Posted on 04/19/2003 4:28:23 PM PDT by wimpycat
You and I are very lucky people. My grandmother, who lives near Portland, Ore., was born before the polio vaccine was perfected; grew up during the Depression; sent a husband to fight in World War II; sent a son to fight in Vietnam; and remembers cigarette ads featuring doctors’ claims that smoking was healthy. If there is an accredited School of Hard Knocks somewhere, they owe my grandmother a Ph.D.
But what lessons have we learned from life, you and I? Safe sex, wear your seatbelt and avoid any non-animated Eddie Murphy movie made after Beverly Hills Cop II, that’s it? Our lives are so good, our society so prosperous, our science so advanced that I go to work every day with a fat lady whose doctor-approved diet plan involves the daily ingestion of massive amounts of bacon.
And you know what: It’s working.
For America’s most spoiled generation, events like the war in Iraq provide rare moments of true, national challenge that test our ideas, our institutions and our character. Because such events are so rare, we can’t afford to let them pass without reflection. As somebody, I think it was Santayana (the philosopher, not the guitarist), said, “Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.”
So here’s what I’ve learned from the war in Iraq:
WAR WORKS, SANCTIONS SUCK: Twelve years almost to the week after the United Nations issued a resolution giving Saddam 15 days to end his weapons of mass destruction program, American soldiers in Iraq were finding missiles and artillery shells with traces of banned chemical agents. What sanctions couldn’t accomplish in my son’s lifetime (he was born in 1993), the U.S. military got done in three weeks. Whatever Martin Sheen’s definition of “work” was when he went on TV to announce, “Sanctions work, wars don’t,” the U.N. sanctions against Iraq clearly failed. The day before our soldiers rolled into Iraq, Saddam was still rich, ruling and radioactive.
THE FRENCH DON’T SMELL, THEY STINK: One reason the “Give Sanctions a Chance” crowd in France and Russia look like such buffoons is that, as recently as January of this year, France and Russia were still violating sanctions. The Russians had generals in Baghdad well into the fall, helping do for Iraq what their brilliant military leadership accomplished for the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the Cold War. American troops report finding French missiles in Iraq with dates indicating they were sold to Saddam in the past 12 months, and advanced missile launchers that France didn’t even make when the sanctions began.
But don’t worry about the French. They always land on their feet ... and usually on somebody else’s neck. Less than a week after the fall of Baghdad, the French were buddying up with the repressive, anti-Semitic Ba’athist regime in Syria. If this keeps up, France may run out of dictators and be forced to find something nice to say about democracies for a change. In the meantime, the phrase “Do we have the support of France” is now analogous to “Did you get this fact-checked by Peter Arnett?”
THE “U” STANDS FOR “USELESS”: One year ago, using the phrase “U.S. out of the U.N.!” meant you were a xenophobic rube who listened to short-wave radio broadcasts warning that the blue helmets were preparing to take Charleston harbor. Today, it means you’ve been paying attention. As the pro-U.N. New York Times was forced to acknowledge this weekend, “only twice in its 57-year history had the [U.N. Security] Council managed to solve the most fateful issues of war and peace,” and they blew it again in Iraq. The only difference between the United Nations and your old high school student council (other than the multibillion-dollar budget) is that the kids in student government knew what they did was a joke.
THERE’S NEWS, AND THEN THERE’S CNN: What’s the difference between CNN and former Iraqi Minister of Information/Standup Comic Mohammed Said al-Sahaf? When he talked, everyone knew Saddam was controlling what he said. In the Gulf War, CNN made its reputation. In this one — after 12 years of kowtowing to threats from the Iraqi regime — they’ve lost it. At any point during the past 12 years, CNN could have revealed that Saddam’s torture of their employees made it impossible to cover Iraq, then packed their bags and moved to Jordan. Instead, they cut deals with murderers. Why would anyone ever believe anything they report again?
THE ‘60s ARE OVER: History will record the antiwar campaign of 2003 as the biggest public relations failure since the rollout of New Coke. The star-studded lineup of Sarandon/Sheen/Natalie Maines/Michael Moore — along with an apparently unending supply of out-of-work Hollywood has-beens — drove support for the peace movement straight down to 16 percent. Why, that flap-eared nut from Texas got 19 percent when he ran for president.
Never have so many marched so much for a cause that would eventually be embraced by so few. If Barbra Streisand publicly demands that the Bush Administration stay out of Syria, we may be bombing Damascus by the Mother’s Day.
And finally ...
SOME PEOPLE WILL NEVER LEARN: No matter how many children are liberated from Iraqi prisons, no matter how many torture chambers are emptied, no matter how many Iraqis cheer our soldiers in the streets, and no matter how much better life is in Iraq five years from now than it would have ever been under the Husseins — no matter WHAT — there will always be millions of Americans who hate George W. Bush. American security, Iraqi liberty and the future of democracy be damned.
I have learned not to take these people seriously.
...aren't Americans.
That is going to leave a mark.
Also pinging PL and dubya.
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.