[SJackson]

Continued.......

The collapse of the Soviet bloc has now made it clear that these useful idiots were not pro-Communist. They were and still are anti-American. They have contempt for the values of the American people and the principles on which this country was founded and built.

They are ready to give a sympathetic hearing to our enemies around the world, whether those enemies are Communists or Islamic fundamentalists or whatever. Mona Charen's "Useful Idiots" spells it all out, citing chapter and verse.

[Fudd]

Not only do we have useful idiots running around, we have useful infidels, too.

[x1stcav]

I still remember the white wash job in 1958 in the major media that these were 'agrarian reformers'. It is to me, today, unbelievable that the majority of Americans bought this line. There were a few voices (the Birchers?) trying to get the real message out, but they were drowned out and ridiculed into irrelevance by the Com-symps in the Guvmint and the press.

[liberallarry]

The collapse of the Soviet bloc has now made it clear that these useful idiots were not pro-Communist. They were and still are anti-American

For me, this is the most important paragraph in the article. It best accords with my personal experience.

"Useful idiots" see only the flaws in American society and will uncritically rush to the side of anyone claiming to do better. Not too different from those who buy "miracle cures" from telemarketing hucksters.

[hnorris]

Charen's book is awesome. While she stops with the war in Afghanistan, by that time the clear linkage of the anti-American left to America's latest enemy is clearly established, along with the complicity and duplicity of politicians and media players.

She also exposes the strategies and tactical patterns the anti-American left uses, to the point where it became very obvious while watching the debate and start of the War in Iraq.

This book should be required reading. A truly groundbreaking work.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt

[Only1choice____Freedom]

I hope there is another follow-up book for the time peroid after the beginning of the Afghan war. There has been enough material in the last year and a half for two books!

[firebrand]

One point Charen makes in her Cambodia chapter is that although we bolstered a corrupt regime there, it was nothing compared to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. Unfortunately, she does not go on to make a general point out of this.

The Hate-America crowd then, and the Hate-America crowd now, LOVE to point out that we supported unworthy regimes, even governments that we were later forced to overthrow (as when we supported Iraq because at that time Iran was worse). Then the one-thought idiots pick up the refrain---"We supported bin Laden," "We supported Saddam"---as if national priorities and alliances never change. To the ignorant followers of the useful idiots, this one sound bite justifies their hatred for anything America does.

Parents have to be real careful how they raise their children, especially the second child, who tends to be rebellious if not given sufficient favor.