Posted on 02/06/2007 5:55:06 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
'Baghdad Jane' Fonda Has It Wrong
Edward I. Koch
Newsmax.com / Jan. 30, 2007
The old "celebrity protester" crowd is back. There they were in Washington, on the mall: Jane Fonda, formerly known as "Hanoi Jane," has now become "Baghdad Jane;" Danny Glover, and Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins - husband and wife - exhorting the crowd against President Bush and the war in Iraq.
The crowd's signs read, "No War Is A Just War." Not even the war against Hitler in World War II? Another sign read, "Bush = Evildoer." Really?
The President believes, as I do, that the Islamic terrorists want to kill us, and already have at the World Trade Center and elsewhere, and if they are not stopped, they will seek to conquer and threaten the entire world into submission. President Bush, who fights Islamic terrorism, an "evildoer?"
The crowd was large - in the tens of thousands - and their rhetoric denounced the U.S. The public officials who were elected opponents of the war, Senators and Congressmen, did not appear, with the exception of Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers, both of whom addressed the crowd.
Kucinich is running for president again, and John Conyers is now Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and threatened impeachment proceedings against Bush when he was the senior ranking Democratic member. He will now have a chance to do that.
These people and their counterparts do have the capacity to bring down the government and prevent the President from being effective in pursuing the war.
They were successful against President Johnson, destroying his reputation and sending him into oblivion. It is not far fetched that they can do the same to the idea and those who believe it that Western civilization is at great risk.
Pre-WWII in Great Britain, some in British universities - the leaders of the next generation - said they would not serve in the military forces. Many said they were pacifists, others supporters of the apparently invincible Nazis. Even the then-King Edward VIII before he abdicated to marry his love, Wallis Simpson, conveyed by his statements and his Nazi salute caught by a photographer his support for Hitler.
In America, there was the rise of the America First movement led by the national hero, Charles Lindbergh. Nevertheless, when the chips were down and the Nazis began their conquest of the West, the British stood up and so did the Americans. The French collapsed quickly.
Will the spirit and willingness to die for the concept of freedom rise again? I don't know, and I worry.
We in America are leading la dolce vita. We've never had it so good. Sure, there are plenty of problems, but unemployment is down to 4.5 percent. More than half of America's adults are in the stock market and it is rising. We are a country of wealth and prosperity, even if not fairly distributed. We love life.
Our enemies, the Islamic terrorists, love death and martyrdom. Remember what Zarqawi, an al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, said, "Killing the infidels is our religion, slaughtering them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute."
Remember their reward when they carry out that command? They are immediately lifted to heaven at the side of God, and are provided the services of 72 virgins. Can we in the Judeo-Christian Western world compete? Our reward is not so clearly spelled out by our biblical teachings and in such detail. We know there is a heaven and a hell, and heaven is far better.
Islamic terrorists are willing to wait the years needed to overcome our forces. They know they have the support of those Americans, British, Spaniards and French and others who wish to surrender to the terrorists' threats and get out of Iraq. Because of the threats, some countries have never gone into Iraq. Others have already withdrawn from Iraq and still others threaten to do so.
Our army in Iraq, according to our former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, is "about broken." Lt. General David Petraeus, who has just been confirmed to head our surge of forces in Iraq, has said our situation in Iraq is "dire."
Irrespective of whether or not we should have gone into Iraq in the first place, and I believe we were right to do so because of CIA director George Tenet's statement that WMD in Iraq was a "slam dunk," it is surely a fact that today Iraq is a center of terrorism.
While Shia and Sunni hate one another and are embroiled in a civil war, they are united in their hate of America and the culture of the Western world and were we to leave Iraq, they will seek to follow us across the sea in their endeavor to kill us, unless we convert or pay tribute.
So, what options do we have? The President has offered one, the "surge." I hope it works, but I doubt it. Then there is the option of telling our allies, regional and NATO, that after the surge is tried and if it fails, we are withdrawing unless they come in and stand with us shoulder-to-shoulder. If they do not and we leave Iraq, I believe their borders - Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, the Gulf states - will be overrun by fleeing Sunni followed by the guns and swords of the Shia majority, and terrorists who will pretend to be refugees.
When these regional allies contemplate that future event, they may conclude having us remain is a better alternative. We should try it. I believe it will work. If it doesn't, we should get out.
Edward I. Koch, author, lawyer, and talk-radio host, was a member of the U.S. Congress and, for 12 years, the 105th mayor of New York City.
You don't hear movie reviews at the Pentagon or at the Republican National Convention. Hollywood should not claim to be experts in public policy.
"You don't hear movie reviews at the Pentagon or at the Republican National Convention. Hollywood should not claim to be experts in public policy."
Nah. Just pass it around that their movies suck and you can't get paid to see them. They wind up as the lower box on the New Hollywood Squares.
Thanks Ed Koch.
Ed and Joe. Democrats I can stand proud with.
"...and Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins - husband and wife..."
I thought that they were just enlightened cohabitants.
It's interesting to note that people like Koch and Joe Leiberman are so rare in the Liberal world. They perceive reality and their fellow Liberals live in a psychotic fantasy world.
They should share the same padded cell and wear his and her straight-jackets.
I love Ed Koch! Goodness knows I don't agree with a thing he believes on domestic and social issues, but like Lieberman he definitely gets the war on terror. And I didn't agree with him much when he was mayor but he sure was fun.
AMEN, Alpha. God bless you and thank you for your service to our country.
Wow. Powerful words from Democrat Ed Koch......
I got some signs for you:
'DemoLiberals are not
worth protecting or saving.'
'DemoLiberals suffer
from Death Camp Envy'
'Democrats teach their
children to be suicidal
...if they don't kill
them first'
'DemoGenerates can't be
happy unless they are
slaves and being beaten
and killed in numbers'
'Giving weapons to Democrats
jus brings out their
Hitler & Stalin desire
to take away everybody
*elses* guns.'
'Hitler was a Leftie and
Pro DemoSocialist Workers Party'
Our troops are in Baghdad.
It is better to say "Hanoi Jane," has now become "Jihad Jane"
Koch seems like a sensible guy, Lieberman is just another phony though.
Thank you again, Mr. Mayor.
"But again, I ask you: what will this resolution say to our soldiers? What will it say to our allies? And what will it say to our enemies?
We heard from General Petraeus during his confirmation hearing that war is a battle of wills. Our enemies believe that they are winning in Iraq today. They believe that they can outlast us; that, sooner or later, we will tire of this grinding conflict and go home. That is the lesson that Osama bin Laden took from our retreats from Lebanon and Somalia in the 1980s and 1990s. It is a belief at the core of the insurgency in Iraq, and at the core of radical Islam worldwide. And this resolution—by codifying our disunity, by disavowing the mission our troops are about to undertake—confirms our enemies’ belief in American weakness.
This resolution also sends a terrible message to our allies. I agree that we must hold the Iraqi government to account. That is exactly what the resolution Senator McCain and I have offered would do. But I ask you: Imagine for a moment that you are a Sunni or Shia politician in Baghdad who wants the violence to end—and ask yourself how the Warner-Levin resolution will affect your thinking, your calculations of risk, your willingness to stand against the forces of extremism. Every day, you are threatened by enemies who want nothing but to inflict the most brutal imaginable horrors on you and your loved ones. Will this resolution empower you, or will it undermine you? Will it make you feel safer, or will it make you feel you should hedge your bets, or go over to the extremists, or leave the country?
And finally, what is the message this resolution sends to our soldiers? I know that everyone here supports our troops—but actions have consequences, often unintended. When we send a message of irresolution, it does not support our troops. When we renounce their mission, it does not support our troops.
We heard recently in the Senate Armed Services Committee from General Jack Keane, who said of this resolution. “It’s just not helpful… What the enemy sees is an erosion of the political and moral will of the American people… Our soldiers are Americans first. They clearly understand there’s a political process in this country that they clearly support… But at the end of the day, they are going to go out and do a tough mission, and I certainly would like to see them supported in that mission as opposed to declaring non-support....”
Senator Joe Lieberman from the floor of the Senate debating against the non-binding resolution. That doesn't sound like a phony to me.
I take it back, then. But he's still a Democrat, and he still ran with Al Gore.
Yes he is and yes he did, but he demonstrates what being the loyal opposition and supporting our President and military during war is all about, despite his politics. In that respect he's more a man than any one of our spineless Republicrats.
I agree on that, and he is more on our side than the rinos are, although his politics are not mine.
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