Posted on 08/25/2006 5:03:27 AM PDT by Tolik
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/ NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
"But why should it, when the hard hand of American war was not first completely felt — nor the jihadists utterly vanquished and discredited and any who supported them? Unless there is some element of fear, or at least the suggestion of consequences to come for recalcitrance, why should an Iraqi cease his easy support of Hezbollah, his anti-Semitism, or his cheap support for Islamist terrorists around the block? It would be as if we expected to end slavery outright in the Confederacy around 1862, or rid Germany of Nazis around 1943, or persuade the Japanese fascists to vote in 1944 — before such ideologies have been utterly defeated and the steep price for those who tolerated them paid in full."
Ive been saying this for a long while now. We missed the opportunity to come down on the whole region right after 9/11. The liberals were silent, the people whould have put up with the sacrifice involved. But we decided to make war on the cheap and are now paying for it.
When President Clinton was facing impeachment his popularity ratings went up! The reason was no public approval of illegal and immoral conduct but rather the crowd recognition that President Clinton was functioning admirably in spite of the dangers he faced. In a word they respected his "guts." From a dissolute narcissist he was transformed into the embattled leader.
Now, many will question the previous assertion, I would bet that if the President or his people could portray the President as battling to save American lives in the face of MSM, liberal and far right political efforts to defeat us in Iraq, the President's approval would soar.
Crowds when they select a leader want a hero. That is why the antiwar thing started the day President Bush flew into that aircraft carrier. The RATS twisted the ship's poster of "Mission Accomplished" into the President's and it has been down hill ever since. Intuitively the RATs realized a young President in battle dress was a powerful image that needed remedying. Since then they have worked overtime to picture the war as a failure and the President as a cowardly, self-serving politician. In no small measure they have succeeded.
We behave differently in crowds. More emotional. More patterned on inherited, basic responses. More likely to be misunderstood by leaders.
Picture President Bush as an embattled leader of a just cause designed to protect American lives and fortunes and the issue will quickly lean his way. How to do it? That I cannot tell you.
In a nutshell:
"...jihadism could not imperil us were it not for the “moderates” who tolerate and appease it — while this is the very same group that we feel duty-bound to offer an alternative other than theocracy or dictatorship."
God Bless GWBush. I don't know how he does what he does, honestly!
yep. I bet if we knocked the $hit out of them, when they recovered some, they would find the Chicoms or some other enemy of America to be the "Great Satan." Then we could give diplomacy a chance.
But we aren't promoting 'liberal values', we're promoting process democracy -- and parliamentary process democracy at that, which is how the Afghan Constitution comes to say that no civil law can contravene Islamic law. The Bush administration really has not thought out its objectives.
What is needed is Muslim leadership. Free Iraqis need to be on the tube 24/7 aggressively calling the left names from a position of unassailable moral authority as the victims of Saddam, and demanding they shut up and stop supporting the murderous rogues killing Iraqi children. They need to be out staging photo-ops, calling for blood, running show trials. They need to execute Saddam yesterday. They need to be denouncing the heretics as the legions of hell and thanking soldiers and Marines, and not in a Baghdad cafe or alley during a patrol, but on national television every single news cycle. If CNN won't do it, the army should do it and feed the tape to Fox.
If the American people saw Iraqi graditude they would be willing to move heaven and earth to help them. When they only see cynicism and bombings and spokesmen for CAIR harping on about backlashes and discrimination, they are right to want the whole lot of them to go to hell.
There is no victory in a modern war without political victory, and there is no political victory without shaping perception, and there is no shaping of perception without deliberate daily doses of your side of the story. It is as important a branch of service as the light infantry and we need to get bloody serious about it. Currently, it isn't even amateur hour, our side simply hasn't shown up and only the enemy team is even on the field. They think having two clerks who type up press releases is an information operation.
How ridiculous is it that it is left to bloggers to expose fake enemy agitprop, their practices about terrorist stringers, to report what our troops actually go through daily, to find the occasional Iraqi? Why aren't members of the Iraqi government on every Fox News panel? Why isn't every agent for the defeatists arrested and charged with sedition, and if a foreigner have his papers pulled and asked to leave - by the Iraqis, not us?
Can't anybody here play this game?
*Exactly* what would you propose as a strategy which:
1) Is achievable with our current military.
2) Is politically salable to the American people.
and
3) What do you suppose will be the result in ten years?
It's hard to explain Muslim pathologies and culture to Americans and others who don't even understand their own history and culture.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]
----------------------------
IMHO, the reason Bush can't communicate is because he does not believe what he is saying. When Reagan spoke, you knew he believed what he was saying. He had reflected on it and come to the conclustion that the conservative philosophy was the correct one.
Not so for Bush.
His analysis should always be read.
Tony Blair can explain things quite well. W should invite him over to address Congress, the DBM and the general public on the issue.
Interesting that he uses the word "liberal" in its classical sense.
All in all, a depressing essay.
No American President will give that up.
What is left mostly unnoticed is that US Military, which is already called the most adaptable and most capable, is getting on-the-job training it did not have for decades. Their experience and professionalism can be proved decisive in the years to come.
I think we are paying for the decision to make compassionate war. While I was watching TV during the "Shock and Awe Campaign" I noticed that bombs were falling on one side of the Euphrates while traffic was flowing normally on the other. The Baghdadis did not have to fear us becasue they knew we weren't targeting anyone but Saddam's administration.
They fear the insurgents more and so they support them.
There is no easy solution - there is always a cost for being the good guy.
Shalom.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.