The 1930s, Again: A hard rain is going to fall.

National Review ^ | March 25, 2002 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Ancesthntr]

I thought 9/11 was our wake up call, but we're still sleeping. I do think that, once finally aroused, we will kick tail. I hope.

I, too, thought that we would have awakened as we did after Pearl Harbor. For all of the comparisons with that event evoked by the presstitutes and publicity-seeking politicos regarding 9/11, we remain asleep. I thought (naively so, as it turns out) that FINALLY the American people had finally realized what kind of a place the world was, and that we'd finally clean out the SOBs that make this world miserable. So, where was the declaration of war? Where was/is the mobilization of resources to fight the billion (or 2 or 3) that hate us for being free and prosperous? We are STILL ASLEEP - what will it take to reawaken the sleeping giant and to fill him with a terrible resolve, the atomization of several cities?

Rather than preparing for what our enemies are preparing for us, we look to gestures of appeasement. Does not the Islamic world appreciate the presence of General Zinni? Do we not give billions to Arab countries? Did we not save Kuwait and Muslims throughout the globe? Who in the Arab world could really think that the murderous Taliban were preferable to the present more enlightened government in Afghanistan? And although Middle Eastern males blew up our planes, people, and monuments, have we not had a national discussion about the evils of profiling those from the Middle East in our airports and stations? Don't Muslims tell their kindred back home how much freer they are in America than in Iraq or Syria?

Don't get me wrong - Bush has done a decent job of smashing the Taliban and putting Al-Queda back into the caves, but this isn't enough. Neither (esp. the latter) would present any kind of real threat to civilization without the support of nations like Iraq, Iran, China, Syria, Libya, not to mention Saudi Arabia (well, OK, I will mention them),our supposed ally. However, he has failed like his father did to really tell us why we have to go to war, and to be successful like in WW2, or else we will cease to exist. Churchill he ain't, but at least he could try a bit harder. He is much like Reagan in many ways, but the Gipper was head and shoulders above him in explaining why we had to struggle against the Evil Empire.

President Bush: the Axis of Evil is out there, but it is far greater in scope and resources than the 3 thuggocracies you mentioned. You must know this, but you'll never be truly successful in the War on Terrorism until you truly explain our situation to the mass of the American public that doesn't know better (or doesn't want to know better). This is a war for our survival - we must begin to act like it, soon, or we will suffer grievous losses in the future and possibly lose. We must take the initiative and destroy the various terrorist regimes ASAP, before they have an opportunity to acquire and develop effective WMD arsenals. We'll need very large and well-equipped armed forces to accomplish this, along with near limitless ammunition. Currently we have neither. Tell the voters and taxpayers the dimensions of the problem, and we'll support nearly any measure necessary to prevail.

[js1138]

...I am proud that thugs like Khaddafi, murderers like Saddam Hussein, inquisitionists like the mullahs in Iran, criminals in Syria, medieval sheiks in the Gulf, and millions of others who do not vote, do not speak freely, oppress women, and are not tolerant of religious, gender, or ethnic diversity don't like me for being an American. I would find it repugnant if they did.

Big Bump.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Your children will inherit a better world, as all of us from WWII did.

[prognostigaator]

The 30's were different in that Americans were Americans.

And those that were not citizens desired to be so. And became assimillated in this culture.
Today, one wonders where and why many dont.

There some 'Americans' and many aliens whose allegience lies with another nation, not this one...What are their motives? Why don't they go back? They know who they are.

[cicero's_son]

"So who's going to defeat VD?

LOL!

Another Clinton failure...

[Gritty]

Excellent article!

[Reagan Man]

I read this earlier. Good article. Thanks.

The problem is you, not us — you, you, you….

So true, so true, so true!

[wcbtinman]

This is no more than our elected leadership shirking their responsibility under the Constitution, until it's too late, and they are forced to put the cream of our young people into harms way. Many of today's problems could have been diminished had our procrastinating leadership just had the courage to stand up for principles instead of politics.

We reap what we sow.

[Humidston]

Methinks Bush is well aware of this reality. He has weapons and planes and ships to build before it's too late.

I received an email (can't verify the truth of it) where Bush boldly asked a Christian who was greeting him, "Please pray for a protective shield over our country!"

Let's all do that.

[madison46]

Some bump lists.

Read and heed. Life and the threats are more complicated a la the 1930's

[hopespringseternal]

I, too, thought that we would have awakened as we did after Pearl Harbor.

With Pearl Harbor, we had a much more tangible enemy that did not simply shrink back into the shadows.

Also, we had scores of leaders explaining that Islam is a religion of peace and focusing on Osama Bin Laden.

The big problem with that is people are not going to put up with really rooting out and destroying the problem. We have minimized the problem to a police action in a backwater nation that is already rubble.

Even now we are begging permission from the very people that put up the cash for September 11 to go after those responsible for putting up the cash. Hello? Is anyone home?

[jpsb]

That is the longest sentence I have ever seen!

[dighton]

You should see Faulkner when he gets going, or the last chapter of Ulysses.

[Zviadist]

This is the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. And that is saying a good deal. The warhawks are so self-conscious about the weakness of their case in favor of war with the world -- "the war on a noun" -- that they are desperate to tie it to something concrete, like WWII. Hence the endless articles invoking Hitler and Czechoslovakia and Chamberlain. It is pathetic, really.

[Politically Correct]

A WWIII Bump

[Bigg Red]

So we should stop apologizing, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and accept this animosity....

So true. We need to shut them up in short order!

[Constitution Day]

History teaches us that certain nations, certain peoples, and certain religions at peculiar periods in their history take a momentary, but deadly leave of their senses —
Napoleon's France for most of a decade, the southern states in 1861, Japan in 1931, Germany in 1939, and Russia after World War II.
And when they do, they cannot be bribed, apologized to, or sweet-talked — only defeated.

(emphasis added is mine)

I've heard the Confederacy compared to the Nazis, but now we're in some really distinguished company!
The C.S.A. had just so very much in common with four imperialistic regimes bent on world domination, didn't they?

< /sarcasm>

[4CJ]

Sorry - the dictator was on the Northern side.

[headsonpikes]

"All that's left is you..." BTTT!

[Constitution Day]

My point entirely.