Posted on 01/08/2005 7:25:30 PM PST by CHARLITE
It is often said that the Twentieth Century actually began in 1914, the year in which the Great War, the most awful war in many ways in human history, began. As an example of how ghastly this era has been, consider this: given the unspeakable agony and carnage of the Western Front, the Italian Front and the Russian Front in the Great War, and given the unspeakable agony and viciousness of the Holocaust, which should moral and reasonable men have chosen over the other?
Reflexively, we assume that the Great War was the lesser evil, but that is primarily because it is more distant in memory and because the indelible imprint of the concentration camps and death camps of Nazism can never be diminished in the conscience of a civilized people. But it was precisely the Great War and its equal horrors that held the hand of decent men when faced with Hitler, Stalin, Imperial Japan and their democide.
As another example, given the nightmarish reality and even greater nightmarish potential of fission and fusion weapons - Nagasaki and Hiroshima were but a faint scent of what a thermonuclear Armageddon would entail - which should moral and reasonable have men chosen: allowing a second, third and fourth holocaust in Russia, Tibet and China, or multiply the horrors of Hiroshima a thousand times over?
The genuine “Twentieth Century” ended in 2004. John Kerry and his morally craven ilk chose the path of compromise with evil and collaboration with collaborators, like the French. The Army of Kerry threw all its finest forces against President Bush and were defeated. The “wonder weapons” like forged documents, slopumentaries, and dire warnings were ignored the way Londoners ignored Hitler and the Blitz.
The Bush Landslide was a landslide because Leftists threw all their reserves, all their surprises, all their sabotage, all their political terrorism and it not only failed, but it lost ground. There is not a single arrow remaining in the quiver of the Left to send sailing toward us. Everything has failed. Their century is over.
It was fitting that during the middle of this final year of the Leftist Century, even Leftists bowed in respect to a man once demonized as the most dangerous, most incompetence, most radical, most foolish man ever to sit in the White House, Ronald Reagan. The vast us, compared to the minuscule them, waited happily and gratefully in line for hours to pay a few seconds of private respect to the man who showed us that we need not choose between Hiroshima and the Holocaust: we can choose victory over evil instead.
It was fitting, too, that during this year the noxious poison, the other “canary in the mineshaft” (the bookend of anti-Semitism) - Christophobia - also spat and snapped and stung without effect. Mel Gibson stood up to the nobles of Hate and won a resounding victory. The ethical thread of Judeo-Christian faith withstood a century of relentless shelling and sniping and it is very much alive and well.
Politicians outside of America also discovered that people are not mere Leftist pawns but thinking, feeling, principled and serious. The cynical Realpolitik of the French and German Left and the KGB-like Kremlin discovered at the end of this Twentieth Century that their subjects, who may still resent and envy Americans, do not like them much at all. The Christian Democrats of Germany, the freedom loving Ukrainians, the most popular politician in France are all incrementally casting aside the visceral hostility toward America and its values.
Finally, of course, the Leftist campaign whose slogan is “The worse, the better,” is losing at last. Afghans have decided that having their women violated, the family members dismembered, their human dignity crushed is not quite their cup of tea. Iraqis will soon make the same choice. Then Iranians. Then Syrians. Then, inevitably, the whole human race. The battle was joined this year, and the war was won; the new century has begun.
The Nightmare of Nihilism, the vipers of perpetual violent revolution, the gangsters of nations and of parties have lost, even if they have not surrendered. Rejoice! What is profound in human affairs is often grasped more easily when reduced to whimsy. So let me end this century with a limerick of joy, a ditty of hope, a few lines of peace:
“There once was a monster named Marx,
Who turned decent men into sharks,
These sharks murdered millions,
And terrorized billions,
But now this old gang barely barks.”
It is funny how the left rarely mentions Afghanistan anymore. Guess that doesn't fit into their Bush is a Nazi scenario. Their only hope is a complete disaster in Iraq, for which they are no doubt hoping.
The 20th Century also gave us the discovery of insulin; vaccines for polio, TB, and typhoid; wireless communications; heavier-than-air flight; the emergence of the automobile to improve lives; and, last but not least, the ascent of America as a world power, then THE world power. A guy can ALWAYS find something to whine about, but, all in all, not a bad 100 years, IMHO.
Good Post! We need SOME new year cheer with the quakes, floods, bombings, genocide, tsunamis, etc. We do have some great accomplishments thanks to good Republicans and those that have helped us. Hip, Hip, Hurrah.
The Left has hit the Republicans with quite a few arrows. Republicans have accepted an increased federal budget for education, for example.
Lets pretend that we stuck those arrows in ourselves on purpose - a new form of body piercing, say.
I disagree. Kerry's defeat is part of what started in 1994 with Newt Gingrich's takeover of Congress by Republicans. It does not define separation of the centuries. If one must be such a navel gazing provincial to find something in American politics that is epochal, I suggest the 2000 election. Born in a 50/50 split country, it represented the straw that broke the back of Democrat federal power.
With the Court, the Congress, the Executive, and myriad state institutions in Republican grasp, political realignment solidified to be wielded with radical policy changes in the coming decade. Forget the 2004 election. It was not history making, but history-driven.
Some say that 9-11 was the true end of the 20th Century and the true beginning of the 21st. I tend to agree. As a result of 9-11, we are finally going after terrorists no matter what other countries think of us. Prior to 9-11 we rarely did anything to combat terrorism (except Libya in March-April 1986).
Even though the 50 hostages were released January 20, 1981, Reagan should have socked Iran's caboose good and proper in order to relay the message DON'T YOU ________ EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!!!!!
I wish I could be as sanguine as the writer of this article, but I can't. The last election showed that over 48% of the US has craniorectosis. The hysterical slurs and slanders leveled at the US by the rest of the world on a continuing basis gives little hope for the future in general. And the masochistic attraction that the people of this world seem to possess for Marxist oppression, totalitarian dictatorships, corrupt kleptocracies, criminal thugocracies, and Moslem lunacy makes me wonder if we'll all even live to see a twenty-first century.
BTTT
Excellent post! Thanks for the ping. This one goes around to my email list.
Prairie
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