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Keeping the Faith
American Spectator ^ | 6/2/2006 | Ben Stein

Posted on 06/02/2006 12:34:24 PM PDT by BMC1

Now for a few thoughts about the war in Iraq and historic context.

First, I keep running into men and women of the left who tell me that going into Iraq unprepared and undermanned and under-armed was the worst foreign policy and defense mistake this government has ever made.

Certainly, it was one hell of a mistake. That's obvious and cruel for all concerned. And to continue Donald Rumsfeld's stewardship of the war effort when he has made such a hash of it strikes me as extremely peculiar. The man has his points, but guiding the Iraq war is not one of them. We are three years into it, have spent many lives and hundreds of billions we can ill afford, and we are worse off than we were three weeks after hostilities commenced. With the best troops on the planet and the best weapons on earth, we are clearly in a desperate mess.

But it is a small mess so far.

It pales by comparison with FDR's acts of hostility to Japan and Germany, provoking Pearl Harbor, when he knew or should have known we were drastically unprepared for World War. When FDR taunted Japan, stopped shipping them supplies we had always sent them, and practically begged them to go to war with us, it was probably the right moral thing to do. In fact it surely was. But he was the most popular President of all time. He had fairly good (but far from perfect) control of Congress. He could have made sure we were better armed before he got us into war. The unpreparedness of U.S. forces caused us terrible losses at Pearl Harbor and far worse ones in the Philippines. They let hundreds of U.S. vessels go to the bottom along....

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: War on Terror
KEYWORDS: keepingthefaith
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1 posted on 06/02/2006 12:34:27 PM PDT by BMC1
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To: BMC1

Very good perspective offered by Mr. Stein.


2 posted on 06/02/2006 12:42:00 PM PDT by The Blitherer ("These are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived." – W. S. Churchill)
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To: BMC1

FDR also committed a massive, long term deception and outright fraud in getting re-elected on an explicit anti-war platform while, often in the next breath, he was planning extensively with Churchill and practically everyone else on getting the US into the war.

It is truly striking how academia has given him a pass on this, while they excoriate Bush lacky's for what was clearly a legitimate miscalculation and systemic intelligence weakness on WMD's.


3 posted on 06/02/2006 12:48:08 PM PDT by Wiseghy ("You want to break this army? Then break your word to it.")
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To: The Blitherer
Very much so. Since this wasn't a popular war with the Democrats and lefties it is easy for them to sit back and hope Bush chokes on it regardless of the cost of American lives, prestige and national confidence. Their hatred of Bush knows no bounds or edge of reason.

No war goes as planned. And, there will always be someone who can look back and say "I told you so" when things turned out differently than the decisions that were made. However, sitting on the sidelines criticizing the people fighting over there in an environment will kill themselves and their own kind under their perverse reality is amoral.
4 posted on 06/02/2006 12:51:33 PM PDT by misterrob (Lou Dobbs is a protectionist.)
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To: BMC1
Certainly, it was one hell of a mistake. That's obvious and cruel for all concerned. And to continue Donald Rumsfeld's stewardship of the war effort when he has made such a hash of it strikes me as extremely peculiar.

Ben Stein should be half as smart as he thinks he is.

5 posted on 06/02/2006 12:57:28 PM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: misterrob
Our guys and gals are doing a fantastic job fighting this war.

The left has turned it into a pc war which makes it harder to win.

I would like someone the give me information about ONE war with boots on the ground where nobody was killed. Either innocent or guilty. In fact let me rephrase that. Tell me about ONE war where nobody died and everything went perfectly.
6 posted on 06/02/2006 12:59:41 PM PDT by BMC1 (DEMOCRATS AND RINO'S ARE STUCK ON STUPID, MASTERS OF DECEPTION AND CULTURE OF TREASON.)
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To: BMC1

Now after reading the rest of the article, I remember that the reason I stopped my subscription to American Spectator was Ben Stein.


7 posted on 06/02/2006 1:05:21 PM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: Wiseghy

The same people, not Stein of course, who demand perfection from the CIA, gutted its abilities. The same people who demanded more troops allowed us to cut ten divisions from the army in the Clinton years. Being a Liberal means being able to have it both ways as a critic and never having to be accountable.


8 posted on 06/02/2006 1:09:16 PM PDT by elhombrelibre (The MSM is "the propaganda arm of our enemies." - Jack Kelly)
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To: metesky
While I don't agree with his view of why we are in Iraq, he made the bigger point that it is not the worst war we ever fought.

It also points out the hypocrisy of the left.
9 posted on 06/02/2006 1:09:34 PM PDT by BMC1 (DEMOCRATS AND RINO'S ARE STUCK ON STUPID, MASTERS OF DECEPTION AND CULTURE OF TREASON.)
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To: BMC1

Yeah, correct, except that I don't need a jellyfish telling me about the foibles of the left.


10 posted on 06/02/2006 1:19:00 PM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: BMC1

I agree, and another point that is missed is that the number of lives lost, while tragic for the families and the fallen, are not huge. We lost more in single battles in the Civil War than in the whole war in Iraq; we lost more on the Juneau battle ship's sinking than in Iraq, I believe. Yet, you'd think it's been the Russian front to hear our Liberals tell it. I was in Iraq. It is dangerous, but for most Americans who go there there is no more risk than driving on a US highway. In fact, we typically lose more service members through accidental deaths on US highways than in combat in Iraq. Yet the template is this is a quagmire with huge losses. Never mind the reality is not quite the way it's sold to the public. It's important that everyone become disillusioned and that Iraq fall into a Cambodia/Pol Pot like nightmare with Al Zarquai in charge. Then we can say how awful it was that we let that happen.


11 posted on 06/02/2006 1:22:26 PM PDT by elhombrelibre (The MSM is "the propaganda arm of our enemies." - Jack Kelly)
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To: metesky
Recently Ben Stein has been demanding that we tax the salaries of the oil company execs at astronomically high rates.

The man is seeking fifteen minutes of fame.....again!

12 posted on 06/02/2006 1:33:03 PM PDT by OldFriend (I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag.....and My Heart to the Soldier Who Protects It.)
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To: bigfootbob

bump for later


13 posted on 06/02/2006 1:33:40 PM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: elhombrelibre

I dont know where to verify this but soneones tagline states that many more Americans are killed by illegal aliens tha soldiers killed in Iraq.


14 posted on 06/02/2006 1:54:26 PM PDT by CPT Clay (Drill ANWR, Personal Accounts NOW.)
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To: OldFriend

Do you have a link to this claim? Seems out of sorts for him to say that.


15 posted on 06/02/2006 1:56:35 PM PDT by misterrob (Lou Dobbs is a protectionist.)
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To: misterrob
He was on a TV show discussing business and of course, the oil prices.

Since I was channel surfing and stopped because it was Stein I didn't pay attention to which channel.

I was stunned by his ignorant comments. Suddenly capitalism is a dirty word? And now he's bashing the war AND Rumsfeld?????????????

Ugh.

16 posted on 06/02/2006 2:23:23 PM PDT by OldFriend (I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag.....and My Heart to the Soldier Who Protects It.)
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To: CPT Clay
Approximately 500 soldiers were killed in battle each year in Iraq.

Approximately 1,000 soldiers die in training accidents each year.

This war we have ONE missing in action. Maupin.

I believe we have one missing from the first Gulf War. Speicher.

I don't know that I've seen the figures for people murdered in the USA by illegals.

Considering the crime rate in the USA I would not be surprised.

There are tens of thousands of murders in the USA every year. And approximately 50,000 die in auto accidents.

17 posted on 06/02/2006 2:25:55 PM PDT by OldFriend (I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag.....and My Heart to the Soldier Who Protects It.)
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To: Wiseghy
IMO, there was NO miscalculation with regard to WMD.

They used them, they had them, and were prepared to threaten the world with them again.

They didn't count on Bush not being slick willie.

18 posted on 06/02/2006 2:29:47 PM PDT by OldFriend (I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag.....and My Heart to the Soldier Who Protects It.)
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To: OldFriend

He may very well have been saying what he did in jest. I have watched the morning financial programs on Fox and I have never heard him talk that way.

He's not bashing the war in Iraq although he certainly has his criticisms of it which are his right to express and they mean little in the end. I think his point was to put the war in context which is hard for some people to see.

He's no Bushbot or Kool Aid drinker though. Bush, his economic team and the republicans in the Senate and House could stand to spend a few Saturdays with him.


19 posted on 06/02/2006 2:36:28 PM PDT by misterrob (Lou Dobbs is a protectionist.)
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To: misterrob; OldFriend
Ben Stein on oil prices

*snip*

Or to put it another way, the oil companies do not come even remotely close to setting the price of oil and gasoline. They either benefit from high prices or get hurt by low prices, but they do not set the price. The largest oil company in the U.S. (a piker compared with many foreign companies) controls less than 3 percent of the world's oil. Does that offer a clue on how prices get set? Next, isn't it great that there is a world oil market that allocates oil and gasoline by price? Those of us who lived through the early 1970s when low, artificially fixed oil prices meant that there was sometimes literally no gasoline or heating oil, can only give praise that there is a price system to make sure there always is gasoline and heating oil at some price. (And I assure you, I pay a stunning price for gasoline, just as everyone else does, and I am awfully darned glad I can get it, rather than having a low posted price at a gas station with no gasoline to sell.)

Meanwhile, why is it so bad for oil companies to make a profit, even a big profit? That profit doesn't go into the pockets of Dr. Evil. It doesn't go to Saddam Hussein (not anymore). It goes to tens of millions of stockholders who use the dividends and the increase in share price to pay for their RV's and retirements and their (ungrateful) kids' college education. John D. Rockefeller is long gone. Anyone in America with a few twenties in his pocket can become a shareholder of a big oil company and share in those profits. Those profits go to teachers' unions and policemen's unions and to any person on this earth who cares to speculate that the big profits will continue. Or, as my father once said to me, and I have said before, "If you think oil company profits are obscene, buy stock in the oil companies."

*snip*

20 posted on 06/02/2006 2:51:51 PM PDT by itsamelman (“Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh.” -- Al Swearengen)
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