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‘These are the times that try men’s souls’
The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat ^ | 18 February 2007 | Pedro O. Vega

Posted on 02/18/2007 6:49:58 AM PST by Teófilo

By Pedro O. Vega

As published today in the Johnstown Tribune Democrat

The situation in which we find ourselves in Iraq because of the war on terror defies my attempts at originality to describe.

I find myself in need of laying hold of aphorisms and clichés said by the truly Great Ones, and some not-so-great.

The first one that comes to mind is from Thomas Paine, an American Founding Father, written in 1776. It’s one I used in a previous column, one I keep returning too because of its sheer wisdom: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

A movement is afoot in Congress to remove funding from military stabilization operations in Iraq. The nonbinding resolution designed to disagree with the president’s military “surge” currently being debated in the House and Senate represents the first step in that direction.

The resolution is mute when it comes to offering an alternate plan ensuring victory and protecting our national interest in the region.

“Summer soldiers” and “sunshine patriots” are intent on prolonging the war on terror for two more generations by hastening a unilateral retreat from Baghdad without giving current operations a chance to work.

Emboldened politicians and pundits now behave as generals, claiming to be masters of the retrograde fighting maneuver and the pursuit of peace.

Another saying comes to mind, this one by that great Pennsylvanian, Benjamin Franklin: “There never was a good war, or a bad peace.”

Not knowing the original context of Franklin’s declaration, I am left to deal with its meaning at face value.

I agree with him that all wars are bad, but it goes without saying that some are worse than others. On occasion, there’s such a thing as a “bad peace” if this “peace” becomes a cover for defeat, humiliation and eventual surrender to the will of the enemy.

Franklin’s actions in the field of diplomacy belied his own assertion. Once converted to the patriot’s cause, Franklin ensured that the nascent United States had enough weapons to win the war. His diplomatic skills doubled the size of the country at the end of the revolution, at the expense of the British.

If aversion to war and love of peace ever moved Franklin to appease the British, he never showed it.

Thomas Friedman is credited for coining the “Pottery Barn rule” of foreign policy. That is: “You break it, you own it.”

This is what Colin Powell, retired Army general and then secretary of state, told President Bush before the start of the war in Iraq.

Events are about to disprove the logic of this common-sense assertion. We went into Iraq and broke the status quo there, and now our armchair generals want us to retreat without fulfilling our responsibilities, despite an already dreadful investment in American lives and treasure.

We want to walk away; we don’t want to own the situation. But the fact is that we do.

Neville Chamberlain returned from the Munich Conference in 1938, waving a piece of paper signed by Adolf Hitler and saying, “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British prime minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.”

Winston Churchill wryly replied, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

Many Chamberlains run around today in the guise of politicians and pundits, waving papers and declaring “peace for our time.”

Their views might even prevail and become both law and accepted wisdom. But by choosing peace over dishonor, they will ensure the coming of even more war.

Sadly, summer soldiers, sunshine patriots and enlightened pundits alone are not going to bear the bitter consequences of failure in Iraq. They will befall all of us, our children and our children’s children.

One more aphorism is in order. George Santayana once said: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

As we get ready to abandon Iraq, we’re about to relearn this lesson in spades. Truly, these are the times that try men’s souls.


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: chamberlain; churchill; corruption; cutandrunls; fourblogs; iraqbackstabbers; johnmurtha; johnpmurtha; lbackstabbers; losertarians; murtha; myblog; pimping; pimpingfourblogs; pimpinmyblog; pimpinmyblogs
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To: BlackElk
Very nice statement. Thorough, accurate, and applying the history point by point. Several of the posters on this thread would do well to read what you wrote -- and perhaps read a few of the history books on which your statement is based.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article: "Next, We're Going to Wally-World"

121 posted on 02/19/2007 3:56:01 PM PST by Congressman Billybob (Please get involved: www.ArmorforCongress.com)
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To: Teófilo

I did not reply kindly. Voting for Murtha is not the "high road." You're a troll for the enemy.

DO NOT POST TO ME AGAIN.


122 posted on 02/19/2007 3:59:24 PM PST by La Enchiladita (Hunter/Poe 2008 "Once again, our government is on the wrong side of the border war")
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To: potlatch
My eighth book, on Tom Paine, begins with that whole paragraph. I agree with you, that the whole paragraph should be used. The working title of my book is "These are the times that try men's souls." The subtitle is, "America -- Then and Now -- in the Words of Tom Paine." I'm looking for a publisher, now.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article: "Next, We're Going to Wally-World"

123 posted on 02/19/2007 4:06:11 PM PST by Congressman Billybob (Please get involved: www.ArmorforCongress.com)
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To: devolve; Congressman Billybob
No doubt every generation thought, "These are the times that try men's souls". Some were correct.


Wonderful quote to begin your 8th book! I wish you success on it!
124 posted on 02/19/2007 4:23:55 PM PST by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: potlatch


LSLM !!!


125 posted on 02/19/2007 4:33:53 PM PST by devolve ( ........upload images free & fast at tinypic.com or Photobucket or Imagecave)
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To: devolve

Not on that one devolve!! Your wonderful creation.


126 posted on 02/19/2007 4:42:07 PM PST by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: Teófilo; george76; Congressman Billybob
Teofilo: With all due and considerable respect for you on other matters, I must disagree with you on Murtha. To call Murtha a corrupt and treasonous weasel is not name-calling, it is a citation of an increasingly obvious truth. If pro-life is your primary issue, bear in mind that his election enables the pro-aborts now in control of Congress. Even the rare pro-abort who may be patriotic should be able to recognize Mirtha as a threat to the well-being of our civilization, of our nation and of our troops.

Vote against him as soon as possible. At his age and in his condition and with heightened political attention to his treasonous and corrut habits of life, you probably won't have many more chances one way or another.

127 posted on 02/19/2007 5:27:53 PM PST by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Thank you for your kind words and for everything you do here.

Are you a Yale alumnus? What year? POR?

God bless you and yours.

128 posted on 02/19/2007 5:30:01 PM PST by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: onyx

Some interesting reading in the responses ?

I thought that you might enjoy some of them ?







129 posted on 02/19/2007 5:47:23 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight: nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety: is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions and blood of better men than himself." – John Stuart Mill


130 posted on 02/19/2007 5:58:53 PM PST by JB in Whitefish
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To: BlackElk

You writing is excellent.

From my view : well thought out and presented.

Thank you.


131 posted on 02/19/2007 6:01:42 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: JB in Whitefish

Donald Rumsfeld found a nice historical echo in his speech at Arlington Cemetery to commemorate September 11.

... In the dark days of our revolution, George Washington's army had been decimated in New York. A British admiral told three of our founding fathers that the revolutionaries could have peace if only they would reject the Declaration of Independence and give up their rebellion. To many it might have seemed a tempting offer. Prospects for victory seemed bleak. But those patriots refused. Their army rallied. And our country's independence was secured.

That date was Sept. 11, ... 1776. As it happens the place where those patriots refused to surrender is just minutes from the site of the World Trade Center.

Today, a vastly more vicious adversary seeks our surrender. Once again, we will refuse. And once again, our forces have rallied.

Today, history is being written by the valiant men and women of America's armed forces, and by determined citizens who will do all they can to keep other children from experiencing the heartbreak and terror of Sept. 11.

So today let us recommit ourselves to continuing history's great and necessary task. And to continuing to pursue these enemies until they pose no threat to free people.


132 posted on 02/19/2007 6:16:46 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: BlackElk
Thanks for your comment. I got my honorable discharge from Yale in 1964. Was in Ezra Stiles College. Wrote for the OCD.

John / Billybob
133 posted on 02/19/2007 9:26:11 PM PST by Congressman Billybob (Please get involved: www.ArmorforCongress.com)
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To: george76
September 11 has a long and mostly interesting and laudable history (excepting the obvious evils of 2001). For one thing, it is the date of either the successful defense of Vienna by Jan Sobiewski against the Muslim invaders or more likely the naval battle of Lepanto against the Muslims (the end of Muslim naval power). I forget which, but whichever battle it was, the anniversary is a probable motive for the Islamofascisti to choose 9/11 to attack us.

Other 9/11 highlights include: 1973 when Chilean Communist President Salvador Allende committed suicide by firing his machine gun at Augusto Pinochet's forces who restored Chile's traditional non-communist civilization during a brief interlude of military restoration of order. 1970 (?) when Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia (a footstool for Marxist-Leninists) was overthrown by Lon Nol. There are others as well. These two were particularly important strategic victories although Cambodia eventually fell into the communist swamp again. As the late Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick so eloquently explained in full book-length treatment, authoritarianism is preferable to totalitarianism because totalitarianism tends to be a permanent enslavement as authoritarianism does not. Freedom is, of course, far preferable to authoritarianism and still farther preferable to totalitarianism.

134 posted on 02/19/2007 9:45:02 PM PST by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: george76

Thanks for your kind words and for #114 as well.


135 posted on 02/19/2007 9:46:08 PM PST by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: BlackElk

The choice of 9-11 has always interested me.

911 days after our 9-11 they struck again. I wonder what math number and location they will use next.

7 October 2007 will be the 436th anniversary of the Naval Battle of Lepanto ...I believe.

I forgot that the Vienna date was September 11th.



136 posted on 02/19/2007 10:02:13 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: GitmoSailor; ClaireSolt; Mo1; Peach
Jack Murtha and his friends in the defeatist movement...
137 posted on 02/20/2007 8:18:27 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: Teófilo
On occasion, there’s such a thing as a “bad peace” if this “peace” becomes a cover for defeat, humiliation and eventual surrender to the will of the enemy.

The Democrats consider it 'peace' when our soldiers are not engaged in combat anywhere on the planet. They don't even stop to consider the fact that terrorists will continue to ply their trade. That does not even enter the Democrat equation, because it's happening somewhere else.

Of course, if it started happening HERE, on a regular basis, they might change their tunes, but frankly, by then, it would be almost too late to do anything to stop it.

138 posted on 02/20/2007 9:42:05 AM PST by SuziQ
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To: Calpernia

Jack Murtha and his friends in the defeatist movement...


139 posted on 02/21/2007 9:03:38 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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