Posted on 05/12/2004 10:38:57 AM PDT by Lando Lincoln
Rarely, if ever, has this space devoted any time to gratuitous name-calling and cavalier demonstrations against anyone or anything. But today will be different. Today, "I settle all family business," as matter of factly declared by Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 gangster classic, "The Godfather."
The family I will speak of and per chance speak for in this tidy little philippic is the typical American family of citizens; the type of people who put their pants on one leg at a time. It is a large family, consisting of many races and religions, both man and women.
What typifies these people is not their inability to understand complicated issues, but the ability to boil these same issues down to its innate substance. This is the opposite of elitism, which agonizes over subtleties that are "too complex" for you and me to appreciate, much less understand. But to put that to one side, we are simply tired.
Tired of what, you ask? Well, let me tell you:
-We are tired of the transgressions of a handful of soldiers in Iraq that mistreated a few terrorist suspects being portrayed as indicative of the entire U.S. military, and culture.
-We are tired of the non-stop apologies from the President on down to the Capitol Hill coat room attendant.
-We are tired of the words "atrocity," "torture," and "mutilate" being misapplied to the abuses of Arab and Iraqi terrorist and jihadist insurgents. In most respects, college fraternity initiations strike a remarkable resemblance.
-We are tired of a decadent Middle East culture that lends itself to selective outrage, all the while turning a blind eye as their governments' torture and murder wholesale.
-We are tired of nearly every elected official, including President Bush, reminding us that Islam is a "peaceful religion" and "the vast majority of Muslims are peace-loving people."
-We are tired of Iraqis not stepping up to help remake their own country into a democracy and showing the Middle East, and the world, that they want it bad enough to die for.
-We are tired of the Monday morning quarterbacking that has become a cottage industry in relation to the aftermath of winning the war and establishing the peace. If it were that easy, France and Germany would have signed on from the beginning.
-We are tired of WMD's and the search for them. One way or the other, they will turn up. Saddam had them, used them, and produced them. The question should be "where are they?" -not- "did he have them?"
-We are tired of the more than five million Muslim/Americans who seem to have lost their ability to denounce terrorism. I call these Muslim mutes "enablers," and quite frankly, so should anyone who has come out against terrorism.
-We are tired of respecting the sensibilities of other countries when it is demonstrably obvious that they use ours against us.
-We are tired of that paragon of virtue, the United Nations. It has become a sad and dangerous caricature of justice and democracy.
-We are tired of the liberal selections of the "Book of The Month Club," penned by such leading lights as Richard Clarke, John Dean, Bob Woodward, and Ambassador-turned-politico Joseph Wilson.
-We are tired of the media "gotcha" news cycles that have only one reason for being: Pin the blame on George W. Bush.
-We are tired of the progressive media painting the economy as depressed and always receding. We are not a land of starving children, double-digit unemployment, and zero opportunity due to "outsourcing." We are, and have been for some time now, economically revived.
-We are tired of the Ted Koppels and Katie Courics using this war as a spring board for propelling presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry towards the presidency.
-We are tired of the inability of John Kerry to talk about any issue that does not end with the words - "and I served in Vietnam."
-We are tired of an overstuffed Hefty-bag-with-a-hat, namely Michael Moore, and a whiny, hate-encrusted gremlin, surly Al Franken, receiving any serious thought as to what they have to say.
-We are tired of Senators Ted Kennedy, Tom Harkin, and Frank Lautenberg repeated references to the country's leaders as "chicken hawks," thereby creating the standard that if you did not see action in the military, you are unfit to oversee it. Presidents Adams, Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt have shown otherwise, as has William Jefferson Clinton.
-We are tired of the "bi-partisan" 9/11 commission that turned the most important issue of the century into the partisan twaddle that it ended up as.
-We are tired of politicians, pundits, and panels that attempt to compare eight years of Clinton to eight months of Bush in the White House in regard to "connecting dots" and who's at fault for 9/11.
-We are tired of assorted media types and political hatchet men striving to find that someone to blame for 9/11. Word to the seekers: Think "Terrorist."
Most of all, we are tired of reminding the world and none too few at home that 9/11 really happened, and we are at war. We will be at war for years to come, and we would do well to come to grips with this.
We understand that this is an election year, and the stakes are high. But the highest stakes lie in the future of the country's very existence, whether we will stop the torrent of political bloodletting and outright fabrication, or step up and deal with the reality of war and the choices that come with it.
If your choice is to put politics ahead of country, and behave as if what has happened at Abu Ghraib prison is the defining moment of what the U.S. stands for, then I have no use for you, and I'm willing to say most of the country does not either. We are, I fear, at a junction in history that is as serious as it can get.
As far as offending anyone with the content of my tidy little philippic, that's tough. But the truth often is. I promise not to do it again - for a while, anyway.
Well, I feel better. How about you?
Vincent Fiore is a freelance political writer who lives in New York City. He receives e-mail at: Anwar004@aol.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.