Posted on 07/30/2008 10:48:25 PM PDT by Eurotwit
The received wisdom is that President Bush has been a foreign policy disaster, and that America is threatened by the rise of Asia. Both claims are wrong—Bush has successfully rolled back jihadism, and the US will benefit from Asian growth.
(Excerpt) Read more at prospect-magazine.co.uk ...
Yes, Bush is like the outgoing President Truman, and McCain is our Eisenhower while Obama is Adlai Stevenson revisited.
Everything you need to know about November 2008 can be learned by studying 1952.
...and so it begins, the slow rehabilitation that comes when the emotions of the moment subside and reason, perspective and clarity are regained...
Adlai, Dwight and Harry...excellent observation!
I hope McCain will be to the Mullahs what Eisenhower was to Mossadegh.
The parallels between Obama and Stevenson are eerie, don’t you think?
Right down to the liberal “New Politics” and oration that has mesmerised the intelligentsia and the “youth vote” that they claim shall sweep him into office.
And yet the old moderate war hero is still going to wipe the floor with him.
Let’s just hope McCain does a little better with the Supreme Court.
Truman got us involved in Korea and then instead of running for reelection and finishing the job he started, he cut and run. Bush43 has stayed the course in Iraq and in the WOT. And he can't run for POTUS again.
And whether you call Presidential policy towards the USSR from 1946 to 1986, containment or detente, it was a form of appeasement, backed up by MAD. Reagan understood the failures of such policy and pushed the Soviet Union to final self-destruction. Something that all President's from Truman to Carter never fully understood.
In Truman’s defence, we were not psycically ready for another series of wars so soon after WWII. Its a wonder
that Korea turned out as a stalemate as opposed to a rout.
For that thank MacArthur, the Marines, and the troops who
hung in and did their duty. Politically it was a preview of
VN.
Truman got us involved in Korea and then instead of running for reelection and finishing the job he started, he cut and run.
Truman however has to get some credit for not yielding to the Soviets in 1946, when they tried to annex Northern Iran. The US then had the monopoly on nukes and Truman’s assurance that he won’t back down on Iran’s territorial integrity, was essential for the Soviet’s folding in on this issue. This was the only time Stalin withdrew from occupied territory he grabbed after the war. It ought to be stressed however that the Shah noted that it was the refusal of US Republicans, unlike the Democrats, to accomodate the Soviets that turned events around.
Truman followed FDR’s lead and handed Eastern Europe over to the Soviets and communism spread like wild fire.
The Korean War came five years after WWII ended. Truman was POTUS at the time of US involvement in that so-called, “police action”. Truman had an opportunity to run for POTUS a second time. He chose to resign his position as leader of the Democratic Party and leave the mess for someone else.
I don’t consider Truman a great POTUS. Average at best.
Of course, the Bush victory has not yet been recognised, which is very odd indeed because it has all happened in full view.
Its reality is, however, making his opponents scramble to find a safe posture as it becomes less deniable. It is not imperialism and it will not leave behind it a trail of client states. It is something quite unrecognizable to those still trapped in the cliches of the 70's. What it does leave behind it will be shocking in 20 years, astonishing in 50.
Luttwak has a particularly sharp point with regard to the declinists:
It is not personal shortcomings that prevent Friedman, Zakaria and co from addressing such questions. It is their method that is wrong, for it relies on two substitutes for systematic research: brief journeys to visit foreign parts that are mostly occupied by meetings with locals who speak English, and international conferences, like the Davos jamboree, which are frequented by the same locals, now on their own brief visits to foreign parts. This encourages the recirculation of clichés that usurp the place of considered thought.
Beautifully observed. Earlier today I saw these scholars characterized as an "enlightened" elite certain that what is most needed is for its members to be given power over their own people and the ability to negotiate with its members in other countries to resolve differences between their respective peoples. That is an incredibly naive and antihistoric set of premises. It is also omnipresent within the international media, academia, and bureaucracy. It is a luxury of peace and plenty enjoyed by those who think them endless.
Truman was leftist crap (spare me the he was so brave to bomb Japan stuff). It is an insult to Bush to compare him to leftist democrap Truman. Truman loved by liberal historians and misguided foreign policy wonks/hated by the people at the time do to his incompetent rule.
And old Adali was lib trash to be sure but correct me if I’m wrong he was actually a lover of his country as opposed to our treasonous globe trotter Obama.
Bush > Pond Scum > millipedes > 50’s Democrats > BH Obama.
I’m comparing Bush to Truman because Bush, like Truman, is not up for reelection and has no VP successor. This will be the first election like that since then.
Another parallel between Obama and Stevenson is both have made halting the development of nuclear weapons central planks in their platforms.
Finally, McCain needs to take another cue from Eisenhower, and select an attack dog running mate, and soon. Someone who could take apart Obama the way Nixon took apart Stevenson while allowing the presidential candidate to remain above the fray. Mitt Romney would be by far the most effective at that job.
Truman made one decision for which I give him all credit: to use the bombs against Japan and end the war. No Democrat in the party today would ever take such action. He saved countless American lives, and countless Japanese lives too.
bump
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