June 29, 2007
Quote of the Century
Michael Ledeen says this is the quote of the century, and it's hard to disagree with him other than to ask why we should limit it to one century
It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers! In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late. Accordingly, I'm readily willing to yield my command to these obviously superior intellects, and I'll, in turn, do my best for the cause by writing editorials - after the fact.Robert E. Lee, 1863
Posted by Tom at 8:25 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
June 24, 2007
Fake Arguments against Democracy
The latest argument coming from the left is that by not supporting Hamas, the Bush Administration, and conservatives in general, do not respect Democracy.
Here's Jimmy Carter (h/t NRO)
The United States, Israel and the European Union must end their policy of favoring Fatah over Hamas, or they will doom the Palestinian people to deepening conflict between the rival movements, former US President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday.Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was addressing a conference of Irish human rights officials, said the Bush administration's refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was "criminal."
Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Next up is a writer on the Daily Kos (h/t LGF)
The extreme contempt both Israel and the U.S. have for democracy means that, despite recent events in Gaza, the isolation and strangulation of Hamas and the Palestinians of Gaza will likely continue. The probable Israeli response to Hamas’ assumption of power in Gaza will be to ease restrictions in the West Bank and engage in meaningless “peace talks” with Abbas, with the cynical aim of increasing his popularity relative to Hamas’. In the long-term, however, if Hamas remains resilient and does not submit to external pressures to relinquish power, we could very possibly witness a full-blown “‘Bay of Pigs’ type invasion of Gaza”, with Dahlan at its head.If what we want to see is a relatively stable Palestinian democracy with the capacity to engage in meaningful peace negotiations with Israel (and again I emphasise that these are not the objectives of the Israeli government), the policies we should follow are obvious, as they have been for months. The Hamas government should be recognised as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and should be engaged with in the form of meaningful final status negotiations.
Sorry, but I'm not buying this.
The whole issue raises interesting, and I don't think completely easy to answer, questions about the nature of democracy, and it's twin, liberty.
The short version of my answer is that there is a lot more to democracy than just the mechanics of voting. Carter I'm not so sure about, but I have to think that most liberals and even leftists know this full well. So when the folks at Kos berate conservatives for not accepting Hamas because they were elected, I have to think they're not being entirely serious in their criticism, because it's eithe that or they're outright apologists for terrorism. I have to think that most who spout this line are just blinded by their hatred of President Bush. In short, they've got Bush Derangement Syndrome.
After all, if the Ku Klux Klan started winning elections in the U.S., I can't imagine the left would accept their right to rule regardless of the fairness of the vote.
Likewise, the Nazi party won a plurality of the vote in the 1933 elections, coming in first with 43.9%, more than twice that of their nearest opponent. The election itself was relatively free and fair, but who today would say that it really represented "democracy"?
All of this brings to the forefront the central question of elections and their relationship to what we think of as "democracy": Is it just or acceptable for a non-democratic party to come to power through elections?
What is Democracy?
The US Department of State helpfully provides a longish definition. Here are some of the highlights
Freedom and democracy are often used interchangeably, but the two are not synonymous. Democracy is indeed a set of ideas and principles about freedom, but it also consists of a set of practices and procedures that have been molded through a long, often tortuous history. In short, democracy is the institutionalization of freedom.
Several "Pillars of Democracy" are listed
# Sovereignty of the people. # Government based upon consent of the governed. # Majority rule. # Minority rights. # Guarantee of basic human rights. # Free and fair elections. # Equality before the law. # Due process of law. # Constitutional limits on government. # Social, economic, and political pluralism. # Values of tolerance, pragmatism, cooperation, and compromise.
Wikipedia says that
Liberal democracy is a representative democracy along with the protection of minorities, the rule of law, a separation of powers, and protection of liberties (thus the name liberal) of speech, assembly, religion, and property.
I think that most Westerners can agree that all of the above are pretty good definitions of democracy.
Back to the Palestinian Authority
Clearly, then, Hamas does not qualify as an institution committed to democracy. Neither, for that matter, does Fatah. Therefore, when the Kos author talks about "extreme contempt both Israel and the U.S. have for democracy" we can conclude that he either has no understanding of democracy, is just off on a political rant and is thus guilty of lazy thinking, or is just an apologist for terrorism. Or, as I mentioned above, he's got BDS.
As for ex-President Carter, I think he's just a bitter old man. He never reconciled himself to this 1980 defeat, and for a Christian seems not to have learned how to forgive. He's thrown in with the worst dictators, has become a virtual anti-Semite, and I believe will be judged harshly by history.
The Algerian Example
What if a situation develops whereby a political party promises to dismantle the institutions of democracy if it is elected? What if it actually wins a majority of the popular vote?
Such a situation has actually occured, not once but several times in the post-WWII era.
In 1991, the Islamic Salvation Front won the first round of Algeria's first multi-party elections. The ISF had promised to turn the country into an Islamic state and institute sharia law. After the voting, the military stepped in and annuled the elections. Western governments either applauded or remained silent. This led to a civil war, and some 160,000 people were killed over the next ten years. However, in the end the insurgents were defeated and a true democracy (republic, actually) is emerging.
What it Means
We in the West are good at the mechanics of voting. Through international agencies we can set up relatively free and fair votes most of the time.
But our record at installing actual democratic values has been rather hit-or-miss. We got it right in Germany and Japan. India has also turned out to be a stable democracy. We got it wrong in Zimbabwe and most other African states. El Salvadore seems to be doing well, but Nicaragua not so much.
Iraq somewhat parallels the Palestinian Authority. It was easy enough for us to set up voting, not so easy to convince people to respect each other's liberty.
In the end, then, we need to recognise that democracy is about more than voting. We need to think harder about what it takes to instill concepts of liberty in troubled regions, and not fixate on voting. This is a tough subject, and will require much thinking and trial and error in order to get it right in a place like Iraq. The first step, though, is to have moral clarity on the subject, and to recognize the true nature of democracy.
Posted by Tom at 10:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 24, 2007
Edwards Shows His Colors
On the one hand this is really no big surprise, but it's interesting to hear him say so plainly that he doesn't believe that there's any jihadist or Islamist threat to the West (h/t NRO)
The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It's a bumper sticker, not a plan. It has damaged our alliances and weakened our standing in the world. As a political "frame," it's been used to justify everything from the Iraq War to Guantanamo to illegal spying on the American people. It's even been used by this White House as a partisan weapon to bludgeon their political opponents. Whether by manipulating threat levels leading up to elections, or by deeming opponents "weak on terror," they have shown no hesitation whatsoever about using fear to divide.But the worst thing about this slogan is that it hasn't worked. The so-called "war" has created even more terrorism—as we have seen so tragically in Iraq. The State Department itself recently released a study showing that worldwide terrorism has increased 25% in 2006, including a 40% surge in civilian fatalities.
By framing this as a "war," we have walked right into the trap that terrorists have set—that we are engaged in some kind of clash of civilizations and a war against Islam.
There are so many things wrong in this it's hard do know where to start.
First, there's the big lie that the Bush Administration is manipulating threat levels for political purposes. Where's the proof, John? None, of course, is offered, because there is none to be had. Just because a threat level is turned up before an election doesn't mean that it was done for political reasons. One of the most basic tenants of logic and statistics is that association is not causation.
One thing that amazes me about the anti-war left is that they tend to assume that all of our intelligence findings about the enemy must be made public, and that anyting that is not public doesn't exist. The have no understanding that so much happens behind the scenes, things that won't and shouldn't be made public for dozens of years. The public actions officials take are but the tip of the iceberg, and the public sees only a bit of what is going on.
Judith Coplon
One example should suffice.
In 1949 an employee at the Justice Department named Judith Coplon was arrested in the act of handing top-secret documents to a known KGB agent. FBI agents had been following her for some time, and as she was handing the documents to the Russian agent the FBI swooped in and arrested them both. Coplon was caught red handed, as it were.
Newspaper reporters asked FBI officials how it was that they suspected her. They told some story about how they watched everyone in the DOJ records department, and discovered that Coplon was pilfering documents.
Coplon was convicted in two separate trials, but each time an appeals court ruled that certain evidence the government presented was inadmissable, and nullified the convictions. Eventually the government gave up and she was let free.
Fast forward to 1994. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's (D-NY) Commission on Government Secrecy has the job of deciding which old covert programs can safely be made public. There is, after all, no reason to keep things classified forever, and the public should know about the successful efforts of our clandestine services.
One of the programs that Moynihan's commission decides to make public was project Venona. During project Venona, the Signals Intelligence Service (the precursor to today's NSA) intercepted and decrypted hundreds of cables sent from the Soviet embassy in Washington DC to Moscow during 1942-45. They were not able to decrypt all cables, and some were only partially decrypted, but the intelligence haul was monumental nonetheless.
In the cables some 349 American agents working for one or another Soviet intelligence service were identified by code name. Of these, American intelligence was able to identify by name 171, leaving 178 unidentified to this day.
Among those identified in the cables was Judith Coplon.
At Coplon's trial, government prosecutors had a problem. If they revealed the existance of project Venona, the KGB would be alerted to the fact that many of it's agents had been compromised, and the Soviets would redouble their efforts to secure their codes. On the other hand, by not revealing Venona, much of the government evidence that was presented might get thrown out (you'll have to read the details of the trials yourself if you want to know why, because the technicalities would time some time to explain and I'm not a lawyer anyway).
In the end, the prosecution took the only decision they could; they kept Venona secret. Partially as a result of this decision, Coplon's two convictions were overturned and she walked.
Back to Edwards
In case it's not blindingly obvious by the example above, project Venona also revealed that Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg were Soviet spys. Yet for decades the far left claimed that they were innocent victims of McCarthyism.
No I am not saying that we should blindly trust whatever the Bush Administration tells us. What I am saying is that people need to be aware that when they turn up the terrorist threat level and only issue vague justifications we need to understand that there is a lot going on that we don't know about, and won't for decades.
So when Edwards talks about the Bush Administration "manipulating threat levels leading up to elections" he sounds like a complete idiot.
War on Terror?
In a way, Edwards is right when he says that there is no War on Terror. Unfortunately, his reason is completely wrong.
The correct answer would have been to say that we're in a War on Terror makes about as much sense as describing World War II as a War on Blitzkreig. It wasn't about fighting a tactic, but rather about fighting an ideology.
As such, as I've said many times, we're really in a "War on Jihadism". Our enemies, in their videos, pamphlets, and communications, call themselves "men of jihad". We ought to do them the favor of taking seriously what they say.
But is it a war? Edwards thinks not. Like most liberals, he distrusts and dislikes military action, and any military action is usually characterized as "an over reliance" on it.
The jihadists have been saying for decades that they are in a war against us. When Osama bin Laden issued his famous 1998 Fatwa declaring war against the United States, neither Republicans nor Democrats took them seriously, to say nothing of the major media. Stunned by this non-reaction, bin Laden took it as a sign from Allah that the United States was ready to be attacked. We paid the deadly consequences on September 11.
Of course we're in a war. Using this term does not, as Edwards supposes, mean that military action is our predominant method of fighting it. For over 40 years we fought what was properly called the "Cold War" against the Soviet Union, yet employed many methods other than military action to win it. Does he want us to rename that time period also?
For that matter President Johnson and other liberals declared a "War on Poverty" in the 1960s. The plain fact is that applying the term "war" to something does not mean that those involved necessarily see military action as the prime or only method of fighting it.
Playing Defense
Much else that Edwards says in the speech is silly as well. Consider this passage
We must be clear about when it is appropriate for a commander-in-chief to use force. As president, I will only use offensive force after all other options including diplomacy have been exhausted, and after we have made efforts to bring as many countries as possible to our side. However, there are times when force is justified: to protect our vital national interests... to respond to acts of aggression by other nations and non-state actors... to protect treaty allies and alliance commitments... to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons... and to prevent or stop genocide.
Sorry, but no it isn't clear at all as to when you'd use military force. As Jim Geraghty comments, "Okay, but how would he, or any other President, know that all other options have been exhausted? How do you know with 100 percent certainty that no additional efforts, concessions, negotiations, requests, or efforts at persuasion will bring on additional allies? When is it considered enough?"
Recall that in 1991 a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate voted against the resolution authorizing President George H.W. Bush to eject Saddam from Kuwait. Yet the Bush Administration had garnered worldwide support, and had all of the necessary Security Council resolutions in place. If that wasn't enough, what was?
It would seem, therefore, that Edwards is setting up a series of conditions that he know cannot be met. No matter how much failed negotiation takes place, he can always say that we ought to give it "another chance".
This is nothing new from the Democrats. Some time ago I reflected on all of the little conditions they were setting up and drafted some new rules for going go war Democrat-style.
And Finally
One of two more points and I'll let this go. Edwards again
But I will also remove any civilian or military officer who stifles debate or simply tells me what I want to hear.
What does this even mean? That he's going to fire anyone who agrees with him? This is the sort of pap that gets applause from the crowd but doesn't really mean anything. I t sounds good in theory but would be hard to actually enforce.
These troops are exhausted and overworked, and we have been forced to dig deeper and deeper to find ground forces for Iraq and Afghanistan. This leaves us ill-prepared for the future. Today, every available combat active-duty Army combat brigade has been to Iraq or Afghanistan for at least one 12-month tour. We are sending some troops back to Iraq with less than a year's rest. To make matters worse, the Secretary of Defense just extended tours from 12 to 15 months, which is unconscionable.
The proper response, of course, would be to rebuild our armed forces, which have fallen disasterously in size since the end of the Cold War.
Last month the editors of National Review provided some facts that shows just how small our military has become compared to the force that ejected Saddam from Kuwait.
From 1974 to 1989, the Army had 770,000 to 780,000 active troops (all of them volunteers). Today, we have around 508,000. The Navy had 568 ships in the late 1980s; today it has 276, and its manpower is so reduced that it often has to helicopter sailors from homebound ships to outbound ones in order to keep them staffed. The Air Force’s number of tactical air wings has shrunk from 37 to 20, and the average age of its aircraft is 24 years (as compared with nine years in 1973).
In addition (sorry but I can't find the link just now to prove it) during most of the Cold War we spent about 8% of GDP on defense. Today it's under 4%. For a time we spent about 50% of the federal budget on defense, today I believe it's under 20%. One of the biggest failures of the Bush Administration has been to not increase the size of our armed forces.
Edwards gives a positively Clintonian response as to whether he'd increase the size of our military
The problem of our force structure is not best dealt with by a numbers game. It is tempting for politicians to try and "out-bid" each other on the number of troops they would add. Some politicians have fallen right in line behind President Bush's recent proposal to add 92,000 troops between now and 2012, with little rationale given for exactly why we need this many troops—particularly with a likely withdrawal from Iraq.The numbers game only gets us into the same problems as the president's approach. We must be more thoughtful about what the troops will actually be used for. Any troops we add today would take a number of years to recruit and train, and so will not help us today in Iraq.
We might need a substantial increase of troops in the Army, Marine Corps, and Special Forces for four reasons: to rebuild from Iraq; to bolster deterrence; to decrease our heavy reliance on Guard and Reserve members in military operations; and to deploy in Afghanistan and any other trouble spots that could develop.
So does this mean he would or wouldn't increase the size of the military? I can't tell. 5 1/2 years from 9/11 and 4 years after the start of OIF and the best he tell us is that he "might" substantially increase the size of the military?
What he's doing is trying to have it both ways. In the first paragraph of the quoted secrion he's playing to the Kos kids, and in the last to whatever hawks are left in the Democrat party. In coming months he'll point to whichever paragraph suits him depending on his audience.
In short, Edwards gives us no reason to think that he would be a competent commander in chief. He is clueless as to the threat our nation faces, and has no serious plans to defeat the jihadists.
Posted by Tom at 12:30 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
February 18, 2007
Copperheads in Congress
I don't suppose there's anyone in their right mind today who couldn't imagine not fighting to free people imprisoned in the hell of slavery, especially when it's happening on your own soil.
And if you're like me, when you were younger and less well-read you had this view of events like the American Revolution, Civil War (from the North's perspective), and World War II as glorious crusades in which "of course" we were all in it together.
But it were the truth. Most history books will tell you that only about 1/3 of the colonists supported independence, another 1/3 were loyal to the crown, and the last 1/3rd just didn't care. Up until Dec 7 1941 up to 80% of Americans wanted nothing to do with aiding the British in any shape way or form. Yet who today could imagine not wanting to fight the Nazis?
We all know, I suppose, that the North stumbled many times in the road to victory. Lincoln went through general after general before he found one who could consistently win. And then after the victories of early 1863, came the losses of later in that year and early 1864.
The Federal Army was unable to fill it's ranks with volunteers and resorted to a draft, which proved so unpopular that riots broke out in New York City over it. Many northern Democrats, disappointed in the way the war was being conducted, decided that it wasn't worth it.
These "peace Democrats" became known as Copperheads. By 1864 they had gained effective control of their party.
There was a presidential election in 1864. From the Democrat Party Platform:
Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military necessity of war-power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view of an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States.
Amazing, isn't it? Yet it's true; the "peace Democrats" of 1864 wanted an immediate end to the fighting and a negotiated peace that would undoubtably have left slavery in peace. Today's Democrats want an immediate withdrawal regardless of consequences, which would be a huge victory for the jihadists.
As with the Civil War Copperheads, today's variety think that they have the public behind them. They are convinced that the results of the last election "prove" that the American people want an unconditional withdrawal. But as a poll published in Investor's Business Daily points out, it isn't that simple (hat tip Power Line)
From the accompanying editorial
The party of John Murtha shamelessly seeks to defund and defeat U.S. troops on the battlefield and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Congress the terrorists wanted is doing their bidding ...As we've noted on several occasions, Democratic talk of "redeployment" has encouraged terrorist groups around the world.
Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said before the 2006 vote: "Americans should vote Democratic," adding that "it is time the American people support those who want to take them out of the Iraqi mud." The statement could have come from Murtha, Kerry, Hillary or any number of Democrats.
We find it scary that the Democratic and terrorist game plans are indistinguishable.
I'd say that's about right. I'm reading Walid Phares' Future Jihad, which is the best book I've read on the terrorists period. He lays it out just as IBD says; that one of OBL's objectives was to get us to become divided and fight each other. Critics will say that it's all President Bush's fault, that if only we hadn't invaded Iraq we'd all be in it together.
Hogwash. The left would still object to the Patriot Act and Gitmo. Take Iraq out of it and the right and left still have fundamentally different views of what the war is even about. The right sees it as a war against fundamentalist Islam, and the left sees it as a police action against criminals. But more on that when I review Phares' book.
John Murtha has become the chief Copperhead and his plan for our defeat is in full swing. The Washington Times explained on Friday that
When the House votes today on the resolution denouncing Mr. Bush's plans for additional troops to combat al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Iraq, members should be under no illusions about what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership are trying to do: to make it impossible for American troops to properly do their job in Iraq. In an interview yesterday with MoveCongress.org, a Web site for a coalition of anti-war groups, Mr. Murtha, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, explained that by placing conditions on $93.4 billion in new combat funds, he would make be able to effectively stop the troops in their tracks. "They won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment, they don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work. There's no question in my mind," Mr. Murtha said."We will set benchmarks for readiness," a top Democratic leadership aide told the nonpartisan Politico.com Web site, which summarized the Democrats' strategy this way: "If enacted, these provisions would have the effect of limiting the number of troops available for the Bush surge plan, while blunting the GOP charge that Democrats are cutting funding for the troops in Iraq."
No one should be fooled by Murtha's "readyness standards". They're fraudulent and everyone knows it. If you don't believe me listen to what Murtha himself said as quoted by the IBD article
"We're trying to force a redeployment not by taking money away, (but) by redirecting money,"
The Democrats, and some Republicans, don't just think that the Keane-Kagan plan, "A Plan for Success in Iraq", around which the "surge" is based, won't work, they're trying to ensure that it won't . It's shameful enough that they've given our most vicious enemies aid and comfort with their stupid resolutions, now they're trying to pull the rug out from under our troops feet too.
Copperheads, all of them.
Posted by Tom at 9:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 26, 2007
Two Wars
This from today's Washington Times "Inside the Ring" column
Sen. James H. Webb Jr., Virginia Democrat and decorated war hero, gave the Democrats' response to President Bush's State of the Union address, and likened Iraq to the 1950-53 Korean War.Mr. Webb said, "As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. 'When comes the end?' asked the general who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War II. And as soon as he became president, he brought the Korean War to an end."
We think that is an apt comparison, but probably not for the same reason as Mr. Webb's.
Like Iraq, the U.S. war in Korea was dogged by poor planning, the wrong types of troops, failed tactics and major miscalculations, such as China coming to the communist north's defense. The American death toll: 36,000 in theater.
But in the end, America won. The north's invasion was reversed and the south was preserved. It matured into one of the world's great democracies, free markets and U.S. allies. And a free South Korea helped blunt Josef Stalin's plan for a communist Asia. What some have called the "forgotten war" was messy and unpopular. It drove Harry S. Truman from office. But it made the world a better place. It just took 30 years to realize it.
What's interesting is that at the time the Korean War was not necessarily seen as a victory. But there's also another war that we fought some time ago that didn't work out so well, but that most people today would say was absolutely necessary.
But before we get to that war, let's talk a bit about Korea.
My point here, btw, is not to go after Senator Webb. Both he and the President gave pretty good speeches the other night. As you may guess I thought the President did better, but that's not what I want to talk about here.
Back to Korea. If you're not sure why the Korean War was viewed as a fiasco at the time, you can start with Task Force Smith and the Chosin Reservoir.
Our initial justificatioin for fighting the North Korean invasion was to simply preserve the integrity of the South. However, after we successfully turned the tide with the invasion of Inchon, President Truman changed his war goals and decided to liberate the entire peninsula. General MacArthur dismissed warnings that the Chinese would intervene if he got too close to their border. As we know, the Chinese did intervene in a massive invasion that inflicted tremendous casualties on US forces and drove us completely out of the north. A stalemate ensued that was only ended when newly elected President Eisenhower negotiated an armistice (not a peace treaty) with the Chinese and North Koreans.
We were so traumatized by the Chinese intervention that during the Vietnam War 15 years later we imposed strict requirements on our pilots when they attacked targets in the north. At the time, we saw the lesson of Korea as "don't piss off the Chinese or Russians or they'll intervene and cause a wider war".
Yet as the article from the Times points out, South Korea is a stable democracy today and generally a very good ally. Sure, we've got some current disagreements over policy with regard to the north (see "Sunshine Policy"), but all-in-all it's hard to find anyone today who doesn't think the Korean War was worth it. However, at the time Truman was much-criticized for it.
Another War
One-hundred forty-odd years ago the United States fought another war that was, at times, deeply unpopular. It was said to be an unnecessary war, one that could have been resolved by negotiation, the President was accused of changing his goals halfway through it, and of massively violating our civil rights. Further, the war was conducted incompetently and the reconstruction period afterwards solved nothing. The oppressed people it was supposed to benefit didn't get their rights for another hundred years.
I write, of course, of the American Civil War. President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, probably illegally. While he initially justified the war simply to preserve the union, after the battle of Antietam he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, effectively introducing abolution as a justification and war goal. The Emancipation Proclamation was very controversial in the North, with some troops even threatening desertion over it.
Some Democrats in the North became almost violently anti-war. They became known as "Copperheads".
By 1863 and early 1864 the war was going very poorly for the North. The Federal Army was unable to meet it's recruiting goals, which led to the imposition of a draft. The draft proved so unpopular that riots in New York City broke out over it.
Because of these and battlefield setbacks, the war opponents gained much strength. They were able to take over the Democrat party to the extent that the Democrat Party Platform for the 1864 presidential elections demanded "that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities" and a negotiated peace with the South.
Of course, the North won and the Union was restored. But the Reconstruction period that followed was marred by political disputes up North, the long and short of it being that it ended in 1877 without the civil rights of blacks being assured. With the imposition of Jim Crow, a visitor to the South in the 1920s or 30s might be forgiven for wondering if in fact the Civil War achieved anything at all.
How We View History
Maybe I'm all wet, but it is my perception that the way we view events like the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II is that "we were all in it together" fighting for a glorious cause. Because the Korean War is more recent, I think many people have at least some inkling of the controversies involved, at least that of the insubordination of General MacArthur.
But when I go back and read the history of these events, what amazes me is how much we fought with each other. The colonialists seemed to spend as much time bickering with each other as they did fighting the British. When you read about how the New Englanders opposed the selection of George Washington to lead the Continental Army soley because he was a Virginian, and they wanted "their man" in charge, you just want to go back in history and scream at them. And this is not to mention that only about 1/3 of the colonists even supported revolution. But this is how history works, I think.
So here we are today with the current situation in Iraq. I've made no secret of both my disappointment with how President Bush has done in handling it and the larger War on Jihad, but right now I'm even more disappointed by the anti-war crowd.
Laying that aside for the moment, we need to realize that wars that are seen as obviously necessary today were often quite controvesial at the time.
Posted by Tom at 9:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 28, 2006
Gerald Ford - An Appreciation
My earliest political memories are of watching the 1976 Republican National Convention. My parents were supporters of President Ford, and therefore so was I. I was not the rebellious type, then or now. Besides, what Ford said and stood for seemed to make sense.
There was an interloper at the convention, who my parents felt threatened to split the party and thus lessen our chances of victory. All I remember was watching the TV cameras turn to someone called Ronald Reagan, who was sitting in the audience, and who waved to his fans who in turn cheered him. My parents didn't like this, for reasons not entirely clear to me at the time. In later years they became huge Reagan supporters, and it became evident that theirs was simply a call for party unity.
Ford of course lost the election, and so the first presidency I followed with any detail was that of Jimmy Carter. In the next four years the country seemed to careen from crisis to crisis, with the president having no clear idea of what to do about any of them.
The only thing I recall with any specificity about Ford's term was the Mayagüez incident, and it seemd to me that he did the right thing, given what he knew at the time he made the crucial decision to send in the Marines and Navy to rescue the captured crewmembers.
During one of their debates, Carter criticized Ford over his handling of the incident, which I thought terribly unfair.
In later years I, like most people, I suppose, remember Ford mainly for what he didn't do after leaving the presidency; criticize his successors. He went away to do...well I wasn't sure quite what he did all those years, but had the vague feeling it was sitting in some distinguished post somewhere offering sage advice in his usual steady manner.
Surely his brief term in office offers plenty for a conservative like me to criticize. "Whip Inflation Now" was just about the most silly economic plan of modern times. That he continued the Nixon/Kissinger policy of detente will also never endear us to him. But for all his policy errors, he proved a far better president than his successor. And when the 1980 election rolled around, he quickly agreed to campaign for the man who almost took the nomination from him in 1976.
The most important thing he did was pardon Richard Nixon. It was also the correct decision. That he did so knowing full well that it would cost him dearly polically is a tribute to his character and leadership.
Ford's legacy will be that of a steady hand on the helm in a time of national distress. He was refreshingly "boring", at a time when we needed someone with a steady temperament, someone who "looked" like a president and acted as such. He served our nation well when it was needed.
Previous
Jeanne Kirkpatrick - An Appreciation
Pope John Paul II - An Appreciation
Memories of Reagan
Yasser Arafat - An Unappreciation
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December 23, 2006
Nobles and Knaves, The Contest
Every Saturday the Washington Times names a Noble and Knave for the week. At the end of the year, they compile the winners, and invite readers to vote for a Noble and Knave of the year. Below I have copied the year-end contest from this morning's Times. At the end, I'll tell you who I voted for. On to the contest:
To vote, send an e-mail to nobleknave@gmail.com with "Nobles Contest" in the subject line or send a fax to 202-715-0037. Entries must be received by Jan. 1. When voting, please remember that only this year's nominees are eligible and that votes sent en masse with the intention of unfairly weighting the nominees will not be considered.
For Noble of the year, select three:
• The West Virginia coal miners, the 12 who tragically perished and the one who miraculously survived.
• BB&T Corp., for enacting a policy of not loaning money to private developers who have acquired land by way of eminent domain.
• Dr. Ward Casscells, now Col. Casscells, who, at 53, put aside a highly successful medicine career to join the Army Reserves.
• Peter Benchley, the writer who gave us "Jaws" -- and an inordinate fear of sharks -- died in February.
• Maryland state Sen. John Giannetti, who saved his primary challenger, Senator-elect Jim Rosapepe, from choking during a chance encounter at an Annapolis restaurant.
• Dana Reeve, who devoted her life to taking care of her late husband, actor Christopher Reeve, and who tragically died in March.
• Loudoun County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Sayre, for saving a hostage's life at a gas station with one incredible shot.
• David Dingman-Grover, the 11-year-old brain cancer survivor whose mano-a-mano battle with his tumor, which he had named Frank, became a symbol of courage.
• U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who, upon sentencing terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison, told him flatly, "you will die with a whimper."
• Bill Cosby, who continues to challenge the country with his message of tough love, self-reliance and personal responsibility.
• Robert Rector, the Heritage Foundation fellow whose research helped expose the Senate's disastrous immigration "reform" bill.
• Staff Sgt. Michael Caldwell, who, while lying wounded on a hospital bed in Baghdad, took the oath of re-enlistment.
• Oakland A's pitcher Barry Zito's "Strikeout for Troops" campaign, which donated $500 for every strikeout thrown during the 2006 All-Star game to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
• Laurie-Ann Fuca, for choosing to follow her son into the Army by enlisting herself at 41.
• Rep. Bobby Jindal, who helped his wife deliver their son when they couldn't get to the hospital fast enough.
• The Boy Scouts of America Omaha Scout Troop, for saving an 18-month-old girl from drowning.
• Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin, whose daring exploits with the wildest and most deadly of animals came to end with his death in September.
• Oriana Fallaci, the Italian writer whose unwavering and unapologetic defense of Western Civilization in the face of Islamist barbarism earned her a place as one of freedom's heroines. She died in September at 77.
• Park County, Colo., Sheriff Fred Wegener, for making the tough call to end a tragic school-shooting incident which took the life of a 16-year-old girl.
• Drs. Andrew Fire and Craig Mello, whose research into how to "silence" specific genes earned them the Nobel Prize this year.
• The Alaskan villagers, for refusing Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez's offer of cheap oil.
• Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor, the Navy SEAL who in September threw himself on a grenade in Iraq to save his fellow SEALs.
• The Minnesota National Guard, whose members had the perfect rejoinder to Sen. John Kerry's "joke" that only the uneducated get "stuck" in Iraq: "Halp us Jon Carry -- We r stuck hear n Irak."
• San Francisco's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC), whose members saw the school board eliminate their beloved program.
• The off-duty Secret Service agent who was shot while trying to break up a fight at an Annapolis mall.
• Stevie Long, the 4-year-old "superhero" who managed to save his family by scaring off a burglar by dressing up as a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger.
• Ambassador John Bolton, who leaves the United Nations better than he found it, but not as good as he could have made it -- if given the chance.
For Knave of the year, select three:
• Vermont Judge Edward Cashman, for sentencing a confessed child rapist to just 60 days in prison.
• James Frey, for peddling a fictionalized autobiography, "A Million Little Pieces," and making millions off it.
• New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, for saying that Hurricane Katrina was an act of God in response to the United States being "in Iraq under false pretenses."
• Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein, who in a January column compared U.S. soldiers to corrupt politicians.
• The Colombian drug traffickers, for using puppies' stomachs to smuggle heroin into the United States.
• The Spotsylvania County, Va., Sheriff's office, whose officers were enjoying the, er, services of the Moon Spa while ostensibly investigating it for prostitution.
• U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir, who chose an Olympic setting to proudly wear a "CCCP" red sweatjacket.
• Yale University, for admitting a former member of the Taliban, but not the U.S. military.
• A Republican-controlled Senate, which drafted a budget blueprint that added $11 billion to federal spending, all the while claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility.
• NBC's "Dateline," whose producers crafted an unethical scheme to ensnare NASCAR fans in a story on Arab-Muslim bigotry.
• Sen. Harry Reid, whose opinion on unilateralism versus multilateralism depends on which way the political winds are blowing.
• The Los Angeles Times and Paramount Pictures, whose idea of promoting "Mission: Impossible 3" was to have a series of wires and a ticking sound emanate from L.A. Times newsstands.
• The Cambridge, Mass., City Council, which in May declared Cambridge a "sanctuary" for the nation's 12 million-plus illegals.
• Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor who was found to be not only an anti-American extremist but also an academic poseur.
• The American Civil Liberties Union, which attempted to prohibit its own members from criticizing the free-speech organization.
• Helen Thomas, the so-called "Dean of the White House Press Corps" who didn't know the difference between contemptuous and contemptible.
• The Dixie Chicks, whose lead singer Natalie Maines told the London Telegraph in June that she "didn't understand the necessity of patriotism."
• Susan Roberts, a Davidson political science professor who in May wrote that the Supreme Court had the power to strike down constitutional amendments.
• Rep. John Murtha, for trying to backtrack from comments he made in June that the U.S. presence in Iraq was more dangerous to world peace than a nuclear North Korea.
• "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan, whose "Troops Home Fast" fast ended pretty, er, fast.
• The scoundrels who mugged a disabled Iraq war veteran outside a restaurant in Bethesda in August.
• The Stars, Stripes and Skates fund-raising organization, for writing a children's book which tried to make September 11 a "happy" event for kids.
• France, for having to be dragged kicking and screaming to provide troops for an international peacekeeping force in Lebanon that was its idea in the first place.
• The CBS producers of "Survivor," who had the idea of organizing contestants into racial groups for its upcoming season.
• Jimmy Carter, for this, that and about everything else he's done, written or said recently.
• John Edwards, whose crusade against Wal-Mart apparently doesn't keep him from shopping there.
• Senator-elect Jim Webb, for ditching veterans at a post-election event in Virginia Beach.
My Selections
As always, it was a difficult choice for both Noble and Knave. After some consideration, here are my selections:
For Noble of the Year
• Bill Cosby, who continues to challenge the country with his message of tough love, self-reliance and personal responsibility.
• Oriana Fallaci, the Italian writer whose unwavering and unapologetic defense of Western Civilization in the face of Islamist barbarism earned her a place as one of freedom's heroines. She died in September at 77.
• Ambassador John Bolton, who leaves the United Nations better than he found it, but not as good as he could have made it -- if given the chance.
For Knave of the Year
• The Dixie Chicks, whose lead singer Natalie Maines told the London Telegraph in June that she "didn't understand the necessity of patriotism."
• Rep. John Murtha, for trying to backtrack from comments he made in June that the U.S. presence in Iraq was more dangerous to world peace than a nuclear North Korea.
• A Republican-controlled Senate, which drafted a budget blueprint that added $11 billion to federal spending, all the while claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility.
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December 9, 2006
Jeane Kirkpatrick - An Appreciation
I first started paying serious attention to politics at about the time Jimmy Carter became president. Our country seemed to drift from one crisis to another, and we suffered numerous humiliations and setbacks abroad. In the wake of Vietnam the Soviet Union seemed on a roll, with many nations falling to the communists during the 1970s. Demagogues across the globe realized that it was safe to insult the United States, and many lept at the chance.
Symptomatic of Carter's term was his ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young. For example, during the trail of Soviet dissident Anatoly (now Natan) Shcharansky, Young claimed that there were "hundreds, maybe thousands, of people I would categorize as political prisoners" in the United States. While he later said that he was not equating the Soviet Union with the United States, he never explained what he meant either. Carter stuck by him, but Young was finally forced to resign after he met with a representative of the PLO, which was contrary to administration policy.
Then came the election of Ronald Reagan and everything changed. No longer would we apologize for our role in the world. Integral to his view of the world was his appointment of Jeane Kirkpatrick as ambassador to the UN.
She quickly put other nations on notice that insults to the US, to which they had gotten used to making, would no longer be tolerated. Far from apologizing for the United States, she demanded that other nations, in particular communist ones, apologize for theirs. There was a new sheriff in town, and and this one didn't let anyone intimidate her.
Conservatives were impressed. in 1984 William F Buckley Jr wrote two columns about her called "St. Jeane of the U.N." (in Parts I and II) , which National Review has conveniently reprinted on their website. Buckley wrote that the media had managed to attach a stigma to the use of the term "cold war", a term that Kirkpatrick felt was the correct way to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. When confronted, Buckley wrote,
Mrs. Kirkpatrick answers that “We have been manipulated into feeling that it is warlike behavior on our part to register the fact that [the Soviets] are waging a full-scale ideological combat against us. Also, in the U.S., where intellectual categories are the objects of fashion, it became terribly unfashionable to call the cold war ‘cold war.’”
She was never one for the idiologically fashionable.
"They Always Blame America First"
Kirkpatrick may be best known, however, for her speech at the 1984 Republican National Convention, in which she attacked liberals for blaming the United States whenever something went wrong in the world. The relevant part of her address is worth quoting at length:
They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do - they didn't blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians - they blamed the United States instead.But then, somehow, they always blame America first.
When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the "blame America first crowd" didn't blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.But then, they always blame America first.
When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.
But then, they always blame America first.
When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.
But then, they always blame America first.
The American people know better.
They know that Ronald Reagan and the United States didn't cause Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua, or the repression in Poland, or the brutal new offensives in Afghanistan, or the destruction of the Korean airliner, or the new attacks on religious and ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, or the jamming of western broadcasts, or the denial of Jewish emigration, or the brutal imprisonment of Anatoly Shcharansky and Ida Nudel, or the obscene treatment of Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, or the re-Stalinization of the Soviet Union.
The American people know that it's dangerous to blame ourselves for terrible problems that we did not cause.
They understand just as the distinguished French writer, Jean Francois Revel, understands the dangers of endless self- criticism and self-denigration.
He wrote: "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."
All you have to do is change the relevant proper nouns and the same speech could be delivered today.
Once a Democrat
Jeanne Kirkpatrick was perhaps the original neoconservative. While today it has become a term of opprobrium among liberals, back then it simply meant someone who had once been a Democrat but had become disillusioned with their party over it's adoption of a leftist foreign policy. Kirkpatrick had campaigned for Hubert Humphry, but had become very critical of President Carter and his policies. She became an advisor to Ronald Reagan, which led to her appointment as Ambassador to the UN.
Her most famous essay during her time of transformation was "Dictatorships and Double Standards" in 1979, published as a book with some of her other works in 1982. It was among the first serious political works I read and I found myself agreeing with it's precepts. In the piece she criticized Carter's foreign policy, and discussed the fate of the Shah of Iran and Somoza of Nicaragua. Her essential thesis was that by abandoning repressive rightist regimes, we allowed far worse ones to come to power. From the frying pan into the fire, as it were. She also pointed out that thus far no "socialist" or communist regime had willingly democratized, and that "the architects of contemporary American foreign policy have little idea of how to go about encouraging the liberalization of an autocracy."
Whatever one thinks of the details of her piece, it is hard to argue that Iran, for example is better off with its Khomeinist regime than it was under the Shah. It is very easy to moralize and say that you won't support a repressive government, but sometimes all the world offers is a choice between bad and worse.
She supported the Argentine junta led by General Galtieri in it's "dirty war" against leftist opposition. This provoked some criticism, some of it justified. I don't know enough about the situation in Argentinia to know whether a leftist government would have gone full-scale communist, and we can't go back and replay history using different variables.
Legacy
In the end, though, what matters is that she was the right person at the right time. She, Reagan, and the others came to power at just the moment when it looked like the Soviet Union might win the Cold War after all. They stemmed, then reversed the tide, starting a series of events that eventually led to the collapse of the Evil Empire.
Along with Reagan, she was famously hated by the left. Their enthusiasm for international institutions such as the UN who's function seems to be more and more supporting dictators and terrorists, is distressing, to say the least. Her modern-day successor, John Bolton, is hated in a similar fashion. Appropriately, he is moving into her old office at the American Enterprise Institute.
Jeane Kirkpatrick, 1926 - 2006. RIP
Update
In a post over at The Corner today, Stanley Kurtz reminds us of how the business of leftists on college campuses shouting down conservative speakers started in the 1980s
The silencing of conservative speakers by shouting campus mobs is a sadly too common occurrence nowadays. (Has anyone seen Lee Bollinger?) Yet the mother of all campus shout-downs was the drowning out of a talk by Jeane Kirkpatrick at the University of California at Berkeley in February of 1983. At the time, the practice of shouting down speakers was uncommon. So it shocked me when, as Berkeley grad student, I heard faculty members openly justifying that action with the claim that “oppressors have no free speech rights.” The Kirkpatrick incident was a key moment in my long, slow transformation from McGovern liberal to conservative.
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August 14, 2006
VJ Day
Today marks the 61st anniversary of Victory over Japan Day. It's a day worth marking and remembering. From Wikipedia
August 15, 1945, marked Victory over Japan Day or V-J Day, taking a name similar to Victory in Europe Day, which was generally known as V-E Day. In Japan, the day is known as, Shusen-kinenbi, which literally means the "Memorial day for the end of the war". The day marks the end of the Burma Campaign, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War with the U.S., and other military conflicts in Asia. This is commemorated as Liberation Day in nations such as Korea, partly due to participation of her exiles in War against Japan over 40 years. See Surrender of Japan for historical circumstances surrounding Japan's surrender.At noon Japan standard time on that day, Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese people via radio. Earlier the same day, the Japanese government advised the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S. Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington.
Since Japan was the last Axis Power to surrender and V-J Day followed V-E Day by three months, V-J Day marked the end of World War II.
Never forget
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August 8, 2006
End this Stupid War
To all of my readers, after long and considered thought I have reached a conclusion.
We must petition our president to end this stupid war. Now. And if he does not, we should consider articles of impeachment.
I'll list my reasons below, but by now you're familiar with most of them; we're fighting someone who never attacked us, most of the fighting is in a part of the world that does not or should not concern us, our president has used the war to violate our civil liberties, he hides the true extend of US casualties, and has fought the war incompetently.
Yes we were attacked. Yes a response was necessary. But every since the attack on
December 7 1941, this president has used his powers to take us in a direction I never imagined he would. As such, it is time for action. Here then, is my case.
Germany Never Attacked Us
I accept that we need to fight Japan (but more on that later). But there is no reason for us to be fighting Germany and Italy.
Here is the timeline, for anyone who forgets;
1) December 7 Japan attacks us at Pearl Harbor
2) December 8, the US declares war on Japan
3) December 11, Germany declares war on the United States
4) December 11, the US declares war on Germany
But why did Germany declare war on us? It was not obligated to do so by the Tripartite Pact (the "axis" treaty), which was strictly defensive in nature, only obligating the parties to come to each others aid if they were attacked.
I'll tell you why; because Roosevelt provoked them.
US Provocations
The fact is that Roosevelt gave secret, illegal, orders(and here) to the US Navy to shoot on sight Germany U-Boats years before we were officially at war with them. If you doubt me, let it be remembered that on September 11 1941, Roosevelt ended all pretense and publicly stated that he had ordered the US Navy to shoot on sight German U-Boats. Who can blame Germany for declaring war on us after this?
In March of 1940, Roosevelt rammed "Lend-Lease" through Congress, the purpose of which was to aid Great Britain by shipping her war material. Who can blame Germany for being angry with us?
To top it all off, Roosevelt and that drunk Churchill in August of 1941 issued their "Atlantic Charter", which was basically a declaration of war on Germany. They did this on warships in the atlantic, and even forced the crew of the HMS Prince of Wales to sing "Onward Christian Solders" for their entertainment. Besides gross insensitivity towards non-Christians, this event shows that Roosevelt and Churchill believe that this is some sort of religious war that they are fighting, something totally out of place in our modern world.
Great Britain and France are to Blame
But didn't Germany attack Poland, you ask?
Oh yes, and it's The Great War all over again. Didn't we learn our lesson that time? Europe went to war because one stupid assassination triggered a series of declarations of war because all those countries had treaties with each other. Well, they've gone and done it again. If Great Britain and France were stupid enough to sign a defense treaty with Poland, that's their problem.
Besides, the whole thing could have been avoided if those two countries had treated Germany decently after The Great War. President Wilson even warned them that if they carried out their vicious plans it would only set the stage for another war. But no, they had to punish Germany way beyond what was necessary. All the Treaty of Versailles did was to create political and economic chaos in Germany. Who can blame them for bringing Hitler to power? Besides, by any economic measure, Germany is a better place now that he is in power.
The Arms Merchants
The Nye Commission conclusively proved that it was the arms merchants who suckered us into The Great War. Thanks to the indefatigable efforts of Senator Nye, we now know that it was their greed that led to untoward politcal influence. Far from being a war between "good" and "evil", it was all the works of munitions lobbyists paying off congressmen. The lesson, of course, was not to sell arms to beligerants in Europe.
Why Roosevelt has ignored this is beyond me. He claims it is a war between "good" and "evil", but we've heard that one before.
The situation is not any better with regard to Japan. Japan fears the United States because of our bases in the western Pacific, such as those on Guam, Wake Island, and especially the Philippines. We obtained those bases through our own imperialist expansion, obtaining the latter in a war we provoked with Spain at the end of the last century. Yes Japan's actions in China are deplorable. But did Roosevelt expect Japan not to respond when he imposed sanction after sanction on them?
No Accountability
After the disaster at Pearl Harbor, you would think that Roosevelt would have fired most of his military advisors. But then, you don't know Roosevelt and his cronies. Virtually all of the people who held office on December 7 are still in their positions today.
Secretary of War Henry Stimson, Still on the job.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull, still on the job.
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, still on the job.
Admiral Husband Kimmell and General Walter Short, commanders in Hawaii? They were cashiered. Which shows you the respect Roosevelt has for our military as opposed to his cronies in the cabinet.
Unprepared for War
You might think that someone who would lead us into war would at least be ready to fight it. But then you would think logically, unlike Roosevelt.
Despite years of "preparation", this is the situation that our armed forces found themselves in when war was actually declared:
- Every single one of our single and twin-engine warplanes were inferior to that of our enemies. Every single one
- 80% of our naval torpedoes were duds.
- Our army tanks were inferior to that of our enemy, and still are today. Worse, the Army has as it's stated policiy not to improve on the M-4 Sherman! Besides thin armor and a pitiful gun, they are powered by gasoline engines, while those of our enemies are powered by diesel. When hit by an enemy shell, a gasoline tank explodes, a diesel one burns. Our own troops call our tanks "ronson burners".
- Our navy built far too may battleships when it should have been concentrating on aircraft carriers.
I could go on but I think you get the point.
Military Incompetence
Roosevelt, when pressed, claims a number of "mistakes" were made. I call it incompetence. This war has been fought by amateures.
Remember these? Dieppe, Tarawa, Anzio, Manila? Or Operation Market Garden? Or how they tried to cover up the disaster of Exercise Tiger? How many American boys were killed because we underestimated enemy troop strengh at Iwo Jima? And don't think that things got any better with time; we were caught by surprise in the Ardennes and lost 19,000 brave Americans, the biggest loss of the war, and the ongoing effort to capture Okinowa looks to the be the most incompetently executed operation of all.
How about incompetent generals like Mark Clark. Or how about the kamikazes that plague our Pacific Fleet, and about which Nimitz has no idea how to stop? Admiral Halsey should have been fired after driving his fleet through a typhoon, but was inexplicably allowed to remain in command.
Out of Proportion
I will accept that we needed to respond to the Japanese attacks of December 7. But our response has been all out of proportion to the damage inflicted on us. Our stated goal is the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. This implies occupation of their countries and punishing their leaders. But none of them has ever attacked the American homeland. Japan limited their attacks in Hawaii to military targets, yet report after report shows American aircraft bombing civilian and "industrial" targets in Germany and Japan. Our response should be proportionate; recapture the islands that Japan took in the opening days of the war and stop there.
American Atrocities
There is great evidence that there is a deliberate policy of murdering enemy soldiers. For example, Japan is estimated to have had 21,000 soldiers defending Iwo Jima, yet only 1083 survived the battle. It deflies the imagination to think that had Roosevelt been so bloodthirsty, he could not have asked his commanders to negotiate the surrender of more Japanese troops.
Further, our strategy in the Pacific is to bypass some Japanese held islands, leaving them to "wither on the vine". Translation; starve them to death. This is a violation of th rules of war. The least we could do is allow humanitarian agencies to ship food and medical supplies to the Japanese soldiers on these islands. But of course Roosevelt has seized all food through his rationing program.
Then there is our bombing of civilian targets. General Curtis Lemay, newly appointed commender of the Army Air Force's XX Bomber Command in the Pacific, has ordered our bombers to drop incendaries - firebombs - on civilian targets in Japan. Reports from the field tell of fantastic destruction of Japanese cities, especially Tokyo. It is apparent that our commanders are making little or no distinction between civilian and military targets in these campaigns.
The situation is the same in Europe. American and British bombers regulary attack German cities, taking little care as to what they hit. The recent "carpet-bombing" of Dresden is said to have caused massive civilian casualties for little or no military gain.
Alliance with the Devil
Although this is said to be a war against evil, we are allied with some of the worse dictators on the planet; Joseph Stalin in Russia and Chiang Kai-shek of China. At least Hitler can claim one democratic election (albeit a plurality), which is more than what Stalin or Chaing can claim. Not only are we allied with these two dictators, we ship them supplies. We cannot claim to be on the side of "good" as long as we are allied with such people.
Hiding the Cost of War
Roosevelt has gone out of his way to hide the cost of this war from the American people. He has forbade newspapers from publishing photos of dead Americans, and newsreels, which are nothing but propaganda, only show "happy scenes".
Roosevelt also manipulates the media at every turn, and newspapers that publish things he does not like are said to be "unpatriotic." There are even a series of posters which purport to tell us that anyone who publishes leaked information is unpatriotic. This assault on our civil liberties must stop.
In addition, mail that our brave troops send to their loved ones at home is censored. Besides the obvious violation of civil rights, it is clear that the real purpose of this is to hide the horror of the war from the American people.
The Bottom Line
We need to force this president to end the war immediately. We should bring our troops home before they get stuck in Japan or Germany for an indefinate amount of time. Even at this late date, negotiations are still possible. We should not allow ourselves to be beholden to the bloodthirsty war aims of Churchill or Stalin. If Roosevelt does not comply, articles of impeachment should be drafted.
Next up - A Decade of Failure
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August 4, 2006
1938 Redux?
Several commentators at National Review have written recently that what they see happening in the world resembles nothing so much as the 1930s.
In the 1930s Britain and France appeased Hitler. Anything to prevent the horrors of what they called The Great War, they said. The United States stood on the sidelines, naively thinking we were secure in our isolationist policies. The elite mocked Churchill as a drunkard alarmist.
Today many in the West so no danger from Iran or the various terrorist groups that cannot be negotiated away. The elite today mock George Bush and Tony Blair.
First up is Michael Ledeen, who points out that although "9/11 was supposed to have been the wakeup call," "we are again asleep". The problem now, he says, is that we fail to recognize that it's not just about fighing "insurgents" in Iraq, or Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran and Syria are behind much or most of it, and behind that is a virulent form of radical Islam. Although I still say that going into Iraq put us on the strategic offensive, Ledeen points out that since the invasion we have been playing defense.
Meanwhile, a collection of frauds, writing in places like Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Mother Jones, continuously recycles a story saying that a neocon (code for “Jewish”) conspiracy duped Bush into going to war in Iraq, and is now arranging the invasion of Iran.
For those that forget, President Roosevelt was treated to the same sort of nonsense from the likes of people like Father Coughlin, who accused the president of "leaning toward international socialism or sovietism on the Spanish question." Indeed, as Ledeen says
It is the Thirties again. Many of the statements above apply to Franklin Roosevelt’s first two administrations, and to the political atmosphere of those dreadful years. Then, too, the mounting power of what became the Axis was ignored. As my father often reminded me, a few months before Pearl Harbor, at a time when Nazi armies were long since on the march, the draft passed by a single vote. Apologists for Hitler and Mussolini were legion, and some of our leading intellectuals were saying that American democratic capitalism was a failure, and we would do well to emulate the European totalitarians.
Continuing this same theme, Victor Davis Hanson reviews some of the apologists of that era
...nevertheless it is still surreal to reread the fantasies of Chamberlain, Daladier, and Pope Pius, or the stump speeches by Charles Lindbergh (“Their [the Jews’] greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government”) or Father Coughlin (“Many people are beginning to wonder whom they should fear most — the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination.”) — and baffling to consider that such men ever had any influence.
Tell me, what is the difference between any of the above cited men and Michael Moore or Markos "Screw them" Moulitsas? Or Pat Buchanan, for that matter?
And how are our "allies" In Europe responding to all this? Hanson continues
There is no need to mention Europe, an entire continent now returning to the cowardice of the 1930s. Its cartoonists are terrified of offending Muslim sensibilities, so they now portray the Jews as Nazis, secure that no offended Israeli terrorist might chop off their heads. The French foreign minister meets with the Iranians to show solidarity with the terrorists who promise to wipe Israel off the map (“In the region there is of course a country such as Iran — a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region”) — and manages to outdo Chamberlain at Munich.
Our enemy, as I mentioned, is not just a few Taliban remnants, or "insurgents" in Iraq, it is Islaofascism (or whatever you want to call it) in general. Principal among the villans is the government of Iran. And before we congratulate ourselves, Barbara Lerner says that far from confronting Iran,
...we have yet to admit that Iran is at war with us, or to seriously consider striking back at her, and, in speaking of our own war aims, we never dare use the v-word — victory — anymore. Instead, we make head-in-the-sand happy-talk about “peace,” “democracy,” and “ceasefires,” rejecting any military action against Iran for fear of “widening the war” — as if Iran were not already at war with us — and rely on the U.N. and “the international community” to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and to prevent her proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, from continuing to bring death and destruction to our smallest, truest, and most vulnerable ally, Israel. ...Worse, we meet the jackals halfway by endlessly apologizing for sins our soldiers and guards are falsely accused of, in Iraq and Guantanamo, and by urging “restraint” on Israel — as if she weren’t employing near-suicidal restraint already. Then, we congratulate ourselves for our “courage” in standing up to international pressure by not forcing Israel to stop fighting for her life immediately, and promising, in return, to “protect” her with a “peace-keeping” force of enemies, led by the reborn Vichy France of Jacques Chirac and Phillipe Douste-Blazy — the French foreign minister who just called Iran “a stabilizing force.”
So is this were we are, again on the brink of the precipice? After 9/11 we said "never again", but even a casual reading of any newspaper reveals a large segment of opinion-makers who believe that George W Bush and Tony Blair are the greatest threats to world peace. Sorry, but I don't buy the notion that all would be well if only we hadn't invaded Iraq.
It also doesn't explain current attitudes on the left towards Iran. This article at Mother Jones typifies the "what me worry?" attitude the left has towards Iran: "The confrontation with Iran has very little to do with nukes—and a lot with the agenda of empire".
The good news is that the Bush Administration is letting Israel have a go at destroying Hezbollah. The bad news is that we are not serious about dealing with Iran or Syria. Barbara Lerner, in her article linked to above, has some good ideas for dealing with Iran. All too many of our elites, however, seem mired in the attitudes of the 1930s. And we all know what that got us.
Posted by Tom at 9:15 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
November 6, 2005
The Cold War Museum
Nine years ago, Francis Gary Powers Jr dedicated himself to building a museum about the Cold War. The son of famed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers(since deceased), he has an obvious personal interest in seeing that people do not forget the sacrifices and heroism of the Americans who fought it.
The museum is still in the planning stages. Powers is in the finalizing with local government authorities a site, on an old Nike missile base in Lorton Virginia, just a few miles south of Washington DC. Many artifacts have been acquired and are in storage awaiting construction of the museum building. However, Powers has put together an exibit on his father's U-2 as a kind of "traveling museum", which today can be seen at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum in Denver, Colorado, through November 2005. It has been on display on other museums across the United States as well.
Recently, the Commonwealth of Virginia allocated a $125,000 matching grant to the Cold War Museum. "Matching", of course, means that in order to receive the money they need to match it with money of their own. To donate you can go here or here. Federal and Military personnel can donate though Combined Federal Campaign number 7475.
On a personal note, I had the pleasure of meeting Francis Gary Powers Jr some years ago. We live in the same general suburban area of our nation's capitol, and I attended some events to to help him promote his cause.
Every month, from spring through fall, Mr Powers hosts the Spies of Washington Tour, which I went on a few years ago. The tour starts at the Pentagon City Mall, where everyone boards a charter bus. The bus drives around the northern Virginia and Washington DC area while Mr Powers and another guide point out places of interest relating to espionage activities. The tour includes a stop at the International Spy Museum, which I would encourage everyone to visit if you are in the area.
While there is of now no physical museum, they do have a website where you can find many articles, personal stories, and on-line "exibits" about the Cold War.
In addition, Powers publishes an on-line magazine about the Cold War, titled, appropriately enough, The Cold War Times.
From the Cold War Museum website:
Mission Statement and Goals
The Cold War Museum is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to education, preservation, and research on the global, ideological, and political confrontations between East and West from the end of World War II to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.Goals
The three main goals of the Museum are to:
* Develop permanent Cold War Museums to preserve local and regional Cold War history with the headquarters and National Museum facility located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
* Erect Cold War Memorials with the National Cold War Memorial located near Arlington National Cemetery to honor the men and women who were killed as part of Cold War events and activities.
* Establish a reference library and research center to help maintain the historical accuracy of the Cold
From Powers' most recent email to subscribers:
Please consider making a year-end donation to the Cold War Museum. Your gift will help us plan for the new year and the new physical location. Tax-deductible contributions and artifact donations to the Museum will ensure that future generations will remember Cold War events and personalities that forever altered our understanding of national security, international relations, and personal sacrifice for one's country. Please help spread the word about the Museum. Together we can make this vision a reality. If you should have any questions, want additional information, or would like to subscribe to our Cold War Times email newsletter distribution list, send an email to editor@coldwar.org
Posted by Tom at 7:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 27, 2005
At the Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Faceoff with Code Pink
That's right, your intrepid blogger was at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center last night to face off against the Code Pink whackos!
As most of you probably know, a story broke this week that members of a far-left group called "Code Pink Women for Peace" have been holding a weekly protest outside of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is located in Washington DC.
The story erupted on Thursday when Marc Morano of CNS News published this story and video on the protests that have been held, unnoticed by the mainstream media, outside of the main gates of the Walter Reed hospital complex.
The anti-war demonstrators, who obtain their protest permits from the Washington, D.C., police department, position themselves directly in front of the main entrance to the Army Medical Center, which is located in northwest D.C., about five miles from the White House.Once word of their presence got out, a counter-protests organized by the conservative group FreeRepublic.com started. Every Friday night, both groups hold forth on opposite street corners. They start shortly after 6pm, and the "main event" is the arrival by bus of soldiers which occurs sometime around 9:00. I believe that these are newly arrived wounded soldiers just flown in from the front but will have to investigate further.Among the props used by the protesters are mock caskets, lined up on the sidewalk to represent the death toll in Iraq.
Code Pink Women for Peace, one of the groups backing anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas, organizes the protests at Walter Reed as well.
The Code Pinkos would hold up signs saying things like "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton", all the usual stuff you'd expect from the far-left. One soldier told the CNS News reporter that one day when they drve by they saw "...a bunch of flag-draped coffins laid out on the sidewalk." The wounded troops could see all this, mind you. Nice, eh?
Location, Location, Location
The problem that I and other conservatives have with Code Pink is that they are staging their protests outside the military hospital where wounded troops are brought from the front to recover. If they want to protest in front of the White House or Capitol building, fine. But not here. And let's be clear; they have been doing this as an "in your face" to the troops.
Code Pink, of course, claims otherwise;
The anti-war protesters claim their presence at the hospital is necessary to publicize the arrivals of newly wounded soldiers from Iraq, who the protesters allege are being smuggled in at night by the Pentagon to avoid media scrutiny. The protesters also argue that the military hospital is the most appropriate place for the demonstrations and that the vigils are designed to ultimately help the wounded veterans.Indeed, Code Pink is now claiming that they are not even protests at all. From their website:"If I went to war and lost a leg and then found out from my hospital bed that I had been lied to, that the weapons I was sent to search for never existed, that the person who sent me to war had no plan but to exploit me, exploit the country I was sent to, I would be pretty angry," Luke told Cybercast News Service.
These are vigils, not protests, and participants have included Washington, DC-based members of Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and DC Labor Against the War, who all want more support for veterans.But this is not true. We've got the goods on them."Since we started these vigils, we feel we have helped put the spotlight on the needs of the soldiers and helped achieve positive results, such as greater VA funding and a rollback of attempts to make soldiers pay for their own meals, phone calls, daily hospitalization fees and increased co-payments,” said CODEPINK’s Gael Murphy, one of the vigil’s organizers.
A New Code Pink Spin
Since the publicity hit last week spokeswomen for Code Pink have has been spinning like tops. Whenever interviewed on the radio or TV they've tried to claim that "oh no, we're not against the troops, we're doing this in support of the troops!" and "We just want them to have the best health care possible!"
Yeah right.
But FreeRepublic has the goods on them. Check out these photographs of past Code Pink signs on their website.
Who is Code Pink?
Code Pink is just about as bad as you think they are. Check out their website, they're a typical leftie group. David Horowitz, as usual, has the goods on them. From his invaluable Discover the Network website, a database of left-wing groups, is this:
Mocking the Bush Administration's color-coded security alerts, the "Code Pink Alert" warns that this administration poses "extreme danger to all the values of nurturing, caring, and compassion that women and loving men have held." Proclaiming that "women have been the guardians of life . . . because the men have busied themselves making war," Code Pink calls on "women around the world to rise up and oppose the war in Iraq. We call on mothers, grandmothers, sisters and daughters . . . and every ordinary outraged woman willing to be outrageous for peace." During one Code Pink demonstration in Washington, D.C., participants marched up the steps of the Capitol, unfurled their slogan-bearing banners, and stripped down to the dove-adorned bras and panties they wore beneath their clothes. "We're putting our bodies on the line," they shouted. "You Congress people better get some spine. We say 'Stand back, don't attack - innocent children in Iraq!'"But wait, it gets worse span style="font-style: italic;">
During the last week of December 2004, Medea Benjamin announced in Amman, Jordan that Code Pink, Global Exchange, and Families for Peace would be donating a combined $600,000 in medical supplies and cash to the terrorist insurgents who were fighting American troops in Fallujah, Iraq.That's right; this group gave $600,000 to the other side.
"Peace group" my foot. They want us to lose.
The News
So all of this hit the news this week, and was all over the radio. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, my job allows me to listen to the radio most of the day, and it doesn't take much brains to figure out who I tune in to; Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Michael Reagan... ok I occasionally listen to music but that's mostly at night.
Anyway, it all allows me to stay on top of things. So they all started talking about this on Thursday, with Marc Morano of CNS being just about the most-interviewed man on the planet, and it didn't take me long to figure out what I was going to do come Friday night.
I live in the Washington DC area. I wasn't going to miss this for the world.
Friday, August 26
After work I hurried to Walter Reed, arriving shortly after 7pm.
The main entrance to the hospital complex is on a main street, with four lanes of traffic. Across from the entrance another street runs perpendicular to it, forming a four corner intersection (I hope this is clear. I did't think to take any "big picture" photos).
The Code Pink protesters on one corner, one of those by the entrance (to the left if you're looking at the entrance). We were on the other three corners. They had a maximum of 22 people (a FreeRepublic person kept count), whereby we had maybe 75 or so. So we outnumbered them by at least 3 to 1, and probably more, but I'll be conservative.
Here are some of our people outside the entrance
This was our largest sign. You just gotta love it!
I just had to pay the Code Pink folks a little visit. Nothing nasty, mind you, I was on my best behavior. So I walked over to their corner and asked "Can I take a photo?" Without really waiting I took a few.
"What are you protesting?" I politely asked.
One of their party looked a bit confused and looked at another for assistance. "It's not a protest, it's a vigil" one of them said.
"What's it a vigil for?" I asked.
No response.
At that point they'd had enough of me. "You're in front of my sign. Go back to your own corner."
Deciding that enough was enough, I retreated, taking this photo of them as I left
Here's your intrepid reporter, holding a sign that the FreeRepublic people made. They kept a bunch handy for people who showed up.
The Code Pink people were silent all night. No chanting or singing, nothing.
We, on the other hand, were somewhat vocal, and more so as the evening went on:
"Move your protests to the White House!"
"Code Pink gave $600,000 to the terrorists in Fallujah!"
"Where are your old signs!"
At around 9pm the troop bus arrived. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to got a photo as they drove past us, so this one is as it enters the complex.
But when it came past our corner, the driver turned the lights on in the bus so that we could see the troops. They all smiled and waved to us. I couldn't see their reaction to the Code Pink folks, but have heard that they've been known to give them the one-finger-salute.
The Code Pink people broke camp and went home shortly after the bus arrived. They'd made their point, I guess. But so had we.
Update
Cam Edwards was there, and has some photos and even video of the event on his website. I actually saw him there, and said "that guy looks familiar", but couldn't place him. Now I remember that I've seen him in my NRA magazines.
Update II
Check out the the FreeRepublic.com post on the goings-on that night. They've got lots of photos and great reporting on what went on. They were nice enough to give us a plug, too. Thank you, guys!
Posted by Tom at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 2, 2005
Static vs Dynamic Analysis: Why the Critics don't Get It
Once again we’re hearing all the things that we “should” have done in Iraq. Over the last two days I listened to General Barry McCaffrey and Senator Joe Biden on the radio and both of them excoriated the administration for not having followed their oh-so-wise advice.
At least these two have our best interests at heart. I do truly believe that they want us to succeed in Iraq. Others, like Moveon.org, and, well, the entire leadership of the Democratic Party, seem only to be concerned with scoring political points.
Some of the things that McCaffrey, Biden, and others tell us that the administration should have done in the early days of the Iraqi War are:
1) We should have used more troops
2) We should not have disbanded the Iraqi Army
Biden even went so far as to state ad nauseum that "everyone knows" that we need and needed more troops. Biden considers himself a genius, you see. If you don't believe me, just ask him.
Movinge beyond that, let’s take them on. But before we get to specifics, let’s go over some important concepts:
If you change one factor in an equation, everything else changes too. The first problem I have with Biden and McCaffrey is that they are engaged in static thinking.
Dynamic vs Static Analysis
Their mistake is in thinking along static lines. They assume that if you change one factor in an equation, nothing else will change. This is such a basic error that I am amazed that it happens so often, and by people who should know better.
For example, if you raise taxes by 10% on an item, it is invalid to automatically assume that the government will get 10% more money. It is true that on some items, such as cigarettes, the increase in revinue will be about 10%, because the demand curve for such items is inelastic. But on other items, such as candy bars, people will simply adjust their spending habits, buy less of the product, and the government may not end up with any appreciable increase in revinue at all.
People who blithely say that we “need(ed) more troops” or that we should have “kept the Iraqi Army together” assume that only positive results would come from such a decision. They seem not to realize that there were potential negative consequences from taking a decision other than what we did.
More specifically, they seem not to realize that if you change one factor in the equation of history, everything else changes too.
So people who say that we "need(ed) more troops" or "should have kept the Iraqi army" may be right, or they may be wrong, but I have yet to hear aargument from any of them yet that takes any of this into account.
Now that we've laid the groundwork, let's go though each one in more detail.
"We Need(ed) More Troops"
As Rich Lowry of National Review pointed out last year in "What Went Wrong" (subscription required), there were significant disadvantages to having put more troops in the field of battle:
If more troops would have enhanced security in the aftermath of thw war (a debateable proposition, as we shall see), the lighter and more mobile force had significant advantages in the prosecution of it. "The decision was made to collapse the regime as quickly and violently as possible," says a senior administration official. the most kimportant advantage of this approach, he sways, was simple: "A quick collapse saves American lives and Iraqi lives."It served other objectives as well. It made it possible to take the oilfields - crucial to Iraq's rebuilding - mostly intact before Saddam had time to destroy them. And there was the political consideration. It was thought important to avoid a drawn-out war, and the destabilizing effect it might have on the region. "You don't want an American army slogging it's way to an Arab capital," is how one official puts it.
I can hear it now from the lefties: "But we have lost a lot of American and Iraqi lives!" To which the only logical response is; "not by historical standards, and remember, the situation could be much worse. Remember the "battle of Baghdad" we were assured would happen?"
The problem I have with the "more troops" crowd is not that they're necessarily wrong, but that they don't even think it necessary to consider that the presence of more troops might have made the situation worse.
For example, we are told that with more troops we could have "stopped the looting." Really? How exactly? It is not clear that the mere presence of our soldiers would have stopped anything. By shooting the looters? Oh that would go over well in the rest of the world. By "detaining" them? And put them where, and for how long? What about trials, which our "human rights" groups would not be long in demanding? They never say.
And how would we get all of these troops into Kuwait? They forget that during the Gulf War we had access to huge Saudi ports. In this war we only had access to smaller, less numerous ports in Kuwait. It is not clear that we could have even gotten a significantly larger force into Kuwait and kept it supplied. More troops would also have presented Saddam with an even more inviting pre-invasion target.
In addition, we need to recall that our military was significantly smaller in 2003 than it was in 1991, by a factor of about 40% overall. True it was much more capable on a unit-by-unit basis, but a ship or soldier can still only be in one place at a time. Bottom line; we would have had to drain troops from other theaters.
This would have presented the world's troublemakers with a perhaps rresistible opportunity.
Suppose Kim Il Sung had taken the opportunity to invade the south, or China decided to make trouble over Taiwan. What would the critics be saying them? That it was "obvious" that by depleting troops from other theaters we were inviting trouble.
We should not have disbanded the Iraqi Army
The first thing to say is that we did not disband the Iraqi army; it disbanded itself. It literally disintegrated in the closing days of major combat operations. We would have had to recall it. People who advocated this need to think carefully about the consequences.
Once again, those who say we should have kept or recalled the Iraqi army only see the potiential positives. They fail to even consider that doing this may have made the situation worse.
Armies in many third-world countries are used as much to oppress the population as they are to defend the borders, sometimes more so. In the case of Iraq Saddam had long used some units to carry out his murderous atrocities. Many Iraqis didn't have much respect for much of the army, and saw it as an oppressive institution. To have kept it in place might have made the population even more angry at us. Remember, things can always be worse.
Further, Iraqi units were organized along sectarian lines. Shi'is, tired of Sunni oppression, might have taken this opportunity to seek revenge. Shi'ite units might well have moved into Sunni neighborhoods and wrecked havoc. Same with the Kurds. Indeed, it is not hard to imagine Iraqi units fighting each other. And who is to say that they would not have turned on us is an opportunity presented itself?
Imagine the consequences of any perceived atrocity; "human-rights" groups would immediately protest that it was all the fault of the United States, that because we invaded and kept the Iraqi units together, we were responsible for their actions. The western media would have a field day.
Back to Analysis
Again, what bothers me so much about the sort of 20/20 hindsight analysis that we hear so often is not that it is wrong, but that it is not even stated correctly. The critics do not even think it necessary to consider that had we done things their way, things might be worse. They only see the positives. As Lowry makes clear in his article, the idea that there was "no plan for after the invasion" is utter nonsense.
Prior to the invasion, our government spent a lot of time planning, it's just that many of the things they planned for; mass starvation, a major refugee crisis, destruction of the oil wells, use of WMD, civil war, SCUD missile attacks on Israel, didn't happen.
And, of course, these are many of the things the critics assured us would happen.
Posted by Tom at 2:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 22, 2005
"Are We There Yet?"
huh mom? Are we there yet? Where's the hotel? Tell Jimmy to keep his hands off me! He keeps putting his stuff on my half of the seat!
At this point dad turns to mom and says "do something", whereby she turns around and says "do not make us stop this car! I told you it would be several hours before we get there!
Who hasn't experienced something like this? Either as a kid, parent, or both.
This is how Tony Snow characterized liberal criticism of the war in Iraq the other day, and I laughed all the way in the car driving to work because it is so true.
Liberals (ok, not all but many) sound like the little kids in the back seat. From day one the Bush administration told everyone that the war on terror would take a long time to win. But no one wants to hear that.
Wars are also unpredictable. Yes, I know, no great insight in that comment. But it's true, and needs to be resaid.
Briefly, here's why; it has to do with what I call "The Myth of the Glorious Crusade"
Let's just get this out of the way up front; many of us who advocated invading Iraq got it wrong. We expected a harder conventional fight and not an insurgency that would last so long. We were burned why what Clausewitz called "the friction of war"
Liberals and leftists have no reason to gloat, however, as they've gotten even more wrong. They told us that there would be thousands of American casualties (just as they did before the Gulf War), and there would surely be a massive "battle of Baghdad" that would drag on for months. They also predicted massive a massive humanitarian disaster and civil war, neither of which happen