Mark Steyn: 'Long war' is breaking down into tedium

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 03/05/06 | Mark Steyn

[JasonC]

He wants to give them 2000 pound bombs business end first instead of freedom and democracy, and you consider it "antiwar"?

[Pokey78]

Done.

[irv]

Despite being portrayed as a swaggering arrogant neocon warmongering cowboy, President Bush has, in fact, been circumspect to a fault for five years. But the equivocal constrained rhetoric is insufficient to a "long war." And from all sides, more and more people are calling its bluff.

Translation: When are people going to start acting like this is WAR??

[masadaman]

I'm a trustee for my 90 year old Mother's modest stock brokerage account with one of the big five brokers. When the account was opened in 2004 they made a mistake of one digit on her address. Her statements were returned and they said that this event triggered a part of the Patriot Act so that unless she made a personal appearance at their office with her i.d. and was fingerprinted, they would have to close the account. I'm not fooling!

Instead of relenting and putting her on a plane cross-country to their office (ha ha), I suggested that if they couldn't simply correct her address, they would then lose a number of accounts from my family and friends etc. Guess what, they corrected the account address and no mo' Patriot Act. Misuse of the Act has become a catchall for major invasions of privacy and mistakes by corporate and public bureaucrats alike

[Huck]

I'm not talking about the war he fantasizes about. I'm talking about the one actually being waged. I don't think I've missed a single Steyn column in two years, fwiw.

[LibertarianInExile]

"I think Bush has been trying to give the Muslims one last chance, which they are consistently blowing."

Uh, I think you use sorta inconsistent terminology there--'consistently blowing' their last chance means they're getting multiple 'last chances,' and that's what pisses Americans off. We hand out to the Islamic nations BILLIONS in foreign aid and what do we get? Palestinians dancing over 9/11 and $2-a-gallon gas. Yet every time we see them dancing after another American death, we can expect the federal decisionmakers to shrug and say, well, they only killed 3,000 people, and a couple soldiers, after all, we should probably give them another few hundred chances. And maybe they're right. After all, they're thousands of miles away from our borders. It's not like they're running our ports or anything.

[LibertarianInExile]

Bank told me they couldn't cash an out-of-state check without a ten-day-hold on it because of the Patriot Act.

I told them I would need that explanation in writing.

They backed down.

The Patriot Act is a great excuse for every f'in petty bureaucrat to stick his nose in your business and steal a little more of your money.

[DameAutour]

Steyn took what are commonplace occurrences in dealing with just about any bureaucracy, and used them to argue against the Patriot Act.

I still don't get your point, sorry. Steyn isn't arguing against the Patriot Act at all.

Annoy a nurse when asking about the condition of a close relative in hospital and you may get stiff-armed with patient confidentiality yada yada yada.

If that nurse told you that the "patient confidentiality" rules are a result of the Patriot Act, when there is no such thing in the Patriot Act, that's what Steyn is talking about. The Patriot Act (and the War on Terror itself) is being undermined by these lies.

[livius]

Oh, I agree. The one last chance refers to the Iraq/Afghanistan democratization project as a whole, but Muslims worldwide seem unable to comprehend this and just keep popping up with one more violent act after another.

Personally, I think our tolerance for Muslim violence has gone way beyond what is reasonable. If anything, we have become even more tolerant of their violence and viciousness since 9/11, and even more willing to let them get away with it.

And this is not just the government: a liberal relative in California told me that 9/11 was "overrated." It was all just an excuse for Bush to attack those poor little dears in the ME, don't you know? So I think we have some serious problems in coming to grips with reality.

[Caipirabob]

Has anyone here experienced folks asking for finger prints when writing a check?

Yes, and certain transactions over 10K require more paperwork than before. We did get fingerprinted on one occassion and have since then avoided that scenario. The people in line were ready to riot because there was only two tellers that day. I had to perform an armed escort for my wife out of the bank. Fortunately the crowd picked up on the intent. Had it not been for the delay on behalf of the patriot act, this would have been a simple transaction concluded in 15 minutes.

[AnnaZ]

There were millions of "moderate" Germans in the 1930s, and a fat lot of good they did us or them.

Now that would make a great tagline.

[Teacher317]

So what? There were millions of "moderate" Germans in the 1930s, and a fat lot of good they did us or them.
Apples & oranges,

Please explain. I think it is an apt analogy.

Instead of focusing on the millions of "peaceful moderates" who are not eager for war, it is much wiser to focus on the millions who are actively killing others to further their agenda. Both are autocratic regimes demanding reflexive obedience. Both are ideologies that do not allow for "weaker" subgroups. Both use words of peace while preparing for battle. Heck, the Muslim nations fought on Hitler's side (and the 1% of Arab land lost as a "spoil of war" is at the heart of the majority of the Middle Eastern excuses for murderous acts)

So where are the distinctions?

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Dr.Deth]

My phone number? (areacode)382-5968." (look at the buttons, think rude, and figure it out)

What? R-I-N-G-O-F-F-I-R-E?

Whether you get R-I-N-G-O-F-F-I-R-E depends on how 382-5968 is dialed.