Posted on 03/10/2005 3:36:52 AM PST by RobFromGa
Quite frankly, we should be trying to trip up all tyrannies. Sometimes that means we ought to work towards a strategy of provoking a revolution, like in Iran. Sometimes that means we ought to support opposition groups, like in Lebanon. Sometimes that means surgical military strikes - for example, Mugabe should have had a laser guided bomb shoved up his arse a long time ago. And rarely, that means going to war. However, tyranny is unacceptable - and as we're discovering, allowing it to persist is dangerous.
Regards, Ivan
How unbelievable is this? Maureen Dowd's column today is ALSO on homeland defense: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/opinion/10dowd.html
And, Dowd is also an older single woman living alone in a big city. Coincidence? I think not.
Bush's 2nd Inaugural is simply laying down the gauntlet that we intend to see the swamp drained, and that we expect that the people in the swamps to help with the task.
The alternative to bold leadership (and I think it could be bolder) is to allow this precious window to close without taking enough action. The next opportunity might come after millions have been murdered and we cannot tolerate that.
I think that Noonan is saying conservatives ususally don't like these grand schemes that rely on government very much. There are two changes here-- we were attacked and, more importantly, the person in charge means what he says, and is not playing politics. If Clinton had made the same speech, it would be laughable and we would be concerned. But it is in character for President Bush.
Peggy, let's just let events unfold and stop trying to rehash the Inaugural Speech. You sound overly defensive.
The rest of your column today is a good reminder, and we should be doing more at home. (I believe that we are doing more that we don't know about) The fact that three and a half years later **TOMORROW IS 3-11** we haven't had another major attack is astonishing to me.
The list of what has been accomplished over these 3 and a half years is staggering! We have about an equal amount of time left in Bush's second term. I hope to be looking back on this in November 2008, even more amazed.
I haven't noticed (speaking as a middle aged spinster woman) that I am growing "more fearful" as the years go by. Indeed, many of us women are growing less fearful as we have disovered in a long and adventurous lifetime that 90% of those things we fear never happen and we can handle the rest (because they tend to repeat themselves and we have the experience to know what to do.)
I don't know what Peggy Noonan's problem is in picking a goal that exceeds one's grasp, but I have found this essential to accomplishing anything at all. I could not have been credentialed to cover the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the biggest sports car race in the world, if I had not set that as a goal and then worked up to it in increments. Whining, "Oh, that's out of my reach and I can never accomplish it!" would not have done me a bit of good. (Neither did all the Peggy Noonans in my life who counseled me to quit before I ever began, incidentally.)
Peggy, if you have survived and prospered this long, you know it can be done. So does Mr. Bush.
You've boiled it all down rather nicely here.
I beg to differ, Peggy. It's a smaller world now with much more dangerous weapons and people. This effort by G.W. and friends, imo, must be pursued now. It was overdue.
****
conservatism's ancestral knowledge of the imperfectability of this world -- I have a feeling that some of the Founders would be in on this venture of this administration. A concept of the world, its dangers, and conservativism should certainly have changed some over the centuries. Just my opinion.
"dreamy lack of preparation" -- This kind of thing is so easy to say. Any time we get hit, and we will, Peggy can say, "I told you so."
This lady has changed in the past months...... not for the better.
Very silly logic, Peggy.
That's the thing people on the left, and some on the right, like Buchanan, and apparantly Peggy Noonan, is missing.
They think Bush is conducting foreign policy. He's not, he's conducting a war.
Sorry.
I no longer read her articles, including this one.
Best action is to not give her the attention she obviously craves.
Freedom may be on the march, but America is still vulnerable to attack,
Any free open society is vurnable to attack.
That is the price one pays for being free.
The solution is that you make the attacker pay such a terrible price for attacking you that he does not want to attack you, or should he attack you one time make sure that he does not do it again.
In other words, you break his spirit.
All this sitting around wringing one's hands saying, "I'm so scared!, I'm so scared!. Please don't attack me!" while shaking like a chuwauwa[sp]dog trying to sh## a peach seed does is make the terrorists laugh. And atack again.
She is cute and very attractive (that great Catholic girl school look), but I wouldn't really refer to her as "sexy". But, maybe in some evening clothes, or later that evening she would certainly qualify.
I know one thing, I'd like to see her with her shoes off and her hair a little bit out of place, if you get my drift.
;-)
1. ...he was on a mission to expunge all political tyranny from the globe,
2. ...and asserting that our nation's survival depended on this utopian project...
1. cf. Kennedy's "...bear any burden, pay any price...etc". I can't imagine why a mission to expunge all tyranny is a bad thing.
2. I doubt Bush actually meant "if any tyranny exists anywhere on earth America cannot survive". This is the sort of hyper-literalistic reading you do when you are 10 years old and you are trying to win an argument with your dad.
Peggy, admit it: it was a great speech. You just got your ears a little cocked somehow that night.
One thing that seems to have gotten left out of the calculation is that we had already stepped into Iraq. Once there, and roughly in control of it, why not "do the democracy thing"?
She is yesterday's news. Not worth the effort.
I do agree with her on the Title of the Article, however..
Defense Begins at Home...
Only, HOME isn't just New York City.. which seems to be her true concern.. the security of HER home..
There are other homes in America..
We need more Action concerning real Home Defense..
Restrictive Gun laws truly leave Americans defenseless..
Let's get rid of laws and regulations that keep the average american from having adequate weaponry in the home..
It's an army that can never be defeated..
How about that, Peggy? Ms..Noonan?
How about turning your energies toward ARMING New York City?
Can you imagine the fear in the eyes of the terrorists when they see the entire city of New York arming itself?
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