Thursday, June 30, 2005
Takings Make for Angry Citizens
and, unlike Britain and Zimbabwe, we are still armed
Oddybobo says it well:
Now, I live in a very rural community that could benefit from a hotel, shopping mall, hell even a restaurant. I have 13 acres and small house. My land is prime location for such a private development, but I dare anyone to come upon my land and try to take it. When I say dead body, I mean dead body. I will take several people with me on my way out of this life. The perils of trying to steal one’s castle, I guess. I will not roll over on that. I will get my family to saftey, say my goodbyes and then pick people off, one at a time, until I myself have perished. I will not go willingly, quietly or without fight.
These are not the words of a trailer park red neck, as the socialistic lefties like to paint us. These are the words of an educated professional woman who, I’d wager, has an aim to match her determination.
I doubt that SCOTUS would reconsider their absurd Kelo ruling any time soon, but the fact that some states are already moving to include clear definitions of “public good” at a Constitutional level gives me some relief of mind. I genuinely believe this would be the final straw that creates the revolution that waters the tree of freedom with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Running it by you again
just in case you missed it
*clicky*clicky*
During President Bush’s most recent speech, he mentioned America Supports You as a good place to leave a message to soldiers over seas that we here in the homeland they are protecting appreciate their work and are thinking of them.
So far, the response numbers aren’t quite what I believe to be an accurate reflection of the genuine respect and caring felt here for our troops. Take a minute and leave a message—it doesn’t need to be long or involved. *click here* or the picture above to go to the message-leaving page.
Go on—I’ll be here when you come back.
ThanQ! USMC_Vet who writes for three truly wonderful blogs: Media Slander, Blue State Conservatives and his personal site, Word Unheard
Jumping on the Denegrate Dean Bandwagon
why? because we like to!
Ok—ya gotta admit he really works hard to deserve it. I admire that in a toad.
At Political Teen we find video of Howard “I’m really a black lesbian woman” Dean on Chris “dayum but I have little piggy eyes” Mathews. My notes are as follows:
Howard “I’d rather be President than be right” Dean finally admits it—he agrees with the idea of fighting the terrorists abroad before they attack us here—then calls Bush a moe-ron for starting up in Iraq. Howard would rather have attacked Pakistan—who has nukes!
Then Mathews advances the idea that *mumble* percent of Americans think it was Saddam who attacked us on 9-11 with which Howard agrees and they both maintain that President Bush “is trying to perpetrate that notion” [CM] still?!?!?
Hot steaming cup of revisionism, anyone?
Yeah—and NK became a nuclear power on Bush’s watch. uh huh…
HD: the WOT is not in Iraq. Howie thinks we oughta be invading Pakistan and Iran and maybe NK. How does he not get the part about creating an ally, not just invading and conquering Pakistan or Iran? “Subtlety and nuance” pfaf.
Howie then admits he has no quarrel with the CinC addressing members of the military. Mighty white of you, Howie.
“Error in judgment of the President.” seems to be Howie’s favorite-est term. I think he’s said it at least 27 52 times. And the next president “who I intend to be a Democrat...” bahaha “will have a long term vision for the future” bahahahaha
If someone actually heard the President say that 9-11 was the reason for Iraq—there’s a nice warm long sleeved jacket waiting for ya… Right this way.
Howie likes the MMoore “Freedom Fighters” mythos, inadequate troop supply mythos, Downing Street Memos charade, ‘there was no exit strategy plan’ mythos.
[dayum but I gots a bellyache. This is why I don’t watch this crappola—and now it’s getting redundant and boring boring boring]
Responding to Rove: again with the ‘bad judgment’ meme. “The problem with the kind of name calling you see in the right wing is that it is polarizing.” Actual words of Howard “you non-working white Christians” Dean.
If the President has made such a blunder, why don’t any top names in the DNC agree with you? You’re out there alone. [CM] And Howie sez “uh..der, ahh. duh ..upt.. ask them.” Good comeback, Potsie Howie.
Howie is gonna create jobs for folks in the rural areas—howinhell he gonna do dat?
“I’m not big on propaganda.” *snork*
Democracy Bonds?!? A Finance ponzi scheme to “redesign the Democratic party” asking pledges of $20/month off your credit card with a goal of 4 million people participating. Izzat $960,000,000 a year?!?!? Waiddaminnit—lemme do that again. with a device. Yep. Nine hundred and sixty million dollars a year—for the sole purpose of propagandizing. Guess Soros is outta chump change. “here—we will lie to you and make you pay for the privilege. silky pony up!” Sounds like government to me.
Howie now maintains that, as “you can never believe anything you read in the print-press,” he was misunderstood and “the Republican leadership who designed the voting situation in Ohio where people had to wait 10 hours to vote” was the target of the “no republican ever worked a day in their lives” remark.
Gotta call bullsh!t on that one, Howie. Party members do not design the voting methodology—the County Clerks are the ones who do.
ThanQ! Speed of Thought [who has a great round-up post. *clicky*clicky*]
Sneaking up on '08 ...er... '10 • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Link This
More Deserved Durbin Derision
cuz he hasn’t been recalled in IL, yet, has he?!?
James H. Warner The senator’s argument is silly. If he believes what he has said his judgment is so poor that his countrymen, assuming, of course, that he considers us his countrymen, have no reason not to dismiss him as a witless boob. On the other hand, if he does not believe what he said, the other members of the Senate may wish to consider censure.
...The argument that detainees at Guantanamo are being treated badly is specious and silly. In the eyes of normal Americans, Democrats believe this argument because, as Jeanne Kirkpatrick said 20 years ago, they “always blame America first.” This contributes to the increasing suspicion, in red states, a problem that Democrats are aware of and are trying to counter, that Democrats cannot be trusted with our national security. Only the Democrats can change this perception ...but making silly arguments about imaginary bad treatment of enemy detainees is not a move in the right direction.
After you read Mister Warner experiences described in the editorial, it becomes even more clear that Durbin is an ignorant pip-squeak attempting self-aggrandizement at the expense of others far more worthy than he. Diick Durbin deserves censure and recall.
ThanQ! with *fingers crossed* 
TBK
A Leaky Rowboat Sinks • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Link This
I smell Ramsey Clark [eww]
gotta love that feisty The SUN
The man is going to be hung. He’s gonna be tried and hung in the public square. Whyinhell should we be worried about pictures about how he’s hung.
Sheesh.
My only question is, when does the ACLU show up?
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Boy! Are we *goood*!
and yet, there are still calories in brownies...Priorities, people priorities!
President Robert Mugabe’s ...Herald, a state-run newspaper in Zimbabwe has suggested the UK and US are to blame for droughts in southern Africa. The Herald said climate change has been artificially induced “in a bid to arm-twist the region to capitulate to the whims of the world’s superpowers”.
It said weather was being manipulated for political gain using unspecified “unconventional” chemical weapons.
I don’t see why we would have any trouble at all helping these folk… No trouble at all.
Are You Buyin' This?
me? ...not so much
Shabbir Ahmed is one of the three imams being held in the Lodi “alleged” terrorist case. [ yes, those were sneer quotes] These facts came out at his hearing this week:
Ahmed admitted giving five public speeches[in Islamabad] in which he “encouraged people to go to Afghanistan to defend Osama, to defend the Taliban and kill Americans.” [in November and December of 2001]
Ahmed was brought to Lodi in 2002 by Muhammed Adil Khan, the second imam held on immigration complaints. [under a religious visa.]
Ahmed defended himself, saying: “I simply said to try to pressure Americans to stop bombing.”
Asked repeatedly whether he had also urged Pakistanis to defend Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, Ahmed eventually said, “Being emotional, I may have said it or I may not have said it.”Nishiie asked: “Didn’t people riot after your speeches?”
Ahmed, responding in Urdu through an interpreter conceded: “Temporarily, people get excited and the spirit goes on. ... I was not the only speaker.”
IOW “Heh heh heh—you know us Arabs—we’re just excitable people. Hey - we riot if the couscous isn’t minty enough—it’s a cultural thing. C’mon - you know… We’re funny peoples, eh?”
Ahmed said he spent seven years at Jamia Farooqia, a large madrassah in Karachi founded by Adil Khan’s father, before becoming an imam in Islamabad.
...Ahmed - who said he taught at the madrassah for three years - acknowledged the school sent guerrillas to Afghanistan to wage jihad against the Russians, who occupied the country from 1979 to 1989.
But they only went to give manicures to the villagers there.
Ok—here’s the hook:
"Having come here I see human value and respect for human life - even animals are taken care of here. When I saw such a picture my mind changed.”
He said he now regrets making anti-American speeches. “Now I know what the truth is,” he said. “I think there is justice here and everyone is respected. Even though I went to jail, at no time was I disrespected or dishonored."
Not even one page flushed?!? Oh, we’re slipping, kidz.
The Lodi Muslim Mosque board of directors unanimously voted to fire Ahmed, 39, in a special session Sunday night, said Mohammed Shoaib, the mosque’s president.
Ahmed “can go someplace else, because we do not want more problems here,” Shoaib said. “We don’t want that kind of person who has spoken against the United States."
It’s a start…
As to the Ice Cream Man and his madrassah-going son?
The government claims Hamid Hayat, 22, admitted training at a Pakistani camp to learn “how to kill Americans.” Prosecutors say he initially denied, then admitted, and now denies being trained as a terrorist.
Prosecutors also claim his father at first denied, then admitted, and now denies his son’s involvment in terrorist training.
Hokay, then; one of those was a lie. Case closed.
Keeping Score on Terrorists • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Link This
The Speech
what I got out of it
...The troops here and across the world are fighting a global war on terror. The war reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001. The terrorists who attacked us—and the terrorists we face—murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance, and despises all dissent.
Like has been going on in our Congress of late…
Their aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny and oppression—by toppling governments, by driving us out of the region, and by exporting terror.
To achieve these aims, they have continued to kill—in Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali, and elsewhere. The terrorists believe that free societies are essentially corrupt and decadent,
Democracy, relying as it does on the right of the individual to determine his own future, is anathema to Islam.
and with a few hard blows they can force us to retreat. They are mistaken.
*cough*Senator Kennedy*cough*
After September the 11th, I made a commitment to the American people: This nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will defend our freedom. We will take the fight to the enemy.
Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war. Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, in Washington, and Pennsylvania.
“Many”?? What’re the rest - Quakers?
There is only one course of action against them: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home. ...
[how many times I gotta say this?]
The work in Iraq is difficult and it is dangerous. Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying, and the suffering is real. Amid all this violence, I know Americans ask the question: Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it, and it is vital to the future security of our country. And tonight I will explain the reasons why.
So, Congrescritters, please take out your crayons and take notes.
Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and others. They are making common cause with criminal elements, Iraqi insurgents, and remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime who want to restore the old order. They fight because they know that the survival of their hateful ideology is at stake. They know that as freedom takes root in Iraq, it will inspire millions across the Middle East to claim their liberty, as well. And when the Middle East grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorists will lose their sponsors, lose their recruits, and lose their hopes for turning that region into a base for attacks on America and our allies around the world.
Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate. Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden: “This Third World War is raging” in Iraq. “The whole world is watching this war.” He says it will end in “victory and glory, or misery and humiliation.” ...
And which side of that equation do you wanna be on?
The terrorists know that the outcome will leave them emboldened, or defeated. So they are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to take.
Including innocent Muslim lives.
...We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who exploded car bombs along a busy shopping street in Baghdad, including one outside a mosque. We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who sent a suicide bomber to a teaching hospital in Mosul. We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who behead civilian hostages and broadcast their atrocities for the world to see.
See the Geneva Convention
These are savage acts of violence, but they have not brought the terrorists any closer to achieving their strategic objectives. The terrorists—both foreign and Iraqi—failed to stop the transfer of sovereignty. They failed to break our Coalition and force a mass withdrawal by our allies. They failed to incite an Iraqi civil war. They failed to prevent free elections. They failed to stop the formation of a democratic Iraqi government that represents all of Iraq’s diverse population. And they failed to stop Iraqis from signing up in large number with the police forces and the army to defend their new democracy.
How is that not progress? How does that not inspire admiration of the Iraqi people?
The lesson of this experience is clear: The terrorists can kill the innocent, but they cannot stop the advance of freedom.
It does not stop people of courage and conviction.
The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi,
like sheep to the slaughter
and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like Bin Laden. For the sake of our nation’s security, this will not happen on my watch.
Are you clear on that? Did I make my point? Do you need me to draw a picture?
A little over a year ago… I outlined the steps we would take to achieve this goal: We would hand authority over to a sovereign Iraqi government. We would help Iraqis hold free elections by January 2005. We would continue helping Iraqis rebuild their nation’s infrastructure and economy. We would encourage more international support for Iraq’s democratic transition, and we would enable Iraqis to take increasing responsibility for their own security and stability.
In the past year, we have made significant progress. ...
Whatever our differences in the past, the world understands that success in Iraq is critical to the security of our nations. As German Chancellor Gerhard Schr der said at the White House yesterday, “There can be no question a stable and democratic Iraq is in the vested interest of not just Germany, but also Europe.” ...
Even this blockhead gets it—how do you not?!?
The progress in the past year has been significant, and we have a clear path forward. To complete the mission, we will continue to hunt down the terrorists and insurgents. To complete the mission, we will prevent al Qaeda and other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban, a safe haven from which they could launch attacks on America and our friends. And the best way to complete the mission is to help Iraqis build a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself.
...Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.
I recognize that Americans want our troops to come home as quickly as possible. So do I. Some contend that we should set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces. Let me explain why that would be a serious mistake.
Drag out those crayons, again, Congresscritters. I’ll speak slowly.
Setting an artificial timetable would send the wrong message to the Iraqis, who need to know that America will not leave before the job is done. It would send the wrong message to our troops, who need to know that we are serious about completing the mission they are risking their lives to achieve. And it would send the wrong message to the enemy, who would know that all they have to do is to wait us out. We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed, and not a day longer.
Some Americans ask me, if completing the mission is so important, why don’t you send more troops? If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them. But our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job. Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight. And sending more Americans would suggest that we intend to stay forever, when we are, in fact, working for the day when Iraq can defend itself and we can leave. As we determine the right force level, our troops can know that I will continue to be guided by the advice that matters: the sober judgment of our military leaders.
Yanno—people who know what they’re talking about, unlike you buncha maroons.
...Libya has given up his chemical and nuclear weapons programs. ...elections in the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon. ...inspiring democratic reformers in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Try to keep up, eh?
Our strategy to defend ourselves and spread freedom is working. The rise of freedom in this vital region will eliminate the conditions that feed radicalism and ideologies of murder, and make our nation safer.
...We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test America’s resolve. We’re fighting against men with blind hatred—and armed with lethal weapons—who are capable of any atrocity. They wear no uniform; they respect no laws of warfare or morality. They take innocent lives to create chaos for the cameras. They are trying to shake our will in Iraq, just as they tried to shake our will on September the 11th, 2001. They will fail. The terrorists do not understand America.
*cough*Hillary*cough*
The American people do not falter under threat, and we will not allow our future to be determined by car bombers and assassins.
...America and our friends are in a conflict that demands much of us. It demands the courage of our fighting men and women, it demands the steadfastness of our allies, and it demands the perseverance of our citizens.
*cough*Senator Durbin*cough*
We accept these burdens, because we know what is at stake. ...And we fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we’ll fight them there, we’ll fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won.
...America has done difficult work before.
From our desperate fight for independence to the darkest days of a Civil War, to the hard-fought battles against tyranny in the 20th century, there were many chances to lose our heart, our nerve, or our way. But Americans have always held firm, because we have always believed in certain truths. We know that if evil is not confronted, it gains in strength and audacity, and returns to strike us again. We know that when the work is hard, the proper response is not retreat, it is courage. And we know that this great ideal of human freedom entrusted to us in a special way, and that the ideal of liberty is worth defending.
Yes, America and the Grand Experiment are special and unique in history.
And the ‘what-to-do’ to show support. Pick a side, Mack.
...In this time of testing, our troops can know: The American people are behind you. Next week, our nation has an opportunity to make sure that support is felt by every soldier, sailor, airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine at every outpost across the world. This Fourth of July, I ask you to find a way to thank the men and women defending our freedom—by flying the flag, sending a letter to our troops in the field, or helping the military family down the street. The Department of Defense has set up a website—AmericaSupportsYou.mil. You can go there to learn about private efforts in your own community. At this time when we celebrate our freedom, let us stand with the men and women who defend us all. ...
Impressions of the raadio guy; raadio joined the speech on his second word. On MSNBC there was thunderous applause for about a second as W appeared and was abruptly cut off until the first word of his speech.
What were the instructions to the assembled military personnel? If the reportage is correct, why were they specifically instructed not to respond? What is SOP for a CIC speech?
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Vass Ist Dis 'Media Bias' of Vhich Joo Speak?
after all, tearing a book is just so much more Pol Pot than blowing up your own children...
From Ace comes a heads-up to a piece on the wires today. Apparently we’re not getting the whole story! *slaps palms to cheeks*
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistanis freed from Guantanamo Bay claimed Monday they saw American interrogators throw, tear and stand on copies of Islam’s holy book, and one former detainee said naked women sat on prisoners’ chests during questioning.
Yeah, yeah, yeah—nekkid women, Koran ‘dessicration’ claims unsubstantiated. But Wait! There’s moooore!
...all the men signed statements saying they wouldn’t join any anti-state activity.
However, one of the freed men, Khalil-ur Rahman, 21, from the eastern town of Gujrat, said he wouldn’t hesitate to fight again. “If I get a chance to fight jihad again, I will definitely go. I will not miss it,” he said.
Alrighty, thennnn. Those are the last grafs of the piece. The ones no one hardly never reads…
The WaPo, LAT, BsGb all simply drop those last grafs. Sou-praahz! Sou-praahz! Sou-praahz!
*heavy sigh* And the support for the war poll numbers are down, why?
Sanfranseeskococsukahs!...
I love Americans!
GMTA
For Release Tuesday, June 28 to all media
...On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter’s home.
Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.
The proposed development, called “The Lost Liberty Hotel” will feature the “Just Desserts Café” and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon’s Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” ...
Logan Darrow Clements
Freestar Media, LLCPhone 310-593-4843
logan@freestarmedia.com
If I can stop laughing long enough, I will point out that this is not a prank. This developer is serious—and seriously honked off.
He is not yet able to accept investments in his hotel project [until the LLC papers are drawn up] but he is looking for architects, loy-ahs and ‘net gurus to get this project off the ground. More info at Freestar Media
ThanQ! TMH’s Bacon Bits
"The Supreme Court has made it’s decision, now let them enforce it.” -Andrew Jackson
Yet *Another* Reason
I haaaate car shopping
The first is the dragging around looking at stuff I really don’t care about, when ya come right down to it. I love to drive and I’ve loved almost every car I’ve ever owned—all the ones I’ve actually had a choice about. But other cars? Zzzzz Cars in general? *coma*
So this time, I’ve completely thrown out the idea that I have to give the whole marketplace a look - just in case I might find something else I’d like better. Pfui. I’ve been in an SUV since the damthings were invented and in an SUV I’m gonna stay. It just plain works for me. ‘Sides; since everyone on the road is 1] crazy 2] half-drunk alla time 3] out to get meee [at least that’s what I tell the Delightful Daughters every time they leave the house] I ain’t about to ride in one of those over-priced roller skates made of reconstituted gum wrappers. Detroit Steeeel—that’s for me.
That said, I would like to upgrade a little. And the primary mostest important thing I have to know iw whether I can really, actually, permanently disconnect that little SpyThingie - NorthStar, or whatever else they call it. If I can’t do that, I might be stuck going retro with a ‘64 Caddy or a ‘59 Buick with the holes.
Next is the ‘shopping for the best value’ thing. Yeeech. Made much worse by my refusal to buy new and lose that 5% - 10% in value by the very act of driving off the lot. I know, I know - a car is not an investment; it’s just an expenditure. But there’s no reason to go crazy.
What I really prefer is to decide what I want, go get it and move on with my life. Shopping around gives me a pain. Especially when there are cretins like this one crawling around car lots:
Someone actually said this to Christina: “Do you have your husband’s permission to buy a new car?"
She did a beautiful job of responding—I’d have rather punched the little wurst in the nose—but Christina’s choice was likely more painful in the long run.
So wish me luck; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Life in The Country™ • (1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Link This
Sugar Candy
your impressions?
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill said that the American people…he said, the American people, he said, and this is a direct quote, “We didn’t come this far because we are made of sugar candy.”
That was his response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. That we didn’t come this far because we are made of sugar candy.
And that reminder was taken seriously. And we proceeded to develop and deliver the bomb, even though roughly 150,000 men, women and children perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With a single blow, World War II was over.
Following New York, Sept. 11, Winston Churchill was not here to remind us that we didn’t come this far because we’re made of sugar candy.
So, following the New York disaster, we mustered our humanity.
We gave old pals a pass, even though men and money from Saudi Arabia were largely responsible for the devastation of New York and Pennsylvania and our Pentagon.
We called Saudi Arabians our partners against terrorism and we sent men with rifles into Afghanistan and Iraq, and we kept our best weapons in our silos.
Even now we’re standing there dying, daring to do nothing decisive, because we’ve declared ourselves to be better than our terrorist enemies—more moral, more civilized.
Our image is at stake, we insist.
But we didn’t come this far because we’re made of sugar candy.
Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and into this continent by giving small pox infected blankets to native Americans.
Yes, that was biological warfare!
And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever. And we grew prosperous.
And, yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves.
And so it goes with most nation states, which, feeling guilty about their savage pasts, eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded, and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry and up and coming who are not made of sugar candy.
The Chimp Made a Chump Outta Me... • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Link This
Break Out the Pumps 'n' Pearls©!
It’s time for the Cotillion Ball!
Monday, June 27, 2005
Could we lose?
RTWT
...large swathes of the opinion making elite had either grown too personally comfortable, morally relativistic or fundamentally wooly-headed about the foundational values of our society to be able to distinguish between an imperfect democracy in our ally and near-total tyranny in our foe. And anyway, what did all of that have to do with us? We were coming dangerously close to a place where people wanted “perfect lives.” A place where someone who got beaned with a foul ball at a baseball park felt that they had a right to sue somebody. A place where someone spilling coffee in their own lap had a right to damages. A place where nothing should be attempted in the world unless it be perfectly motivated and perfectly executed.
...And there are some among his opponents who by their words and actions apparently wouldn’t mind seeing the infant of Iraqi democracy strangled in its crib by the calloused hands of Islamist tyranny, if that’s what it took to cast Mr. Bush and all his philosophies atop the ash heap of history. Regardless of the human cost, both here and there. Regardless of the treasures already spent.
And there are many hard-eyed, even brutal men overseas, with jealous privileges of their own to guard, who are watching us carefully, and weighing our resolve, testing our strength against their own, to see if we really mean what we say, when we say , “Enough - we will not countenance your tyrannies against your captive populations in the name of stability any more. It was always a moral affront, and bought us no security in the end.” And there are the captive populations themselves, those who have only know begun to raise their eyes from the dirt, only know have begun to hope that this time it is different, this time we actually mean to stand for the ideals which we promote as foundational. The ideals which form our national myths, those things we still believe about ourselves, even when almost no one else does. If we betray them to their deaths again, our ideals and the lives of those who have trusted us, we can only hope that God may forgive us, for history never will.
...
...When the public will of the greatest power for good the world has ever known, a country of unprecedented moral, material, economic and military power blanches in the face of the brutality of a sadistic few, betraying its ideals and allies -
...
Just sayin'...
Yanno what I’m not hearing nearly enough? The word Victory.
More: Like this: Don Rumsfeld, Baghdad, 12 April: “We don’t have an exit strategy. We have a victory strategy.”
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{/if}
