Neoconned?

Neoconned?
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Ron Smith

The neoconned conservatives are feeling angry these days, not at the neocons for conning them into backing the invasion of Iraq, but at any who point out that the situation over there is not only not what the war enthusiasts promised – cheers and flowers from an enthused Iraqi population thrilled that we removed the tyrant Hussein – but one that is deteriorating more each day.

Rush Limbaugh said yesterday on his program that one couldn’t support our troops while being opposed to our involvement in the war. He said, if I recall correctly, that he would no longer read the New York Times or watch dissident generals on TV as they made public their disagreements with Bush Administration policy.

The popular talk radio host has also famously commented on the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib, saying they were nothing more than some of our young soldiers blowing off steam, “having some fun,” and indulging in nothing more serious than fraternity pranks.

Some Rush wannabes (as liberals like to describe any of us who talk on the radio for a living) go a lot farther in exhorting the faithful. Michael Savage, the hardcore host of a syndicated talk show, is known for his abrasiveness. Lately, as the Iraq torture scandal made headlines, he’s called for the U.S. to kill “thousands” of Iraqi prisoners and “nuke” an Arab capital. He’s still on the air, though it’s hard to imagine he would be if he had called for the slaughter of members of any other racial or ethnic group.

Similarly, a Boston talk show host named Jay Severin suggested that the proper solution to our knotty Middle East problems would be to kill all Muslims. As was the case with Savage, his show continues to be aired.

I get email from listeners who buy into the above-mentioned “solution” to the sticky situation we find ourselves in as a nation. It’s chilling when such messages are sent by people who are otherwise normal, patriotic Americans, no doubt kind to their friends and families, but totally persuaded that the answer to the stalemate in Iraq is a massive slaughter of people who object to our occupation of their land and our rule over their lives.

They refuse to admit that no Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found in Iraq, even though their champions in Washington, the President and his advisers have made no claim to the contrary. When reputable, high-level, officials go public with their reservations about what has been done and why, they heartily agree with the predictable denigration of these apostates.

In my own case, after nearly 20 years of spouting off as a conservative radio host, I have been transformed in the eyes of some longtime listeners into a “liberal,” as though support for this war is a litmus test for conservatism. There is precious little that is “liberal” in my views.

I believe in a Constitutional Republic, in limited government, and in my right to speak my mind on anything at all. I don’t conflate the country I love with any particular administration or set of leaders. I reserve the right to disagree with their decisions. And Political Correctness is abhorrent to me whether leftist nannies or rightist ninnies impose it.

THIS commentary at WBAL

"Guys, 'Brooklyn Park', Maryland. JUST South of the Baltimore Betway."

My apologies, George.
After all the years -- & its been a few, eh? -- of reading your thoughts, I've always thought you hailed from one of NYCity's boroughs, though.
Honest mistake, really.

Still, you're awfully close to the WTC & Pentagon nonetheless, aren'tcha?

Wouldn't be outa line for one to wonder if you could've been close enough to have smelled the smoke of the disaster(s), eh?
(~hellova lot closer us out here in flyover, for sure.)

"I am really enjoying the responses on this thread."

*Excllent* George, simply excellent.
Laugh often & laugh a lot, George.
It's medicine for the soul, they say.

I do hope what the NCO Marine had to tell me amused you as well, even though to tell you the truth, George?
He wasn't smiling, nor -- as far as I could tell -- trying to be funny.
Criss-cross my heart & hope to die, George.

"The convoluted logic is hilarious."

Wished I could say the same about one who sure sounds as if they've been thoroghly brainwashed, "turned over" so to speak; becuase, some of us would have a pretty good idea of exactly *what* might've been repsonsible for causing such a flip-flop. {>G< ;^) }

"Peace and love, George."

HA!!

...sure, *man*.

Listen carefully: IF the Liberal-Socialist-Communists ever *were* to fully take over right here in the United States of America? You'd better damned well know they'd secure their power the same way every other totalitarian monster in history did it, via brute force including death meted out right on the spot to anyone deemed not to be fully towing the party line. Capiche?

Excellent observations, Dan.

As you know, I spent the last couple of days in DC doing some work on a research grant that I am occasionally (as time permits) contributing to. As you also know, I took along my road bike, figuring that I would do as much pedaling during the day as time would allow (wouldn’t dream of making the rounds at night, as I do in my own neighborhood. :)

I did manage to put about thirty city miles on my bike in my spare time there, It was a somewhat unnerving experience. Here at home, when I ride during the day (and even moreso when I take to the mountains on occasional weekends), it is a naturally rejuvenating, invigorating experience. Not so the past two days.

I have always been awed by the stark contrast between DC and my neck of the woods. (It's not 'metropolitan vs. rural' culture shock. I've lived in or near several big cities – most notably Pittsburgh and New York -- during my life). It's more a sense of 'busy-ness' and lack of 'human-ness' that pervades the area. Incessant mechanical motion.

But, this trip, there was something else in the air that I've never experienced before – a sense that I was riding around in a battle zone. And, even more palpable and discouraging, the sense that the people there have come to accept 'battle zone environs' as a way of life -- blocked-off streets, physical (retractable and non-retractable) barricades (even around our treasured national monuments), off-limits areas, police and security checkpoints, video surveillance cameras in public places, huge numbers of police cars, the unremitting sound of sirens, secret service SUVs around the White House, chain link fences where there were once open public areas -- an air of imminent danger and pervasive suspicion.

While I was stunned by the change since I had last been there, the people who are there every day seemed to exhibit a kind of quiet resignation that affects their quality of life, but around which they work … oblivious … as if things had never been otherwise. Refusing to acknowledge that our nation's capital is just a hollow shell of its former self. Some conversations I had with locals affirmed that they are intent on going about their daily lives in the belief that it's just a matter of time before they are once again in the terrorists’ cross-hairs. A young fellow I ran into at the new World War II memorial expressed this philosophy best: ‘We need to get used to living as though we are in the jungles of Vietnam. To do otherwise would amount to painting a target on our chests and saying 'come and get me.' I don't know that I agree with him, but I understand his perspective.

I was sitting on a bench eating an apple after visiting the World War II memorial, talking with a Haitian fellow who had walked through the memorial with me, when I was (apparently at random) asked to open my backpack for inspection. I am a fair-skinned, fifty-plus-year-old woman, wearing a cap with a red/white/blue visor, riding one of the only makes of American-made road bikes (I refuse to knowingly buy anything made in China), and carrying, among personal items, two books in her backpack: 'Breaking the Da Vinci Code' and 'The French Betrayal of America'. All sure signs of a terrorist seeking an opportune place in which to wreak havoc?

I complied, of course. The guy was only 'doing his duty' (making sure that he filled his quota of inspected backpacks). But I resented the intrusion. Not because I don’t think such checks are necessary. Not because I am a proud card-carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy and resent the implications. But because they have done this to us. It's not a blatant violent terrorist atrocity. It's a daily, and permanent, change in the way we live. We peer around corners. We look behind bushes. We submit ourselves to inconvenient and humiliating invasions of our privacy.

As I have mentioned to you before, I have felt for the past couple of weeks as if we are experiencing 'the calm before the storm'.

I occasionally correspond with a fellow who is in management in a company in which I own a small amount of stock. It is a company that is involved exclusively in the manufacture of quick-deploy first responder systems (chemical and biological decontamination systems, fabric shelter structures, thermal products, etc.) designed for use in counter-terrorism, military, law enforcement, fire service, hospitals, and public safety. In a small way, he has his finger on the pulse of the country as regards what is 'in the wind'. Even though this company has been gearing up in a major way for potential terrorist activity (both home-grown and foreign), he has told me that orders (and, even moreso, potential orders in the form of serious inquiries) are skyrocketing. Despite his connection, business-wise, with this industry, he consistently laments the fact that there are not enough companies involved in the manufacture and distribution of such products, because, when the need for them increases dramatically, the ability to fill that need will not exist.

'Everyday normalcy' is a method for maintaining order -- for retaining a sense of emotional continuity. Simple 'normalcy' has a solidity and a security about it. It provides a practical, hopefully moral, foundation upon which people depend in order to live their lives with some semblance of peace of mind. 'Normalcy' is a kind of continuously flowing parchment on which both everyday events, and history, are inscribed. With the dramatic increase in terrorist activity – and the ever-present threat of more to come -- the depended-upon characteristics of everyday life have become windswept, undermining our ability to feel content and at ease. Non-stop violent images of brutality and destruction from around the world have undermined our ability to provide that sense of continuity. We don’t really comprehend who the social and political actors today really are, from day to day. We are getting a good idea about what values they represent, and what they are fighting for (or against), but somehow that doesn’t remove the sense that we always seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

They have invaded our living rooms and our psyches. They have provoked deep moral questioning at every level of social life. They have affected the way we perceive time and space, how we walk down the street, who we trust, who we respect, how we look at other people in general, how we view and make sense of our own lives. And they make us think about pain … and death.

As I see it, living in such an environment can result in one of two things: (1) the mustering of heretofore untapped personal faith, love, strength, courage and resolve, or (2) a sense of fear-born impotence, resignation, and eventually surrender.

I damn them for doing this to us. But I pray that we will strive to achieve the former, and curse the thought of embracing the latter, even at the cost of our lives (fortunes, and sacred honor ...). Our Founders would expect no less of us.

~ joanie

Thanks again Joanie for not only sharing your own personal observations and perspective of what post 9/11 means (beyond the 3,000 deaths), but for articulating the real mood and affectation Islam has foisted upon ALL phases of life in America. In a weird sense, we are indeed now held hostage:

"[In Washington DC] There was something else in the air that I've never experienced before – a sense that I was riding around in a battle zone. And, even more palpable and discouraging, the sense that the people there have come to accept 'battle zone environs' as a way of life -- blocked-off streets, physical (retractable and non-retractable) barricades (even around our treasured national monuments), off-limits areas, police and security checkpoints, video surveillance cameras in public places, huge numbers of police cars, the unremitting sound of sirens, secret service SUVs around the White House, chain link fences where there were once open public areas -- an air of imminent danger and pervasive suspicion....

They have invaded our living rooms and our psyches. They have provoked deep moral questioning at every level of social life. They have affected the way we perceive time and space, how we walk down the street, who we trust, who we respect, how we look at other people in general, how we view and make sense of our own lives. And they make us think about pain … and death."

Simply put, Islam is at war with the captains of liberty and the only ones capable, courageous, and convicted enough to repel them for their final desperate thrust to enslave the world -- America.

But the kicker is we are having to do it with one hand tied behind our back, thanks to an enemy dependant as much upon enslavement of its "subjects" as even Islam -- the socialist-led Democratic Party.

"Listen carefully: IF the Liberal-Socialist-Communists ever *were* to fully take over right here in the United States of America? You'd better damned well know they'd secure their power the same way every other totalitarian monster in history did it, via brute force including death meted out right on the spot to anyone deemed not to be fully towing the party line. Capiche?"

LOUD AND CLEAR....

We ARE currently at war on TWO "fronts." That much is obvious.

It really shouldn't matter where anyone disagrees with the current president. They should have the right to express their disagreement with the policies without fear of being called traitorous...unpatriotic...or a terror sympathizer (I have heard all three charges here on FR)

You need to imagine a worst case scenario to see where the "Don't criticize the prez in a time of war!" attitude. Picture this:

Kerry/Clinton (Hellary) in the White House
year: 2007
Three years of socialist legislation is passed...Your tax rate is 68%. Taiwan (our closest ally in the region) declares independence from communist China. Taiwanese freedom fighters clash with communist police/military who are sent to crush the dissenters. The UN unanimously condemns Taiwan for provoking these actions, and recognizes that Taiwan is officially a part of China according to international opinion. They demand Taiwan cease the rebellion or face consequences. The Taiwan people want to be free of dictatorial rule. The leftist government in China isn't going to let this happen, so they keep fighting.

The UN decides to send in a "peacekeeping" force of 50,000 Americans to stop the violence.

American soldiers go in, under UN command (as Kerry advocated in the 60s), and instantly start dying...not to protect Taiwan from a leftist dictator, but to HELP the leftist dictator in its quest for "unity" with Taiwan.

Obviously, you see this policy is madness...You think the government is making a huge mistake and Kerry is a f*cking idiot.

Wouldn't you expect the freedom to say this without being condemned by a huge chunk of the U.S. population? Shouldn't you be able to voice your displeasure in the policy, (and with Kerry) without being called an anti-American traitor?

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