Beautifully put Doc.


What we need is a sequel to "It's A Wonderful Life" --the old Jimmy Steward movie where he gets a chance to see how much worse off everyone would be if he didn't exist. The world needs a chance to contemplate how much worse off everyone would be if America did not exist.

Maybe then they'd come to their senses.


"What will happen to the world if America is finally beaten down?"

Actually I think Bush and co. have been holding this option up to European leaders, and for some, a light bulb is going on. Especially those who read the intel reports are aware of the real dangers in the world. That said, few of the leaders have the power or the guts to confront their populations with harsh reality. Utopian dreams die hard, and the wrath of disillusioned pacifists is fearsome.

At the press conference following yesterday's US-EU summit, the Austrian president actually defended America. Both he and Barosso stressed the shared interests: Iran, North Korea,and energy security (Putin has put the fear of the Lord in the sensible here). What did the TV pick up on? Guantanamo!

One assumes hat Europe does not have a bible belt. False. Here one has the bible according to Greenpeace, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. Those who ignore their gospels are damned.


Jan,

Start working on the script, and I'll reserve tickets for the premiere.


Just keep speaking out, Doc!


My solution is to just remove ourselves from the U.N.

All we get from the is their 'need' to globalize us and desire for us to no longer remain an independent nation.


Let Europe deal with Iran...and suffer the consequences. They will not wake up until a mushroom cloud goes off in their heads.


What confounds me utterly is that most Americans are probably sick of being told how stupid/ evil/ sick/ weak/ dissolute/ puritanical/ (fill in the blank) we are, and yet somehow people still listen to the MSM, still vote for these hate-mongering bile-spewers, still buy the celebrity rags about them, donate to their pet causes, support organisations that only seem to demand accountability from America for "transgressions", real and imagined. There is no honour in the Democratic party anymore. Decency left ages ago. If, by any chance there is someone left who is honest and decent, they obviously got left behind from a much earlier age and need to be escorted gently over to a bench somewhere to recover once they find out what's happened. IF they can recover. It's not so much the lack of honour and decency, it's the growth and intensification of hatred and vindictiveness, of sheer and utter malice and cold-heartedness at their own country that almost defies comprehension. Lefties still froth at the mouth at the mere invocation of Reagan's name, but part of his success was in just restoring some sense of national dignity - something we could sorely use a dose of today. Although, come to think of it, resorting to closing the national pocketbook and giving everyone a right good kick to the backside might bring us a little satisfaction, childish though it might be...


The "suicidal appeasement of evil" by the secular Democratic Left unfortunately means that the 9/11 losses weren't big enough. A national will might emerge after a bigger target is struck, e.g. a city like Milwaukee or Albuquerque obliterated.
But can anything change the secular Left? I doubt it.


We agree.
The frustration and helplessness can become almost intolerable, hence the need for blogging and beer!


Very well put, Doc. We need to stop the whining and blubbering, rediscover our righteous anger, and kick some ass (including our own), literally, figuratively, and spiritually. We're being tried now in the furnace of false accusation and indignation; and like gold, or steel, we must find our mettle.

I believe we will. Providence and Necessity demand it.


For a look at this phenomonen that even a child, or a left winger (excuse the snark) can understand, I would reccoment Chadwick the Big Hearted Moose, by Dr. Seuss.


It is tempting to imagine an "international community" shocked to rationality by an America which decides to "shrug and walk away" from some international crisis or major disaster. However, the return of rationality is no more likely than a return of rationality in an abuser whose partner walks out after deciding that (s)he has taken enough. The more usual response is an attempt to restore control by an outburst of violence directed at the partner who withdraws from the abusive relationship or else at third parties such as children or the withdrawing partner's family.

The option to shrug and walk away from our abusive partners in the "international community" should be kept open. It should be held up to them as a warning, as the administration may in fact be doing. Before actually witdrawing the "sanction of the victim", though, we should be very sure that we have prepared the military, political, diplomatic, and economic equivalent of a "safe house". We are likely to need it.


David, you're on the right track. Maybe it's time to do a "modified Murtha". Not to withdraw from Iraq as the nutball wants but withdraw or "redeploy" our troops from the countries of our so-called allies. Many European countries complain about how big bad America is a warmonger while enjoying our protection. Time to pull out and let them start picking up the tab and the responsibility for their own defense. How soon do you think it would take before they start screaming for us to come back?


"Every time I see our country accept the premises of the insane political correctness promulgated by the political left--a doctrine that claims that, while all cultures and countries are equal; you, America, are uniquely bad and evil and must be punished for your sins."

Its so easy to look reasonable when you mis-represent the alternatives. Certainly there are strong steps the US must take to protect itself, but I believe the opposition to the steps taken by the Bush Administration simply question whether torture is in keeping with the values Americans have fought to protect.


Panties on the head. loud music. barking dogs. naked Jihadi pyramids. Perpetrators prosecuted for abuse, Not torture.

Still Not Torture. No matter how much you want it to be, or say it is, it still is not torture. Quit squawking the party line Michael and get with reality please.


I'm kinda agreeing on the beer comment... maybe if I drank more the liberals wouldn't make me crazy...


The enemy we fight would slit your throat without remorse, m.c., and wouldn't lift a finger to protect the precious freedoms US troops and allies pay for in real blood, sweat and tears daily for the rest of us.

The US military is the exact opposite of the genocidal radicalized jihadists they fight. The only moral equivalencey may be that the terrorists want to die and mass-murder for their "god," and the US military wants those who want to mass-murder and die to die - in defense of life.

As is true of most the Left's values, this ideal of favoring the little guy in a courtroom runs directly counter to a basic Judeo-Christian value. Exodus 23:3 expressly prohibits it: "Do not favor the poor man in his grievance." - Dennis Prager, "The Left hates inequality, not injustice"


Let me re-phrase it. God help us all if Dems are in power when the next domestic and/or international crisis arises.

In my head, I still have the image of LA governor wringing her hands, with crying voice, on national TV, had absolutely no clue as how to proceed from there. She was saved only by another "higher power".

Just expand that image to the above crisis. Where is the Dems' shinging-armored savior going to come from, when they are sitting on top?


These are people whose concepts of honor and dishonor, right and wrong, truth and lies, loyalty and treason are so radically different from mine that it becomes increasingly difficult to pretend to have any respect for them.


"Is there no decency, no honor left in the Democratic party anymore? Has most of the world gone completely insane?"

Tragically, the questions are not rhetorical.


"Let me re-phrase it. God help us all if Dems are in power when the next domestic and/or international crisis arises."

The idea that everyone in one political party is an expert on crisis management, and everyone in another political party is not, is ridicuous on its face, and is something only a partisan would say. Its the same thing I tell Democrats who try to tell me crap like Republicans hate poor people, etc.

"The enemy we fight would slit your throat without remorse, m.c., and wouldn't lift a finger to protect the precious freedoms US troops and allies pay for in real blood, sweat and tears daily for the rest of us."

I believe you're making the standard "ends justifies the means" argument, which is a philosophy, strangely enough, also followed by terrorists:

http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/d...cles/ define.htm

and marxists:
http://www.marxists.org/history/...nts/ dewey01.htm

Besides the moral arguments, there's also the problem that torture as a matter of policy is ineffective, especially in an urban guerilla/terrorism setting.


OK, mike, you got me. Which current Dem leader would you put your faith in, to save us when next crisis arises?


Jeebus H Czeisz,

The ol' bait & switch eh Miguel?

You get on here and toss out a lame, smelly ol' red herring - "because we torture" - rebuttal to one paragraph of Doc's entire post (as bait) just so you can act the sniveling know-it-all to others responses as veer entirely off topic.

Why don't you quit playing Mr. Potatoe Head for once (I believe you're making the standard "ends justifies the means" argument, blah, blah, blah) and try coming up with something real you can refute the Doc with besides your own wishfull thinking and/or straw-dogs.


I don't believe that anti-Americanism is nearly as widespread as presented. The press corps in Europe is just as dishonest and biased (towards the left) as our own media, so it creates a distorted vision of reality. Polls are largely misleading for the same reason -- they're creatures of left-wing media types. If the America-bashers were right, there would be a mass exodus out of this country. Obviously, it's just the opposite.


It's just the way it is when you are the leader. Those dependent on you, complain and find fault to hide their insecurity from public. But in private the seek you succor and are eager to support you for that protection.

Many view a leader as someone who has blind obedience even if that obedience is bought with the blood of those led. This is the leadership the Left aggrandizes as demonstrated by Stalin. But a true leader, who cares for others not just their self, provides strength and protection knowing it will be outwardly unappreciated. It is provided because the leader can and not to generate acclaim or even acknowledgment.

Bush has demonstrated that he will lead, right or wrong. Quite uniquely in the world today, he has shown he will "decide", he will "do" and he will bear the sniping of those who do not have the strength to make the hard choices.

The real world is not simple, you must make difficult and unpleasant choices to make it better. Hard choices are a devil's bargin. If you have no moral compass to keep you true, you can properly weigh the costs to the benefit. Too often people tell me they will find another way to avoid making a difficult choice. True leaders know that in reality, you can't alter the reality to avoid making a decision and bearing the consequences.

It's easy to be the "victim" as that abrogates you from having to make the hard choices and facing the responsibility that comes with leadership. Until in a threatening situation, you've had all eyes look to you and there be no one for you to look to, you don't really understand the burdens of leadership.


Jan, I love your idea, but how can you make a movie about the world if America didn't exist, when America created the film industry! Those early German flicks were boring!


GnuCarSmell, I agree. During the Bush presidency we have seriously alienated the UN - that is not a country. As much of the alienation stems from the exposure of its cowardice and duplicity, I can regret the result without regretting our actions which led to it.

We have never had better relations with India. That's one billion people right there. We have more credibility and loyalty in Eastern Europe. Our fractious relationship with western Europe continues up and down - no net change. Gains and losses in South America. Only gains in Central America and the Carribean. From zero relationship to some in central Asia. Japan - better; China - same; Pakistan better; Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Libya, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Israel, UAE - all better. Africa - God only knows. Russia - same.

Anit-Americanism is driven by the same classes it has been for decades, both here and abroad.


David,
Your analogy is one I have thought about for some time.The ironic thing is that liberals who would pick up that abused woman and take her to a safe house would expect America to absolve the abuser and stay. Eventually, I do believe America will withdraw from the world. Like an abused wife, it might take nine times of getting our heads kicked in before we leave for good. And you are right, David. We had better be prepared to defend ourselves because the wrath will be hot and destructive.


Doc,

This is one of my favorite posts of yours. And I love Ayn Rand, too. I give her nearly 100% credit for snapping me out of my youthful moonbattishness. (moonbattcism?)


Jan,

If I really allow myself to imagine what the world would be like if the United States never existed, the phrase "charnel house" comes to mind.


David L.,

Before actually witdrawing the "sanction of the victim", though, we should be very sure that we have prepared the military, political, diplomatic, and economic equivalent of a "safe house". We are likely to need it.

That's a good point. Particularly the economic part. I sense danger there--that foreign countries hold a certain amount of power over us due to their financing of our debt.


GnuCarSmell,

Here in Germany, the anti-Americanism is pretty bad now, not toward individuals but toward the country. It has to do with leftist elites who had to give up their social utopian dreams. They largely control the message about events and provide us as a convenient scapegoat responsible for all the problems and dangers of today's world.


Expat - I can't dispute you. It would be nice if the EUnuch's felt all warm and fuzzy about America, but charting an honorable course trumps warm and fuzzy any day. Leading on the basis of polls is not leadership at all -- it's abject capitulation.


> The idea that everyone in one political party is an expert on crisis management, and everyone in another political party is not, is ridicuous on its face, and is something only a partisan would say.

No it's not, Michael. There is no sign that the behavior of any other high-ranking Dem would show better leadership skills, less indecisiveness, or greater planning ability.

For crying out loud, they've been consistently asked for "a plan" on what to do in Iraq for over 4 years now. Despite promising such a plan well before 2006, it is now halfway through 2006 and... no plan.

These people don't have A-1 Clue, as a group. Yes, I'm sure there ARE EXCEPTIONS. Whether those exceptions have any strong voice (see Lieberman, Joe. Miller, Zell) is another matter entirely, and the key point of this discussion.

If the Dems had brains enough to put up Lieberman in 08, I'd ACTUALLY LOOK AT HIM SERIOUSLY.

The same CANNOT be said for ANY OTHER Dem CANDIDATE which has been seriously suggested to date. The GOP could put up a retarded elephant and I'd vote for the elephant before the other suggestions.

Are ya ATARTING to get that through your thick skull?

Here, I'll SPELL IT OUT:
You DON'T WIN ELECTIONS by appealing to your base -- you WIN ELECTIONS by appealing to THE MIDDLE.

Hillary is the only major Dem who grasps this, as far as I can see -- and I *KNOW* she's not a @#%#%^# centrist no matter how much BS she expells to that effect. She's a Stalinist, if she's got human DNA. And what has her faux-centrism gotten her? BOOs from the hoi-polloi.

Dems are just friggin' STUPID, to the point that one's mind BOGGLES.

Not A-one Clue in the lot of you.


> Quite uniquely in the world today

JKB, not to lessen the value of Bush or what you say overall, I don't believe this is fully honest.

Both Blair in the UK and Howard in Australia seem to grasp this, despite not insignificant home grousing, as did the Italian PM who was recently tossed (don't know about the new guy, but I gather he isn't pro-IW, though I have not noticed him pulling out just yet).

So Bush isn't alone, he just doesn't have a lot of support in the historical Euro power base.

Not that I wish pain and suffering on anyone, but, if there is a group that deserves a major Islamofascist attack more than others, it's France and Germany.

Someone pointed out that, of all 9 or so men of Turkish descent arrested for terrorism, every one of them grew up in Germany.


Micheal C.:

Whatever was done in the CIA secret prisons of "extraordinary renditions" worked, according to Dana Priest in her 2002 WaPo article, which was the substantial substrate for her 2005 pulitzer winning WaPo article.

Priest called the secret CIA prisons "vital" to the wot in 2002. She talked to ex Administration officials and others who openly gave her details of what these prisons produced - high al Qaeda people, a lot of them, and so on.

So torture works. I don't know what the torture was, perhaps only methods which were not very near to being medieval, but rather more like physical and psychological stresses, and mind games. But anyone who thinks Abu Garib involved torture would see the CIA methods as torture.

[From the Dana Priest article, it seemed that the secret prisons only "existed" after they had ceased to exist in that particular Country. Any current secret foreign prisons do not exist.]

And ethics in war are a total luxery based upon the degree of security the captor Country enjoys. Survival comes before ethics and rights, except that survival itself is an ethic - especially when you are faced with Islamic sadomasochists who worship death and want to kill you and your ethics.

So in the case of a literal battle for survival for yourself, and then the possibility to reinstitute of your lost ethics and rights if you win, the ends do justify the means.

The idea that you will permanently lose your humanity by not practicing your ethics in the face of Islamofascists who constitute enough of a threat to your survival, is your problem only. I'm not worried about myself losing my ability to be humane or my humanity; and I would torture as conditions necessitate, perhaps even to save you. It would not bother me one bit. If I saved anybody I would be happy about the torture for the rest of my life. The one saved is worth more than some Islamofascist's discomfort.

Subsequently, I'd regain whatever you might have worried about losing, which seems to indicate your problem: you sense you are weak in some way, and therefore you view your own death as some kind of imagined panacea for your weakness in life. But you also would seem to be saying, then, that you are acknowledging your lack of strength in living life and encountering these admittedly difficult conditions such as having to face Islamofascist who are really quite evil and need some response other than passivity. You don't know if you could face these kind of conditions in life. Currently, other people are doing it for you.

If on the other hand you worship only death in the sense of it being the only thing which really validates or proves your values, you are wellcome to it as a "meta-ethic". But I do not worship death, so don't expect that you can criticize, slur, or shame me or the Country for not following your meta-ethic of death worship. The Country must survive to even have an image.

I will slur you, however, if you do not torture in order to save me, or if you do not go to the hilt to defend everyone by sacrificing your own ethic of death worship to do it. If you did not, I would conclude you think that your death worship is more important than my life, or that of your own child. That's a sick ethic, and I would not admire you for it, I would despise you for it.

Ghandi got lucky. He faced down the British instead of having to try it out on the Nazi's. He would not have been thought well enough of to emulate, if his response to the Nazi's was to allow other people to die by not sacrificing his death worship to save them. He would instead be unknown or vilified.

We are not facing the British.

Nor would you be acting to preserve your values, short of your death ethic, if you allowed your death worship to get enough people killed who would otherwise have carried on non-death worship ethics and rights, or got the Country eliminated which gives you and others rights and allows you and others to live feely. You would at best be a slave, or perhaps a collaborator, still merely awaiting death.

Or do you even have values which exist or are important in life, other than your non-self defense or non-defense of others value?

Sacrificing everything else to your death worship, by worrying about torture for example, seems to put you in a not so noble place. I would call it one of narcissism or cowardice.

But, since are alive, you still have time to possibly reconsider your condition and your ethics.


"Is there no decency, no honor left in the Democratic party anymore?"

No.

"Has most of the world gone completely insane?"

Yes.

"Is the suicidal appeasement of evil and the denigration of good now the norm?"

It has been since the 1960's. The slow rot that started there is starting to become terminal.

"And what will happen to the world if America is finally beaten down and just...shrugs...when the next international crisis arises."

See Darfur. If you want to see what will be the long term effect see what happened when the Roman Empire fell. It was a little thing called the Dark Ages. It took over a THOUSAND years for Europe to get back to even being close to the same standard of scientific knowledge of the Romans. Much longer for things like laws, trade, sanitation etc. On the bright side of that all the Gaia global warming worshippers will finally be able to put down their lattes and notebook computers and get back to taht 5th centuary agrarian existance they so long for.


Doc - You say the media are "dupes" for leaking security secrets which help terrorists. That implies an unintentional role. I disagree. I believe it is very deliberate. The folks at *Time* and the *NYTimes* have surveyed the War on Terror, weighed the merits of each side -- one, the Bush administration, the other Al-Qaeda and other Islamic hate groups -- and have made a conscious decision to side with Al-Qaeda. The media's total commitment to destroying Bush is deemed more important than preventing the next 9/11. Publishing our national security secrets is the media's way of telegraphing to our enemies "Hey, guys, we hate Bush, too, and this is how he's learning about your next attack. Just thought you'd like to know."


The United States of America will NOT be "beaten down".



.


"And ethics in war are a total luxery based upon the degree of security the captor Country enjoys. "

If we behave like our enemies then we are no better than our enemies.

In the long run the superiority of democracy is based on winning the hearts and minds of populations so that they adopt this form of government. It can not be forced upon a people any more than the Soviet Union could force their form of government upon eastern Europe, or the French or US could impose their form of government upon Vietnam.


> It took over a THOUSAND years for Europe to get back to even being close to the same standard of scientific knowledge of the Romans.

Actually, this is not truly accurate. Most of the knowledge survived, what truly disappeared was communication. Everything was reduced to enclaves, each with its own pieces of the available information.

Also, while you have never been taught to realize it, a great deal of Roman civilization was retained in the Eastern Roman Empire -- "Byzantium". Had Islam not overrun it quite as quickly, much of the knowledge stored at Alexandria might have survived. Unfortunately, the rot started setting in there about 1200 AD, and the Crusades were unleashed as Islam began to overrun Europe, with the result you know. The true "Dark Ages" were really only from about 400AD to 1100AD. The resurgence of Xtianity via England and France had it well on the mend long before the full flowering hit with the Renaissance and the Reformation.

However, all that said, if we fall, we now fall with our finger on the nuclear trigger.


> That's a good point. Particularly the economic part. I sense danger there--that foreign countries hold a certain amount of power over us due to their financing of our debt.

Actually, rickl, the sway goes both ways.

1) We CAN repudiate the debt. In the end, the only response is war (as a matter of fact, if you look REAL CLOSE, this is USUALLY the cause of many wars... someone, somewhere, getting their final "Payment Past Due" notice)... But who is going to go up against the USA's military? If our military falters, however...

2) We can also turn this on its head by demanding reparations be made for all the lost intellectual property, first. I suspect if most nations were forced to pay for all the US-created IP they pirate, the USA's international debt would mostly disappear.

In other words, this is never as simple as it sounds.


Indeed, America reminds me of Sheriff Bart from Blazing Saddles... the good citizens insulting him to his face or reluctantly asking his help in daylight, and thanking him only when they won't be seen to do so.

What the Dem's strategy won't do is change how America is viewed overseas. Oh, a Democrat president will always be considered 'an improvement' over a Republican 'cowboy'... but it won't be enough to make the world like America. Nothing will, except America being cut down to their size.

Everyone loves to hate the biggest, toughest, most capable guy. It's fear, or jealousy, or a preference for 'equality of outcomes' that demands all countries be equal, like they are in the UN. America is too prosperous, too healthy, too happy, too rich, too strong. Anything else -Christian, democratic, imperialist, decadent, borgeois - is just a convenient label to cover a simpler, more basic emnity that the weaker child has for the stronger.


If we behave like our enemies then we are no better than our enemies.

Fortunately, we have an official policy, signed by Rumsfeld, against cutting off a detainee's schwantz, stuffing it down his throat, gouging out his eyes, and then slowly killing him by sawing off his head. Even if we didn't, doing so to spread modern democracy would still be marginally better than doing so to spread a medieval caliphate.


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It's like the 30's again, but with half of the population of Britain, America, Australia etc... replaced with moral relativist lefty losers.

There are evil nations falling over themselves to acquire the means to destroy us. The appeasers are falling over themselves to make sure that we don't respond.


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