Tony gives the left too much credit, assuming that they have actually considered the threat, but don't consider it very great. The truth is that they realized we needed the war right after 9/11, and went along grudgingly, but when Bush started doing too well (after the Iraq war was won in a few weeks with few casualties) they got worried. The Mission Accomplished photo op scared hell out of them, it was a great triumph, and they learn from history. They did not want a repeat of the Reagan landslide in 2004, and they did not want the Republican governance to be cemented with another victory over America's enemies to its credit.
So, they fought back. It started right after the Mission Accomplished, with their carping at that instead of joining in the happiness. As everyone knew, it wasn't a statement that the Iraq mission was over, it was just a banner put up by the sailors who had finished their mission successfully and were coming home. Bush announced the successful completion of major ground operations, he didn't say that everything was done.
They know the threat exists and is real, but Bush scared them more. So, ever since, they have calibrated their positions based on how much they can get away with. A few far lefties (Dean, Kucinich) start coming out strong against the war. It gives cover for Dems to talk about it and start bad mouthing the war. It gives a morale boost to the terrorists to continue fighting. They learn that they don't have to win anything, they just have to find a way to kill an American every so often and hang in there, and they will eventually get us to go home.
The truth is, they hate Bush more than they hate Islam. He is the near enemy, they are the far one. They know it exists, and they even will concede that we could lose a city one of these days. They don't care. They want power first and foremost, and they will do whatever it takes to get it. Once they have it, they will look at Islam and come up with something that looks like a change in policy, and may even fight it hard. It may even give them the opportunity to further centralize control of the country if they take the threat seriously. But they have to have control first.
Hillary and Bill and most of the Dem leaders are smart enough to know that we have to defeat Islamic fascism. They know it threatens Israel and oil and is a danger in Europe, and could attack us at home. They just want to be the ones to win it, like FDR in WW2. Give them that chance, and the DBM will be making good socialist soldier hero stories out the wazoo, and you'll get puff pieces about the SecDef and what a brilliant strategist he is, and behind the scenes reports from the oval office showing the President at work protecting us and crying over our losses.
In fact, I think Hillary's goal is to win the war. That's why she's so cagey on it.
There are a few true believers on the Dem side, but they will fall in line once they win power and get what they want on things like socialized medicine, abortion, homosexual issues, Supreme Court nominees, the environment, etc. The propaganda machine will drown them out.
So, anyway, Tony gives them too much credit. They have made an evil calculus that they are taking a risk with their positions, but they are ok with it, because the progress of socialism worldwide depends on it.
Wow! The most succinct, well-reasoned summary of the Left’s strategy I’ve read to-date. Congratulations!
Agree with your post completely. Very, very well stated. Especially the comments about Hillary’s caginess on the war. Yes, believe it or not I told my husband something along those very lines recently... she DOES want to win the war, she DOES understand the threat, and she will pervert and incorporate it into her socialist utopian gameplan. I am already asking myself if I can truly, without malice, support her as my commander-in-chief. (I have not yet received a reply from self.)
These same dynamics played out in World War II (and to some degree in every major war). The difference is the tolerance level for death and destruction. The Nirvana-ites are able to blissfully look past the death and destruction of Islamo Fascism and focus on their little dream worlds. Just as many did when Hitler started grabbing up major parts of Europe and rounding up his version of the infidels. Those already alarmed are simply more aware of the death and destruction, more empathic and less self absorbed, and so our alarm bells have gone off earlier. The Nirvana-ites need to feel the loss personally before it becomes reality. The rest of us do not need so much emphasis to want to stop the injustices. Tony’s piece has a very down tone. He cannot understand, after years of being at this, why the positions have hardened. The Nirvana-ites will not let go of their dreams easily. They fear the reality that awaits. They become partially fanaticized in their efforts to wish reality was not as brutal and evil as it is. And they cannot fathom a force worse than their political opposition (because face it, that is the decision they have to come to). So are we at a stalemate?
Tony forgets one player in this repeat of history - the Islamo Fascists. Just like Hitler and Tojo had ample opportunities to stop their march and control their conquests, they failed at self control. The jihadists have a fantasy too. They see themselves as forcing their views on everyone so now they can be the top of the food chain. They cannot stop themselves. They must continue to consume and destroy to survive (and go to Allah has bloody heroes). So we will not stay at a stalemate position for long. Reality will intrude. The Islamo Fascists will go to far, so far even the Nirvana-ites will finally awake from their stupor, and the war will be waged seriously. The question is: how numb are the Nirvana-ites to death and suffering? How much damage will the Islamo-Fascists wage, and how far will they get, before the world finally wakes up all the way? The media, if it was doing its job, could help by simply reporting the complete set of facts. Primarily the ones where the terrorists are the bad guys and the successes we are having across Iraq show the alternative to the killings. But the media is chock full of Nirvana-ites who are simply too dazzled with their fat paychecks to feel the damage being done by the fanatics.
We are at the tipping point. It is just a matter of how long we sit here and let things run out of control.
Posted by AJStrata on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 7:48 am.