Posted on 05/19/2004 2:54:18 AM PDT by Theodore R.
What do we offer the world?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 19, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
"So, how do we advance the cause of female emancipation in the Muslim world?" asks Richard Perle in "An End to Evil." He replies, "We need to remind the women of Islam ceaselessly: Our enemies are the same as theirs; our victory will be theirs as well."
Well, the neoconservative cause "of female emancipation in the Muslim world" was probably set back a bit by the photo shoot of Pfc. Lynndie England and the "Girls Gone Wild" of Abu Ghraib prison.
Indeed, the filmed orgies among U.S. military police outside the cells of Iraqi prisoners, the S&M humiliation of Muslim men, the sexual torment of their women raise a question. Exactly what are the "values" the West has to teach the Islamic world?
"This war ... is about – deeply about – sex," declaims neocon Charles Krauthammer. Militant Islam is "threatened by the West because of our twin doctrines of equality and sexual liberation."
But whose "twin doctrines" is Krauthammer talking about? The sexual liberation he calls our doctrine belongs to a '60s revolution that devout Christians, Jews and Muslims have been resisting for years.
What does Krauthammer mean by sexual liberation? The right of "tweeners" and teenage girls to dress and behave like Britney Spears? Their right to condoms in junior high? Their right to abortion without parental consent?
If conservatives reject the "equality" preached by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, NARAL and the National Organization for Women, why seek to impose it on the Islamic world? Why not stand beside Islam, and against Hollywood and Hillary?
In June 2002 at West Point, President Bush said, "Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time and in every place."
But even John Kerry does not agree with George Bush on the morality of homosexual unions and stem-cell research. On such issues, conservative Americans have more in common with devout Muslims than with liberal Democrats.
The president notwithstanding, Americans no longer agree on what is moral truth. For as someone said a few years back, there is a cultural war going on in this country – a religious war. It is about who we are, what we believe and what we stand for as a people.
What some of us view as the moral descent of a great and Godly republic into imperial decadence, neocons see as their big chance to rule the world.
In Georgia, recently, the president declared to great applause: "I can't tell you how proud I am of our commitment to values. ... That commitment to values is going to be an integral part of our foreign policy as we move forward. These aren't American values, these are universal values. Values that speak universal truths."
But what universal values is he talking about? If he intends to impose the values of MTV America on the Muslim world in the name of a "world democratic revolution," he will provoke and incite a war of civilizations America cannot win because Americans do not want to fight it. This may be the neocons' war. It is not our war.
When Bush speaks of freedom as God's gift to humanity, does he mean the First Amendment freedom of Larry Flynt to produce pornography and of Salman Rushdie to publish "The Satanic Verses" – a book considered blasphemous to the Islamic faith? If the Islamic world rejects this notion of freedom, why is it our duty to change their thinking? Why are they wrong?
When the president speaks of freedom, does he mean the First Amendment prohibition against our children reading the Bible and being taught the Ten Commandments in school?
If the president wishes to fight a moral crusade, he should know the enemy is inside the gates. The great moral and cultural threats to our civilization come not from outside America, but from within. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The war for the soul of America is not going to be lost or won in Fallujah.
Unfortunately, Pagan America of 2004 has far less to offer the world in cultural fare than did Christian America of 1954. Many of the movies, books, magazines, TV shows, videos and much of the music we export to the world are as poisonous as the narcotics the Royal Navy forced on the Chinese people in the Opium Wars.
A society that accepts the killing of a third of its babies as women's "emancipation," that considers homosexual marriage to be social progress, that hands out contraceptives to 13-year-old girls at junior high ought to be seeking out a confessional – better yet, an exorcist – rather than striding into a pulpit like Elmer Gantry to lecture mankind on the superiority of "American values."
Interesting.
I guess the issued being hotly debated at the breakfast tables on September 12 at Windows on the World, could have been the unprecedented, illegal massive arrests of Muslims throughout America the previous few weeks, and the need to impeach George W. Bush for his unwarranted attack on Afghanistan.
Your ignorance of America is appalling, though not surprising. The moral decency and concomitant story-telling power of the movies produced during Hollywood's Golden Age was the result of Hollywood's self-restraint, not government censorship. This self-restraint was reinforced by a public that did not patronize immoral films, preeminently in the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency.
Seconded.
BTTT!!!!!
...Sounds like libertarians, Does neo-co =libertarian???
You guys just love repeating this myth.
Funny how our founding documents do not mention this. In fact, they specifically proscribe it.
You'd just LOVE to kick out anybody else, right?
Your professed "patriotism" is a lie.
Excellent point. There was a LOT of hipocrisy back then.
The extremists on BOTH sides create some interesting mythology, don't they?
They have NO IDEA what Patriotism means.
In their world, it seems to be mythologizing an America that never existed, wishing for an America that cannot, and worshipping an American who is a fraud.
They hate the America THAT IS just as much as any Leftist or terr.
When this war started, with respect to our enemies, ALL Americans became my Brothers, and our "family squabbles" PALE in comparison to the immediate threat to us all. I've pledged my life to that.
I have NO PATIENCE for those who would "stand with Islam" just because they can't handle the thought that some Americans choose to live their lives without the approval of the Morality Police, and do not care what they think about it.
That, to me, is Treason.
You misunderstand me. First, I am not a Protestant. Second when I say that America is a Protestant country I mean the same when I would say that France or Ireland are Catholic or Germany is Catholic and Lutheran or that Canada is English and French.
I do not mean any offence and do not wish to "kick" anybody. I am stating simple facts, maybe with some simplification. Of course America in last century became more Catholic and got a significant Jewish minority. Still the Colonies (which were the craddle of America) were mostly Protestant and it had a huge impact. Same applies to entire XIXc
They claim to "love America" but really do not...at least, as it exists in the real world.
They love some mythology that they've created in their own minds as to what it SHOULD be, if only those (fill in the blank) were dealt with properly.
For the extreme Right, it is some iconic 1950's world where everyone was clean-cut, dressed at all times in their Sunday best, and everybody prayed all the time. Oh, and "others" (like Blacks, or Jews, or anybody "strange") wasn't a factor and were out of sight. Sex was missionary only, and was only for procreative purposes.
For the Leftists, it is some world in which it is the responsibility of all successful people to support those who are not, out of the goodness of their hearts if possible, but force if necessary. All lifestyle choices are equally valid; all cultures too. Government control is necessary at all times; lest the proletariat seek to (greedily) rise above their stations. Obviously, no signs of individualism (such as guns or private property) are allowed.
Both sides have some things in common...they would both happily jail or marginalize those who fall outside the norm, and both decry freedom of choice and personal Liberty.
Neither can tolerate any deviations. Both, however, are endlessly frustrated that the vast majority of Americans want no part of either tyranny, and consistently reject it. Frustration turns to rage which turns to demonization and hatred. The term "evil" is applied liberally to even small disagreements of policy.
And so, we get such people as Pat Buchanan and Jesse Jackson, who manipulate such sentiments for their personal gain. They are not so much seers as reflectors who can turn a good phrase, knowing full well what their sycophants respond to. Thus, they make substantial livings.
My concern is that the process...that contained in the Constitution for running the country and changing itself when necessary and approved by a supermajority, is protected and followed. That's why military member swear to uphold the Constitution, not the President or Congress. Foe our country to flourish, and for it to do so in a manner which is safe and free to everyone, that process, as slow and frustrating as it can be, must be defended. When someone tries to short-circuit it, anarchy and terror result.
That doesn't mean I LIKE every outcome, but if that process is followed, wrong results can be ultimately dealt with. The short-circuiters and the extremists are either too lazy to do the work required, or their message is rejected by too many, and so, in their respective ways, they decry the process, along with inconvenient Rights that get in the way.
I actually LIKE America the way it is. There's some bumps and cracks (Gun control and the "war" on drugs are but two), but they are nothing that we cannot fix peacefully, at least at this time. America is a wonderful, vital, vibrant, and fun country whose ideals and ultimate goodness transcend its faults. It needs no "tearing down", and it CERTAINLY does not need some "benevolent dictatorship" to help it out.
What it DOES need is to be protected from its enemies, like those we face now, who would take all that we are and have and trample it into the Earth. To suggest "standing with" them, simply because one's personal moral standards are offended by someone else who is simply enjoying Liberty in their own way, is the very height of arrogant egotism, and smacks of Treason.
Calling it "patriotism" or "morality" goes beyond shaming those words...it is rank, fetid hipocrisy and mendacity writ large.
Very well written, and needs repeating.
I just reposted it over here:
In Nature vs. Nurture, A Voice for Nature
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1130500/posts?page=536
What's the rush? We ran Germany until '49, and Japan until 1952 - in light of that, I really don't think we have much room to critique a two year plan as being too slow. If, at that point, stability looks like a reasonable outcome, and the Iraqis want us out, we should go. If they're amenable, and we can gain another Rammstein or Okinawa out of it, so much the better - the fight against terrorism isn't over, and I happen to like the idea of taking it to them, rather than sitting back and waiting for them to sucker-punch us again.
Send them to yeshiva.
Your argument that 'prostitution is not illegal under the Constitution' makes me think that the discussion will be fruitless.
The Constitution does not forbid murder, either.
Let's agree not to bother any further.
LC denies that America is a Protestant/Christian country and implies that APole is furthering a myth with such a claim.
LC needs his meds.
AP made a statement of fact. The Constitution certainly does not proscribe religion. This country's population is majority Protestant, by far. And the Founders were the same.
LC may deny the facts, but they won't go away.
Yeah I agree, but I do think this is part of a grand plan. I think Iraq is just taking some time. I think our plan was to have Syria and Iran surrounded and pressure them hard.
I think the left and the medias desire for this war to fail or at least Bush to fail at it was more than we had thought it would be. Now everytime we run into a fight its portrayed as the end of the world.
Now Bush an co. have to talk about all the wondeful things we are doing for the Iraqis, however I think we are killing a lot of terroists over there. I have heard anywhere from 10 to 30 a day and that adds up. We need better propaganda.
There are descendants of Balaam, teaching the doctrine of Balaam, because they hate the children of Israel out of the darkness of their hardened hearts. It is that simple.
Frankly, I don't have a problem with a permanent facility in Iraq, either. A private intelligence newsletter has suggested that such be established in SW Iraq, basically away from populated areas.
But in the cases of Germany and Japan, it was really more a re-establishment of prior orders (with some improvements); thus not a lengthy exercise, nor one which required a substantial troop presence.
Iraq is not quite so simple.
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