My lefty friends are wrong

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 02/15/03 | Phil Craig

[RolandBurnam]

moo.

[CatoRenasci]

bump

[Publius Maximus]

Corbin also introduced the British public to the truly scary ‘Dr Germ’ — whose husband, it turns out, is in charge of Iraqi liaison with the UN inspectors. Who said Saddam didn’t have a sense of humour?

And they wonder why we liken Blix to Inspector Cluesoe...

[bandleader]

Dear Phil,judging by your past,you have made considerable progress in the field of"Coming To Your Senses"but you still have a bit further to go!George W.Bush isn't a"Cowboy",he is The President of The United States of America and The Commander-In-Chief of it's armed forces!!I think that the problem some people have is that this man so starkly contrasts with his predecessor!!!

[Straight Vermonter]

I was really impressed by the words of one former Soviet General who said that the '80s protests against intermediate range nukes were "essential to furthering Soviet interests". Kinda makes you realize these guys are harmless idiots.

[weegee]

So he won't be out there protesting. He won't be out there supporting America in defiance of the leftists (who are antiBush, anticapitalist, antiAmericanWar anyway) either.

Good to see him admit the error of his ways (although he is continuing to make blunders in this column). For some it is difficult to realize the political movement they've been following their whole lives is a sham, it is for some like losing their religion.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Now, please understand, we’d all read Animal Farm and none of us was that keen on the Soviets, but at least they’d given their people decent healthcare, hadn’t they, and a fantastic underground system? Oh, and jobs for life, unlike the evil Thatcher.

Same arguments we hear from the Hollywood Left when they rhapsodize about Cuba. I'm reminded of nothing so much as French aristocrats before the Revolution, trying to think of ways to buy off the masses before the masses rise up and seize their property. The entire Democrat/Left platform is based around bribing the poor with free love, free money, and free healthcare.

[weegee]

Wouldn't be anything new. That was the premise of an early 1960s episode of I Led 3 Lives, a "Dragnet" like show based on the real experiences of a US agent who was posing as a communist spy. The Soviets were needing to delay American nuclear testing and so the seeds of dissent were sown that testing was "messing with the weather" and impacting the farmers of America.

[Osage Orange]

From the piece:

"I called up a friend in the television business. We both said we were fearful. I was talking about Islamic terrorism, perhaps next time with a nuke, but it turned out he meant ‘the mad cowboy in the White House’. It struck me then that, after so many years of opposing American foreign policy, the Left could not see beyond Vietnam-era slogans. It could not recognise that a toxic stew of rogue regimes, apocalyptic weapons programmes and a perverted form of Islam posed a deadly threat. It posed a particularly deadly threat, come to think of it, to the values of the Left itself: to women’s rights and gay rights; to secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism. In fact, you name the liberal ‘ism’ and Osama was against it. But one ‘ism’ still trumped all: anti-Americanism."

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I've had almost the exact conversation...discussing "fears" with a couple co-workers..Their stance makes no sense whatsoever.....But I keep placing seeds in their sheeple minds...LOL!!

Nice article...FRegards,

[wayoverontheright]

But some good will come out of regime-change in Iraq. Reformers in Tehran will be inspired, Hamas will lose its major paymaster, and the Saudi oligarchs will think twice before they fund any more jihad-preaching madrasas.

By seizing CONTROL of 10% of the world's oil, a stake will be driven through the heart of OPEC, a building in Vienna will be for sale.

In addition, the US will no longer be begging for the use of bases, we'll have a permanent one in Iraq.

[Gritty]

BTTT

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Big BUMP!

[wayoverontheright]

.... the Left could not see beyond Vietnam-era slogans. It could not recognise that a toxic stew of rogue regimes, apocalyptic weapons programmes and a perverted form of Islam posed a deadly threat. It posed a particularly deadly threat, come to think of it, to the values of the Left itself: to women’s rights and gay rights; to secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism. In fact, you name the liberal ‘ism’ and Osama was against it. But one ‘ism’ still trumped all: anti-Americanism.

Hello, HOLLYWOOD!!

Did you hear THAT!

The reason the left ignores the fact that the Arab-Islamic axis stomps on everything the liberals stand for is that, except for secularism, none of these 'isms' represent real beliefs for them, none are core values, these isms are embraced only as a means to an end, that end being the accumulation of absolute power.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

But I fear that all this marching will make him think that he still has a chance. And that could be more dangerous than any cowboy in the White House.

This is the bottom line -- the anti-American leftist "anti war" people are going to make a war MORE likely.

[Billthedrill]

after so many years of opposing American foreign policy, the Left could not see beyond Vietnam-era slogans.

Most cannot, and that is killing the left as a political movement. Some can, and it's driving them crazy. What is most disturbing to me is the level of power that has been reached by people who still really do think in terms of slogans. I could cope with a left dedicated to the end of capitalism on theoretical terms, but not with one that substitutes the same, stale platitudes we've been hearing for years for genuine thought. But as long as these are sheep with puppets in the street, it isn't much more than an annoyance, part of the cost of doing business in a representative government.

When the sloganeers attain high office, however, we have a problem, because the real world is far more complex than the neat certainties of campus piety can easily grasp, and when otherwise intelligent people think that they are basing their actions on principle when they are really glossing over complexity with platitudes, then the political situation becomes dangerously rigid. This is not restricted to the current administrations in Germany and France, it happened in the United States under Clinton, and much of the garbage we're now having to pick up is its direct result.

[steve-b]

We're told that war will drive Muslims into the arms of al-Qa'eda. But remember what bin Laden said in the days after 9/11: 'America is weak, it cannot take casualties, it ran away in Somalia.' Throughout the 1990s the West responded tamely to attacks by bin Laden (the African embassy bombs, the USS Cole), to attacks by groups linked to Saddam (the Saudi barracks bomb, the assassination attempt on Bush's father, the first World Trade Center attack), and to the continued refusal of Iraq to disarm as required by the Gulf war ceasefire. Ten years of this weakness only encouraged our enemies to be bolder.

Thanks, Bill.

[bray]

If Communism is so great, why do they need walls and guards to keep people in?? If Capitalism is so bad, why do we need walls to keep people out??

Pray for GW and the Truth

[MEGoody]

You and I both know that the U.S. is not going to seize control of Iraq. We will do the same thing there we did in Afghanistan - assist them in starting down a road to progress.

[Cicero]

This guy only half gets it. But an essay like this has its uses. Maybe a few people will consider what he says because he so obviously is not a conservative.

Probably not many, though. Most leftists are impervious to reality. They have witnessed a whole century of Communism gone berserk. A hundred million dead. And they still don't get it.