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Will the West Stumble?
Real Clear Politics ^ | 20 Nov 2006 | Victor D. Hanson

Posted on 11/19/2006 11:52:45 PM PST by spkpls4

Well beyond us now is any overarching Churchillian vision of our enemies. We lack the practical understanding of an FDR that all of these Islamists loathe us far more than they despise each other. Their infighting, after all, is like the transitory bickering of thieves over the division of loot that always pales before their shared hatred of the targeted bank owner.

So we are at a crossroads of all places in Iraq. The war there has metamorphosized from a successful effort to remove a mass-murdering dictator into the frontlines of the entire struggle between Islamic radicalism and Western liberality. If we withdraw before the elected government stabilizes, the consequences won't just be the loss of the perceptions of power, but perhaps the loss of real power. What follows won't be the impression that we are weak, but the fact that we are--as we convince ourselves we cannot win against such horrific enemies, and so should never again try.

That stumble will send a shudder throughout the so-called West that will be felt worldwide. It will insidiously show that the premodern world proved the master of the postmodern, as al Qaeda's Alfred Rosenberg, the pudgy Dr. Zawahiri, boasted all along--whose followers will not be happy with a successful defense when they think they can go back on an even more successful offense.

In the end, the Islamicists' best way to blow up the world's Starbucks or to turn off freewheeling American television is ultimately with a whimper, not a bang. They need not plant a hundred thousand bombs across the Westernized globe, but simply to cauterize its very spinal cord in the United States--the willingness of the American public, as in the past, to confront only the latest challenge to their freedom and all the ripples from it.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bushhaterswin; iraqbackstabbers; lbackstabbers; losertarians; sanfranciscovalues; vdh; victordavishanson; west
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To: indylindy

I sure hope we are both wrong, but it isn't looking that way.


41 posted on 11/20/2006 9:15:18 AM PST by ImpBill ("America ... Where are you now?" Get our military out until we are willing to WIN!)
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To: spkpls4
The war there has metamorphosized from a successful effort to remove a mass-murdering dictator into the frontlines of the entire struggle between Islamic radicalism and Western liberality.

Re: "metamorphosized" -- A butterfly, regardless of how it started out, was always intended to be a butterfly. So too, the fight against radical Islam. Protecting ourselves from radical Islam has been the goal all along. The battle in Iraq is a stage along the way.
42 posted on 11/20/2006 9:28:03 AM PST by Pirate21 (The liberal media are as sheep clearing the path along which they will be led to the slaughter.)
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To: spkpls4

The Islamists don't even need to use violence - demographics is all they need.


43 posted on 11/20/2006 9:28:06 AM PST by Fitzcarraldo
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To: spkpls4
Why are we so pessimistic over the war? Just before the election the mood was we are winning, the MSM wasn't telling the whole truth, there are many untold accomplishments in Iraq, etc.,... and now this overriding gloom. I believe there are problems to be sorted out, that there will be causalities in killing Al Qaeda, but America isn't taking a high hit in casualties compared to one battle in WWII or Vietnam and is presenting a much needed presence in the region to address the bigger problem of Iran. So why the gloom! Why are we forced to react to an election in the states? If Bush wants to stay the course till the Iraqis stand up, so be it. Things need to be done, and done right, in Iraq as anywhere else in the world and we have to keep the faith.
44 posted on 11/20/2006 10:59:03 AM PST by Blind Eye Jones
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To: mjolnir; beyond the sea

Many Persians agree with you. Islam lowered the IQ of the place quite efficiently, compared to Christianity, which flourished there, and Zoroastrianism, a creed friendly to rational thought.


45 posted on 11/20/2006 12:34:15 PM PST by Kenny Bunk (The GOP, party of the markets, knows little about the marketing of candidates.)
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To: Grampa Dave
LOL

As Rodney Dangerfield would have said, "What a crowd, what a crowd."

;-)

46 posted on 11/20/2006 1:06:44 PM PST by beyond the sea ( Now that Pelosi Galore is in charge, it's never too late or early to start drinking.)
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To: Valin

The president's strategy was inconsistent on many fronts,

Are you talking about the war?

No, the war was an exception


47 posted on 11/20/2006 1:49:26 PM PST by Huber ("Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of classes - our ancestors." - G K Chesterton)
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To: Huber

We will let the Iraq vets decide who is the blame.

The Bush haters won a big one this month. We will see how that goes the returning Iraqi vets.


48 posted on 11/20/2006 1:59:28 PM PST by Grampa Dave (The Bush haters on both sides have elected the government they have dreamed of!)
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To: Grampa Dave

I'm not sure that I follow your logic. Are you blaming the looney left for being themselves, or libertarian leaning voters who were angry about the growth of non-defense spending, or those who felt the president was too Wilsonian in aspiring to nation building, those who supported the president on the war, but not on Harriet Myers, or those on the right who have criticized the president for not going on the offense against the war critics sooner, more consistently and more articulately?


49 posted on 11/20/2006 3:50:27 PM PST by Huber ("Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of classes - our ancestors." - G K Chesterton)
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To: spkpls4

Well someone should tell dear Victor that the enemy is here and he/she is a smooth talking relativist full of the cliches from the twentieth century. And the mutts from Islam would be little but targets much like the last Mahdi was for the Maxims of the Brits.


50 posted on 11/20/2006 3:54:58 PM PST by junta (It's Jihad stupid! It's the borders stupid! It's Political Correctness stupid!)
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To: devolve; bitt; Kenny Bunk; ntnychik; PhilDragoo; dixiechick2000
Thanks for pings


51 posted on 11/20/2006 5:06:01 PM PST by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: potlatch

great work!


52 posted on 11/20/2006 5:07:44 PM PST by bitt ("And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.")
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To: devolve; bitt

Bump. I sometimes forget what all I have!!


53 posted on 11/20/2006 5:09:20 PM PST by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: .30Carbine

BTTT


54 posted on 11/20/2006 5:14:32 PM PST by 185JHP ( "The thing thou purposest shall come to pass: And over all thy ways the light shall shine.")
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To: potlatch

What a fantastic photo essay!
It's very chilling to think about those kids.

Something tells me they need killin', too.


55 posted on 11/20/2006 9:03:31 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
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To: dixiechick2000; devolve

[Something tells me they need killin', too.]

Yes, teach them evil from the cradle onward and they know no better.


56 posted on 11/20/2006 9:08:22 PM PST by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: potlatch

Bump that!


57 posted on 11/20/2006 9:16:29 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
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To: Blind Eye Jones; 185JHP; Marysecretary; Kitty Mittens
Why are we so pessimistic...? ...and now this overriding gloom...So why the gloom! Why are we forced to react...? ...we have to keep the faith.

JHP, I came back to read comments because of your BTTT (thank you). This note from Blind Eye Jones expressed what I've been thinking as I read through the majority of threads these days: Such pessimism. Such lack of faith in the Living God. So much reacting to evil rather than acting in good.

I have become thoroughly convinced that the words of our mouths and pens and keyboards spread hope and courage as blessing our nation or spread dark despair, actual curses against ourselves. I am appalled, for the choice is ours to bless our nation and her leaders or to fill the heart of our land with bitter arrows tipped with poison.

"Who will not be shaken? Who will stand?" asks the Psalmist. Victor Davis Hanson asks the same question in this article. If the West (or any man, or any nation) will stand, how will that happen? What is the work God blesses and which nation receives His blessing?

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?

He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart

and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,

who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,

who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.

~Psalm 15

How very important the words we speak or write are to our own strength and to the building up or tearing down of our fellow man and thus our nation as a whole.

God bless America
Land that I love;
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the Light from Above.

This Promise of God comes to mind once again, with greater conviction than ever, that He chose and blessed Abraham, and made him the Father of many nations, the man declared righteous by his faith. God Himself has chosen to be known as, to be named, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" forever. Abraham settled in Hebron, and all his descendants became known as Hebrews. From Jacob came 12 sons, the Tribes of Israel, and among these was Judah, from whom the Hebrews received the name Jew. Of these People, a Chosen Race, through whom we have received the Law, the Promises, the Messiah Jesus, and all our knowledge of the One True God, the LORD has spoken these words:

"I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."

So long as America remains the friend of Israel she will be blessed, for the Promise of God stands forever.

O Lord grant in Your Mercy that America's leaders will be loyal to Your People Israel. We lift our cry to Thee that Thou will indeed establish Jerusalem and make her the praise of all the earth, as we pray in the Name of the Eternal King!

58 posted on 11/21/2006 2:00:40 AM PST by .30Carbine (There are reasons why they shout against both Israel and America in one breath.)
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To: All
Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,
an undeserved curse does not come to rest.
~Proverbs 26:2
59 posted on 11/21/2006 2:28:57 AM PST by .30Carbine
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To: beyond the sea

Hate possesses them to the point of inability to do anything but express that hate. Sad, isn't it?


60 posted on 11/21/2006 5:09:38 AM PST by Marysecretary (Thank you, Lord, for FOUR MORE YEARS!!!)
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