Culture, Counter Culture and Consternation

Victor Davis Hanson writing in National Review Online explains "Why the world’s elites gnash their teeth." Lede paragraph:

"Do we even remember "all that" now? The lunacy that appeared after 9/11 that asked us to look for the "root causes" to explain why America may have "provoked" spoiled mama's boys like bin Laden and Mohammed Atta to murder Americans at work? Do we recall the successive litany of "you cannot win in Afghanistan/you cannot reconstruct such a mess/you cannot jumpstart democracy there"? And do we have memory still of "Sharon the war criminal," and "the apartheid wall," and, of course, "Jeningrad," the supposed Israeli-engineered Stalingrad � or was it really Leningrad? Or try to remember Arafat in his Ramallah bunker talking to international groupies who flew in to hear the old killer's jumbled mishmash about George Bush, the meanie who had ostracized him."

This is an interesting concept from the left, a meme that our freely elected leader, in spite of the efforts to demonize him, was re-elected by a larger vote margin than his predicessor who had a healthy economy, no war to speak of, and was a glib, narcissist who had the unique ability to "feel the pain" of someone whom he had never met before but who asked a question in an open debate.

In the late 60's and early 70's, America was the evil one, shouts such as "Hey, Hey, LBJ. How many kids did you kill today?" or "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh" while waving North Vietnamese flags and listening to such wights as John Kerry (a haughty, French looking Senator who, by the way served in Vietnam - to steal a phrase from James Taranto)as he confessed to war crimes, but worse, accused others of committing war crimes regularly with the consent of all levels of command. I'm still wondering how he could see so many war crimes in 4 months when others I have heard from hadn't seen any in 12 months (13 months if you were in the Marine Corps).

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, we were told many things.

1. There will be 10,000 American deaths just in the street fighting in Baghdad.
2. We will indescriminately kill millions of Iraqi's.
3. There are no WMD's (this one has so far proven true - so far)
4. America will find a way to postpone the elections.
5. The elections will prove to be a bloodbath as the "insurgents" slaughter people going to vote.
6. Iraqi's will be too afraid to vote.

I could go on and on, but, I think a bit more Hanson would be appropriate here:

"And give the old minotaur Senator Kennedy his due, as he lumbered out on the eve of the Iraqi voting to hector about its failure and call for withdrawal � one last hurrah that might yet rescue the cherished myth that the United States had created another Vietnam and needed his sort of deliverance."

Ah yes, Senator Kennedy that paragon of sobriety. Kennedy called for 12,000 troops to be withdrawn "immediately" knowing full well that the troop levels had been increased by some 12,000 for security prior to the election and the plan was to bring them home shortly thereafter. When Kennedy brags how Bush heeded his advice and saw the wisdom of his words remember that.

There is an honor to anti-war protesting. Some of the finest people I know were against the war in the 60's and early 70's and of course against the Iraq war. But I also noticed that many of them were silent when Clinton ordered the bombing of Belgrade without UN Sanction or without an authorization from congress. I know some anti-war folk that I would protect at all costs because their disagreement is principaled. Wrong headed, but principaled!

To quote John Stewart Mill (and I like this quote so much, it's near the top of my sidebar to the right)

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse."

There have been errors to be sure in this war, sometimes collossal errors. But no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. This war is part of the strategic war against terrorism and as such, there will be changes in tactics from time to time. Such is the nature of war and war fighting.

When my dad was alive, I remember him saying something to the effect that many on the left had better hope the communists don't win the cold war, as they will be some of the first lined up and shot. In similar fashion, if we do not win this war against the Islamo-fascists, the slaughter of those who fail to bow down to their perversion of Islam will be fierce indeed.

And now, a word from George W. Bush:

"Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation which leads a worldwide alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further action is required, and it is under way; and these actions may only be the beginning."

And so we must be determined and we must take further action.

There can be no doubt, despite the naysayers, that the Islamo-Fascists, see this war in far more realistic terms than the European/American left. And they intend to win it. By fair means or foul, and they have no access to fair means.

Oh, one last quote from Hanson:

"Remember the twisted logic of the global throng as well: Anyone who quit the CIA was a genius in his renegade prognostication; anyone who stayed was a toady who botched the war. Three- and four-star generals who went on television or ran for office were principled dissidents who "told the truth"; officers in the field who kept quiet and saved Afghanistan and Iraq were "muzzled" careerists. Families of the 9/11 victims who publicly trashed George Bush offered the nation "grassroots" cries of the heart; the far greater number who supported the war on terror were perhaps "warped" by their grief.

"There were always the untold "minor" embarrassments that we were to ignore as the slight slips of the "good" people � small details like the multibillion-dollar Oil-for-Food scandal that came to light due to the reporting of a single brave maverick, Claudia Rosett, or Rathergate, disclosed by "pajama"-clad bloggers without journalism degrees from Columbia, sojourns at the Kennedy School, or internships with the Washington Post. To put it into Animal Farm speak: elite New York Times, CBS News, and PBS good; populist bloggers, talk-radio, and cable news bad.

"In place of Harry Truman and JFK we got John Kerry calling the once-maimed Prime Minister Allawi a "puppet," Senator Murray praising bin Laden's social-welfare work, Senator Boxer calling Secretary of State Rice a veritable liar for agreeing with the various casus belli that Boxer's own Senate colleagues had themselves passed in October 2002. And for emotional and financial support, the Democratic insiders turned to George Soros and Michael Moore, who assured them that their president was either Hitlerian, a dunce, or a deserter."

In the 60's, the counter culture were hippies (and I was one of them to a degree), now-a-days, the counter culture are the elites from the Ivy League schools, the corridors of the Democratic Party and the filthy rich (Soros, Kennedy, Rockefeller, etc.) And that leads to consternation.

Mohammad from Iraq the Model probably gives the best justification for this war. "The will of the good have achieved victory, and that is enough for me to be optimistic, but those will not be as special as you were
2003; the year of freedom.
Before you I was mute, and here goes my tongue praying for the best,
Before you I was hand-cuffed, and here are my hands free to write,
Before you my mind was tied to one thought and here I find wide horizons and greater thoughts,
Before you I was isolated, and here I join the wide universe.
I will never forget you; you broke the chains for my people, and rid us from the big jail.
Many of my people never realized that we were in a prison, as we were born inside its walls and we knew no other world than our jail. But, we were looking through the tiny windows that were hard for the jailor to close, and we saw that our jail was not the best-as our jailor claimed- and we saw that our jailor was not the gift of god-as he tried to convince us-, but we were afraid of his prowess , and owe to the one who says
the opposite."

Oh, and the quote I attributed to George W., It's from John Kennedy in October of 1962 during the Missle Crisis. I hope it consternated a few leftists.

Posted by GM Roper at February 6, 2005 02:18 AM | TrackBack