doomed. He, nor Mark Styn in his excellent book “America Alone”, fails though to factor how resourceful (and ruthless) our remnant can be. If things continue going downhill, I’d bet more than a few smarties would so provide for their progeny. One can only hope, and in so doing stand proudly with the VDHs of the world..
We ain’t goin’ down easy..
The comparison to our time with that of the 1930s reminds me of what my Dad said of that time: “If only the Western Democracies had stood up to Germany in the 1936 militarization of the Rhineland, we would have avoided WWII”. Now I think I know that if the West had moved against Hitler in the mid-1930s each democratic government would have been voted out of office by 1940. The removal of Hitler would not prevent a civil war between fascists and communists with occupying western troops caught in the middle. The election in 1940 of some one like Joseph P. Kennedy or Charles Lindbergh as President would be more likely than a 3rd term for FDR; Churchill would be completely discredited again, with voters swinging to the anti-war Labour party in 1940; France would vote for “pacifist” fascist like Pierre Laval; and finally Stalin would use every minute to de-stabalize all of Europe. Would not all of this lead to a world war fought in the late 1940s or 1950s?
These ‘Realists’ if diplomacy and Foreign Policy want to use Cold War constructs to try and get through this current mess. The are not dealing with reality in that statement as it requires these things known as ‘Rational Nation States’ of which Iran and Syria by their actions have proven themselves not to be rational. That 20th century thinking cannot recognize types of warfare or thought that existed *before* the 20th century nor realize the current tool-set and mind-set does not address them. For, if these wonderful ‘Realists’ could address them, they would have done so when they had the ears of those in Power during the Cold War and would have gotten this addressed. Gwynne Dyer had put out that proposition in 1983 plainly stated that the main threat to the legitimate armed forces of the US and USSR was the non-Nation State terrorist organizations that used tools and methods of war in an illegitimate fashion. In that doing they de-legitimized Nation State Armed Forces by Nation States not solidly going against those non-State militaries. We did not do so because that meant coming to terms with the ‘Real World’ in which Iran and Syria were no longer acting as rational actors.
Thus we are left with no Foreign Policy of any sort in the West, save appeasement and ‘please love us’. In the meantime Iran and Syria by starting Hezbollah up in 1982 are fully accountable for the actions of that organization. By training, paying, supplying and supporting Hezbollah but in NOT making ia a part of their Armed Forces they are trying to stand up a ‘Foreign Legion’ that they can direct but not be held accountable to. The media empowers this by then calling such a: ‘legitimate armed political party’. May it please the watcher to LIST all of those throughout history that have then disarmed once they have killed their way into power? It is an oxymoron because there is no such thing as a ‘legitimate armed political party’: a political party either acceeds to being a civilian organization without arms and civil in its construction or it uses arms to enforce its will and disregards civil institutions and even common civility.
Thus given that Hezbollah is acting to the tune of Syria and Iran, can we finally get one of the Pipers and start ending this calling of rats to overwhelm civilization?
shnitzle wrote:
The first commentator, Improbulus Maximus, may well be right; western civilization 1.0 is doomed. He, nor Mark Styn in his excellent book “America Alone”, fails though to factor how resourceful (and ruthless) our remnant can be. If things continue going downhill, I’d bet more than a few smarties would so provide for their progeny. One can only hope, and in so doing stand proudly with the VDHs of the world..
We ain’t goin’ down easy..
I only wish I could be so optimistic, but we are, in fact, “going down easy”, because our government is actively aiding the enemy by playing their game, and knowingly so. That would be bad enough if we weren’t funding them as well. If a major American city does go up in a mushroom cloud, I pray that it’s Washington DC, because that is where the main enemy of We the People truly lies. If Washington disappeared off the map, our military commanders would be free to pursue a sane policy of extermination of the enemy instead of playing this lover’s game of slap-and-tickle with them.
War cannot be pursued halfheartedly, but that is exactly what we’re doing. We should deport all muslims from the West, carpet-bomb about a dozen major muslim cities to dust, and destroy all major infrastructure in muslim countries, just to make a point. But we won’t, because our leaders are weak-kneed, mincing idiots who would rather see their own nation destroyed rather than get bad press coverage. Which brings me to another point: the MSM should be given an ultimatum of rooting for the home team of going on trial for treason and sedition.
This was a great country once, but now it’s a colony of the third-world, and a target for every disaffected loser on the planet. If only Bush were a Leonidas, or at least a Horatius, but he isn’t; he is, unfortunately, what we have, and that isn’t much.
The U.S. military presence in Japan, Germany and Korea (Vietnam should have followed the same pattern)are a model of what must take place in the Middle East. The establishment of major bases on land in Iraq and Afghanistan and a massive off-shore nuclear threat to the trouble-making states of Iran and Syria for how ever long it takes is imperative. Eventually when these states are placed in a no-win situation, the funding and support of terrorist activities by major players must dry up. Even if these rogue type states become Saudi or Egyptian lite, they at least can be brought back into the family of nations and hopefully reformed from within.
Some years ago Physcologist Dr. Frohm wrote a book entitled “Escape From Freedom”. It was about the British giving independence to their African colonies and how the gereral population was totally clueless of what freedom meant. Some actually showed up at the transfer of power cermonies with baskets to get their “freedom”. It will be a long hard road to turn some of these countries over, Africa being a prime example. On the other had I agree with Carl Carnejo and his nuclear submarine idea; Frederick the Great was pretty successful with his “act now, negotiate later” approach to foreign affairs.
Half this country understands the stakes in the WOT and keeping it over there. The other half, who are they? Liberals, elitists, those who think life in the US really is just too provincial; that those who don’t understand the continental view are just colonials who need to stay home and bake babies.
What would it take for the ‘other half’ to understand the WOT? We’ll know once the US bails on the middle east. Once the US is defeated in the ME, there is nothing to stop the IslamoFascists from completing their take over of the continent. Will the libs be able to convinced the cons to ‘fly to the aid’ of Eurabia?
The race is between Iraq stabilizing as a democracy, and Iran getting a nuke (or so close to one that Israel must respond).
I suggest planning on “what to do now” assuming Iran has a nuke, followed by “now what do we do???” assuming Tel Aviv has been nuked.
Invade, occupy, and forcibly take the oil out of Iran and Saudi Arabia — and charging $10 mil. in damages for every death PLUS the full cost of the military occupation and an additional $10 mil. for every occupation death.
Saudi Arabia should already be sued for the WTC, for their official support of the Wahhabist sect. Were they paying $10 mil/ * 3 000 = $30 bil, plus $7-14 bil in NYC repair damages — they would be a lot more hesitant in supporting anti-Western religious fanatics.
No country without Free Religion and Free Speech deserves the national sovereignty protection of those who signed the UN Charter, and the UN Universal Human Rights.
The world needs a Human Rights enforcement group.
The world has only the USA, and lots of free riders.
I hope we awake to our global responsibility BEFORE a nuke. But Peter Parker waited until after his uncle was killed; I fear we will wait until after Tel Aviv is a mushroom cloud.
Your accurate statements about the neo-cons who have blamed the occupation messing up their perfect invasion infuriates me to no end.
When I read the latest William Krystol piece proposing something, anything I think back to his backing away from support because someone messed up his grand schemes.
These people are not to be trusted in that they do not have the stomach for the heavy lifting required here. They bring down our integrity by proposing even more invasions all the while distancing themselves from the current actions.
I hold them in less respect than honest opponents of the whole endeavor.
Everyone is so impatient.
Things will play out as they must. There is very little anyone can do at any one point to influence events this large. Each drop in the bucket helps, but it doesn’t fill the bucket.
Perhaps I’m somewhat unconcerned about the fate of American civilization because I don’t have children. While we may see suffering that makes the Great Depression seem pleasant, the American experiment is not doomed.
Worst case scenario is the complete collapse of world trade. Trillions upon trillions of dollars will be lost. On the bright side, at least half of it is debt we would no longer have to pay back. Another bright point, no one would be clamoring for universal health-care – they would be too busy looking for food and potable water.
America will survive this – whatever “this” turns out to be. People tend to get what they deserve. If half the country wants our civilization to collapse, well, perhaps it should.
The American people have turned away from the traditional heros, demonized the recent heros, and now have riduculed the entire concept of the heroic. Homer taught an entire civilzation about heroic morality. That lead to a legacy that even the Romans could not stamp out completely. Can such ideals help us to combat the forces of tyranny and hate that confront us now? Winston Churchill appealed the greatness of the British citizens and the English speaking people of the world. This was at a time when, completely alone, England looked across the Channel right into the teeth of the a more benign tyrant than we face now. With his vison, and leadership, despite all odds, he rallied his country and later the rest of the English speaking people to defeat that monster. Please, please Mr. President, read some of those speeches, and the Iliad. Paint the vision that the entire nation needs to see in razor sharp focus. The forces of a very dark evil are upon us. Paint the picture in words for all to see and understand.
Nuclear power without nuclear weapons: It’s closer than you think. Much closer. Few people have a clue about the different nuclear options out there.
We’ve got Lerner working on proton-boron fusion with the dense plasma focus. Then there’s Bussard working on proton-boron fusion with the IEC, an electrostatic device – here he is in this google video explaining the device and the superiority of boron-proton fusion. And several others out there. Who will get it working first? Where is this generation’s JFK announcing a fusion race?
Meanwhile your taxpayer dollars go to fund the ITER program, setting up shop in France, which uses the tokamak and fuses deuterium-tritium – which still benefits nuclear proliferation. (here’s a comparison of conventional approach with focus fusion)
Boron-proton fusion CAN’T be used for nuclear proliferation. If one of these approaches can get it to work, we’ve got a powerful new weapon against proliferation. After all, as someone pointed out in focus fusion forums
Help us spread the word by buying the cool T-shirts and other fusion promotional products. Just in time for the holidays, wishing you all a clean fusion filled future, starting as soon as possible.
Those who fail to understant their history, Mr.
Improbulus Maximus are doomed to repeat it.
The Professor speaks a clear and cincise message. The clock is ticking, we’re in the 11th hour.
The idea that Iran would desire to do anything to help us get out of the current mess in Iraq is laughable. Our quagmire makes it all the more difficult for us to respond to their nuclear ambitions and they know it.
If anything our midadventure in Iraq has accompolished exactly what those in the “realist” camp predicted it would do–leave Iran as the remaining regional superpower.
Nonetheless, despite Mr. Hanson’s neo-con rhetorical lapses about Iraqi Democracy, he is correct about the intentions of both Syria and Iran.
Thus, there is only one lesser of evils response to the current Iraqi devolution. As McCain suggests, put enought troops in the country to inflict devastating destruction of al Qaeda forces there. Cut off the borders, force an agreement on oil income distribution to solicit Sunni help and kick butt.
After the message has been delivered that this is how we are going to deal with Islamo-fascists, begin the exit from a situation that can only be resolved by the Iraqis. Our objective should be to destroy al Qaeda of Mespotamia and not to carry out an indefinite baby-sitting service–not withstanding the silly references to Iraqi Democracy.
Kevin
Bravo Professor! Once again you have written a concise and brutally honest critique of the current situation regarding the Middle East.
The United States will continue to lead and illuminate the world despite the plethora of useless idiots that now dominate the airwaves and the political scene.
Bravo!
Best regards,
Sam Haldi
Atlanta, GA
For the recent election, gringovision put it this way:
The electorate is being given a choice for Iraq: (1) Republican incompetence in achieving victory or (2) Democratic competence in acheiving defeat.
Dr Hanson,
Since the immediate days after the 9/11 atrocities you have written often about the true wartime nature and character of people in America and in the West. “The western way of war” indeed has a long and terrible history, as many enemies would attest to had they survived. Our history shows that Americans have had a terrible resolve in the face of intractable enemies, unflinching despite awful costs. We have fought through to the bitter end, victorious, leaving powerful enemies utterly destroyed. But it has been more than sixty years since this has been the case for America.
I fear that that America, that West, does not exist any longer. The society of more than sixty years ago that could withstand the terrible news of horrendous losses while island-hopping in the Pacific, or withstand the bleak first days of north Africa, or tolerate difficulties moving north in Italy or difficulties in the hedgerows after Normandy or the failure of Market-Garden just does not exist in America today.
Today, we hear hysterical shrieks from political opportunists and their megaphones in the national media if so much as an old statue is damaged in a Baghdad museum following the rapid toppling of an odious dictator. To the extent that such reactions may reflect the beliefs of even a mid-sized minority in the US, it is to our shame. But worse is that this constant shrieking over every event that could conceivably be spun in a negative way has sapped the resolve of some (many?) of those who could and would carry on in the tradition of previous generations.
Our current dithering in the face of today’s intractable enemy invites more terrible events upon ourselves. Truly, what would be the national reaction to the nuclear destruction of, say, Baltimore? After the news tributes and impassioned speeches that immediately would follow, who would be the first national pundit to blame America for bringing such an event upon itself because of its current approach to Islamic terror? Would not a kaleidoscope of critics align and realign to criticize a response in any direction – North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia? While the nation would unite to honor the victims and survivors with blood drives, charity, and lapel pins, what would follow is a nation split between those who would fight our enemies to the death and those who would withdraw from being involved at all with such a dangerous and crazy world.
I wish that I could be reassured by your frequent references to our worthy ancestors. If we are to win without suffering shocking losses we must soon regain our national composure and find American wartime nature and character – as much to remind ourselves that it still exists as to remind our enemies. I doubt that our enemies are very concerned about “the danger they are courting” because we have given them little reason thus far to believe there is much existential danger to them. If we can muster the will at all, it may be only after it is much too late for far too many.
I do not fully share Dr. Hanson’s optimism that we can/will ultmately return to our former ways of unstoppable western warfare, once the Islamofascists provoke us enough (such as by nuking a city). Rather, I fear that like so many great civilizations, we may collapse with more of a whimper than a bang. But if so, then I, for one, shall not go quietly. I know it is cliche to say it nowadays, but give me liberty or give me death. I shall never live in dhimmitude. Never. Not even if it is imposed only gradually, in little steps (like what is happening in Europe already).
Professor, on what do you base your optimisim?
Very Interesting article, thank you.
A few comments of my own: I don’t believe that Iran will attack Israel as long as there is an American army on their flank. Their primary objective will be to remove your army, thereby creating a free hand to attack. Your media is their greatest ally and have been educated to always seek to weaken capitalism, no matter what the cost (ends justifying the means and all). They have been playing to this, your major strategic weakness.
Also, should a nuclear device be detonated in a US city (you could not pay me to live in their favorite target, New York), who would you attack; Iran, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Pakistan, North Korea, Chechnya? I think they would confuse and cover their tracks. Would your media allow you to counter attack without ‘smoking gun’ proof? Proof that would probably disappear in the attack itself. Your media would probably say it was a Cheney/Bush/Haliburton plot to justify your imperialism.
Yes, you can fairly easily defeat the Jahadi if allowed, but, and a big butt (a Michael Moore joke:), your media are the real enemy, and media reform your best hope.
I wish I could be as optimistic as Dr. Hanson. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I agree with his assessment of American power and the rightness of our struggle with Islamo-fascists. I just have a nagging feeling that we’ve raised a generation of America-haters, or at the very least, malcontents, that will stand in the way of our crucial victory. This generation is not the Gen-Xers, nor the current one(as witnessed by the record numbers signing up for military service during a time of war). No, it is the generation that has been the pain in this nations backside for 40 years. They have managed to learn all the wrong lessons and have given in to their own failings so the need for blame is rampant. The target for their rage? Their own country. The baby-boomers are set to destroy this nation financially(SSI), as they did throughout the sixties and early seventies militarily. No generation was given so much so early, and with no quid pro quo. They were right to question authority, particularly in the area of civil-rights, but so wrong in method in many instances. Resorting to bombings and political assasinations rather than marches and sit-ins ruined a movement that could have sustained. Today, the lesson they’ve taken from those days is America is wrong, a bully, and an imperialist. The other side is never examined in this debate, never criticized. Baby-boomers grew up in a time of almost unbridled prosperity, they were mostly denied nothing. The greatest generation had just vanquished Nazism, fascism, and inperialism, and in the process fought it’s way out of an economic depression. As the benefactors of this bounty, the need to matter, the need to accomplish became a clarion call to arms. Embedded in this need to matter was a self-loathing guilt. This guilt would later manifest itself in the loathing of a whole nation, not just ones self. A perversion of patriotism came out of this guilt and lack of accomplishment. Patriotism has always meant a loving of ones country, the support of ones country, the belief in ones country. But to the baby-boomers, this was not patriotism. The new definition was to be, oppose your country, stand with those opposed to your country, protest any military action, and always blame America first. Before we can win the war against Jihad, we must overcome the enemy within. This may prove more difficult than defeating a cowardly band of haters who believe in martydom only for those they brain-wash. I wasn’t around for WWII. I have read accounts that we were a nation of complacency, of hesitation, and in some cases even sympathy for Nazism. We watched as Hitler went on the march. We said and did nothing for years even though we saw the results of European appeasement. It took the loss of nearly 3000 people at Pearl Harbor to awaken the sleeping giant. We’ve already had our generations P.H. and still we seem to be in a slumber. Is it a matter of deflation? Todays 3000 was really only 300 in yesterdays body count? I’m certain, if unleashed to fight this war to win, we would do so and in pretty short order. It’s not our material strength in question, it’s our intestinal fortitude. The moment of truth is upon is. Will we leave it to the next generation when it’s more costly and difficult? We must first overcome ourselves and then and only then will we be able to defeat the “real” enemy……
Jeffrey S. Neher
The sad thing is not that we’re all going to die, as death is inevitable. The problem is that when the war finally comes home, as it must in such circumstances, we’re all going to die screaming.
“But tragically time will tell for these naïve and self-destructive killers. Their clock is ticking…”
I agree. I just wish we didn’t need such a wake-up-call to inspire us to put them out of our misery.
Still I think it will take a pretty outlandish attack to rile people up enough. I mean, with the voters allowing themselves to be fooled by the Dems and the MSM, and with G.W. and other allegedly right-wingers still pandering to the ‘religion of peace’, removing conservatives to replace them with leftist Clintonistas, and demonstrating a lack of will; then we will probably need a pretty swift kick to get us to take the problem seriously once and for all.
Excellent column. In these dark times youar clarity of vision is much appreciated.
AGAIN~a possible and practical “strategy” for reawakening BEACON-on-the-Hill American spirit is:a mandated NATIONAL SERVICE act requiring youth of this nation to perform 3 years of military service or four years of VISTA-PEACE CORPS-CCC-like domestic service with GI-bill like benefits to be consequently merited. As an urban high school teacher for 25 years (with military and Vista service)I believe such a MANDATUM would provide deperately needed sense of PURPOSE to our psychicly wounded, aimless/abandoned Young and provide both a rebirth of NATIONAL Identity and cohesion.End the PC/multi-cultural “diversity” that has bred THE HOUSE DIVIDED. Make the young proud to be citizens (Civis Americanus Sum)and no enemy’s envy can destroy us. BUT if America continues to be FESTUNG YUPPI
-SEIN/Dizzyland, Dr. STRANGELOVE will have the last death-wish laugh….Arthur McVarish; 30 year resident of Houston; former (27 year) reseident of Massachusetts.
young people and a
AGAIN~a possible and practical “strategy” for reawakening BEACON-on-the-Hill American spirit is:a mandated NATIONAL SERVICE act requiring youth of this nation to perform 3 years of military service or four years of VISTA-PEACE CORPS-CCC-like domestic service with GI-bill like benefits to be consequently merited. As an urban high school teacher for 25 years (with military and Vista service)I believe such a MANDATUM would provide deperately needed sense of PURPOSE to our psychicly wounded, aimless/abandoned Young and provide both a rebirth of NATIONAL Identity and cohesion.End the PC/multi-cultural “diversity” that has bred THE HOUSE DIVIDED. Make the young proud to be citizens (Civis Americanus Sum)and no enemy’s envy can destroy us. BUT if America continues to be FESTUNG YUPPI
-SEIN/Dizzyland, Dr. STRANGELOVE will have the last death-wish laugh….Arthur McVarish; 30 year resident of Houston; former (27 year) resident of Massachusetts.
Dear Prof. Hanson:
I fear that America is no longer a sleeping giant waiting to be filled with a terrible resolve and awakened. How long, after all, did it take the appeasers to reawaken and begin again to blame America after 9-11? A week? How long will that period be after the next terrorist act of war on American soil? Two days? Two hours? And after the third attack? Two minutes?
I wonder if we can ever again be awakened. Will that awakening come only when the average American is forced to make real, personal sacrifices instead of faux-sacrifices such as temporarily paying a bit more for gasoline? Will it come when we are facing weekly terrorist attacks of our infrastructure, schools, malls and theaters? And by then, will it be too late to respond with anything other than virtually complete nuclear annhilation of the offending nations/territories? And if we don’t have the will to use non-nuclear methods now, what makes anyone think we would go nuclear, particularly if we have another President Clinton–or anyone of that ilk–in the White House?
Well. At least they’d bite their lower lip and feel our pain.
Our problem is leadership.
We have a president who cannot explain his administration’s actions beyond a small set of his favorite buzz phrases.
He could give a set of speeches wherein he:
1. Describes his hope that the recent democratic elections would allow the peaceful establishment of a new government
2. Lament the fact that it failed, and now Iraqi factions are descending into civil war.
3. Declare that they must be allowed to fight this out among themselves while we stand by to prevent the worst of the outrages. But we’re going to let them fight it out with all the bloody nastiness that a civil war involves.
4. Once the dust settles (and the blood drains away into the ground), we will reengage those who remain. But we’re not going anywhere.
Civil wars happen because of long-standing grievances and animosities. It has begun in Iraq now, gleefully fueled by Iran and Syria and their Machiavellian supporter, Russia. We’ve done such a poor job of defending our interests there that the mind boggles. Incompetence and/or naivete is not to be allowed nor excused in any U.S.A. presidential administration. The current administration is thankfully far better than that of Jimmy Carter, but its mistakes have nevertheless left us grievously weakened in confronting our enemies.
You don’t cut your lawn with nail clippers: We’ve totally failed to understand the nature of this global struggle, not only with Iran and Syria, but also with Russia and China (and even yapping lapdog France). How easily they all have boxed our ears, leaving us reeling in bloody concussion!
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” : We brought one lonely kazoo to the battle of orchestras, it would seem.
To conclude my analogies: A rabid dog attacked us in our house, so we used a flamethrower to kill it; now the house is burning. Our first reaction to this was to run to the hardware store to buy a hammer, a table saw, and lawn furniture. (The initial focus of our occupation was to institute 100% pure capitalism on the ddeply-tribal Iraq, something our ivory towerists wouldn’t dare to try even at home.) Our next reaction was to hold an auction asking local fire departments to prove which would be most cost-effective in putting out the spreading conflagration. Finally we chose one but mandated that they couldn’t use hoses. Some of us are yelling that the entire house will burn down if we don’t change tactics now! While others deamnd that the fire trucks leave now while they gaze into the clear blue sky and declare hopefully that they smell rain.
I’m not optimistic about the future of the U.S. What America needs right now is a national-level cram course in Civics 101 to re-learn the basics of this great nation, but the Democrats and the MSM have a lock on public debate. As someone mentioned previously, we have no Churchills.
A big part of our problem is that we’re actually fighting two wars: a War Against the West (i.e., us against Islamic supremacism) and a War Within the West (democracy versus Marxism). We will not prevail in the former until we prevail in the latter.
Unfortunately, I have less and less faith in the current state of electoral politics that it can get its act together in time. One way or another, I think the West needs some sort of cleansing. I am starting to wonder if the War Within the West will turn into some form of armed civil war. I hope not.