The Time For Grace and Humility Has Long Since Passed

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By Scott Malensek

I have the greatest respect and admiration for Peggy Noonan. In my opinion she is one of the greatest political writers of the 20th Century. However, her latest piece in the Wall Street Journal is not an idea, but a plea. It’s not a call for grace, but a call for further acquiescence and submission to the desires for political power sought on the left at the nation’s expense.
 
It’s nice to believe that if President Bush bowed to his opponents and showed them grace or made it clear that it’s not unpatriotic to oppose, but contrary to Ms Noonan’s piece, there is nothing to be gained. The leaders of the left cannot lose sight of their objective: political gain at America’s expense. As she pointed out so well, entire careers are invested in America’s defeat in Iraq, and those political leaders who seek the deliberate division of the nation for their own political careers are not going to switch gears and respond in kind to overtures of unity from the President. He’s tried it since the 11/06 elections, and instead of unity the war’s opponents barraged with a laundry list of non-binding legislation designed to openly, freely, and with great conviction declare that the war is lost rather than move towards a center and see hope.

  • This deliberate division isn’t lost on the American people.
  • 54% disagree with the Democrats that the war is not lost.
  • Approval of the Democrats’ Congress has plummeted to 18% (which Sen. Reid blames on the President-huh?), and
  • Only 3% of Americans approve of the Democrats’ Congress’ handling of the Iraq War.

Yet it continues. Why? Because as Ms Noonan points out, careers are invested in seeing the President fail regardless of the effect on the nation

Sorry Ms. Noonan, but you said it yourself,

Not only hearts and minds are invested in a particular stand. Careers are, too. Candidates are invested in a position they took; people are dug in, caught. Every member of Congress is constrained by campaign promises: "We’ll fight" or "We’ll leave." The same for every opinion spouter–every pundit, columnist, talk show host, editorialist–all of whom have a base, all of whom pay a price for deviating from the party line, whatever the party, and whatever the line. All this freezes things. It makes immobile what should be fluid. It keeps people from thinking.

Your typical American doesn’t have the time or desire to invest themselves in the details of the war in Iraq or the war on terror in general. They want to be led. They need to be led. It’s just easier than thinking. And so it is that political opposition to “Bush’s War” continues. It’s not just apathy or disdain for a President, but it’s a matter of average lives. This war is simply not a part of every American’s every day life. They see the bodies on the news, hear the political choice between “just keep enduring the awful news” vs. “We can just leave and everything will be ok because it’s all this bad President’s fault,” and they say, gosh, that second sounds better, and I don’t really understand XYZ about the war, so I might as well oppose it. After all, everyone dislikes war. Everyone should oppose war unless there’s a good reason for it, and that reasoning is lost to the hatred from the political left’s leaders who have nothing to offer as an alternative to the inescapable path we now see in Iraq.

The grace and unity that Ms. Noonan hopes would be forthcoming from Presidential grace and humility. Yet, that has never been the case. When the President reaffirmed time and again that there was no intelligence connecting Saddam to the 911 attacks, his opponents still claimed he was misleading and connecting the two unjustly. When the President repeatedly said that the expected vast stockpiles of WMD were not found, his opponents chose to continue their “Bush Lied” rantings rather than reply with similar “grace and humility.”

There’s no doubt that national unity is needed, but the problem is not the President’s rhetoric. The problem is the deliberate division of the nation from people who lead the calls for retreat not after hearing military or intelligence briefings, but after meeting with MoveOn.org and Code Pink leaders. For those “leaders” who oppose the strongest and the loudest are people who have no leadership to offer. They are empty hats who are still fighting the 2000 and 2004 elections. The Democratic Party needs opposition to the war as a wedge issue, according to months-worth of polling from multiple sources, they’re losing that wedge issue, and yet they still oppose the war. If they don’t oppose in the face of all evidence and logic, then they lose the most emotional issue their party has, the weak glue that binds the DNC coalition together would be torn, and the years of deliberately misleading their constituents and base would be seen (it’s been shown, but not seen).
Can you imagine the horror for those who so strongly oppose the war;not the horror of genocide in Iraq, or the nightmare of a regional war with global effects, and certainly not the abyss that is an Al Queda victory in Iraq? No, can you imagine the horror of someone like Markos Moulitsas Zúniga and his KOSsacks seeing America succeed at anything during a Republican Presidency? The core of the opposition to the war is opposition to the President. It’s just that simple.

Make no mistake about it, the surge will end soon. It’s a temporary rise in the number of troops in Iraq. The number of troops will decline, and troops will come home. Also make no mistake about it, whether the Democratic Party nominates Senator: Clinton, Obama, or Edwards, tens of thousands of American troops will remain in Iraq. That nominee will continue the war if elected, and all of a sudden the exact same arguments to continue the war that the left rails against when they come from anyone with an R next to their title will be the exact same arguments that a Democratic President will be making in 2009, and a Senate Majority leader Reid will all of a sudden declare that the war is no longer lost because someone with a D is now in charge.

They don’t care one iota about the nation or what happens in Iraq as long as they have political power, and if Ms. Noonan or others believe that the path to national unity rests with more grace and humility expressed to the war’s opponents, they are wrong.

The path to unity is either through:

  • putting Democrats in power so they too have to publicly support the war, or
  • expose the selfish, deliberate political division of the nation for what it is, and watch the American people cease their support for the left’s lies and misleading (which is what’s happening).

By making success as clear as it has been this year, the US military is doing what is impossible for President Bush to do-expose the defeatists’ selfish political motivations, and degrade opposition to the war. It’s working. In Iraq, there’ve been huge, clear military accomplishments. The Iraqi government has a lot more to accomplish, but it’s perfectly clear to all Americans that the Iraqi Parliament is more efficient and has accomplished more than the Democrats’ Congress, and the contrast between success in Iraq and the claims from Democratic Party leaders that all is lost has lead to a massive destruction of popular American support for those leaders as well as their vain opposition to Bush’s War.

The American people are seeing the war in Iraq for what it is and what it is not. By seeing that it is not just Bush’s War, they are recognizing that those misleading leaders who tried to take a struggle of Americans in combat, are too often partisan hacks seeking power and not dissenting patriots defending our nation, our interests, or the inalienable human rights defined in our Declaration of Independence. Being more humble or graceful to the people who portray the war as “Bush’s War” has not garnered more support for the war, it has not brought more unity in the past, and it will not now.

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I could agree more!

There’s a lot that’s well-stated here, Scott. The following was a great observation:

Your typical American doesn’t have the time or desire to invest themselves in the details of the war in Iraq or the war on terror in general. They want to be led. They need to be led. It’s just easier than thinking. And so it is that political opposition to “Bush’s War” continues. It’s not just apathy or disdain for a President, but it’s a matter of average lives. This war is simply not a part of every American’s every day life. They see the bodies on the news, hear the political choice between “just keep enduring the awful news” vs. “We can just leave and everything will be ok because it’s all this bad President’s fault,” and they say, gosh, that second sounds better, and I don’t really understand XYZ about the war, so I might as well oppose it. After all, everyone dislikes war. Everyone should oppose war unless there’s a good reason for it, and that reasoning is lost to the hatred from the political left’s leaders who have nothing to offer as an alternative to the inescapable path we now see in Iraq.

And the bullseye point:

The grace and unity that Ms. Noonan hopes would be forthcoming from Presidential grace and humility. Yet, that has never been the case. When the President reaffirmed time and again that there was no intelligence connecting Saddam to the 911 attacks, his opponents still claimed he was misleading and connecting the two unjustly. When the President repeatedly said that the expected vast stockpiles of WMD were not found, his opponents chose to continue their “Bush Lied” rantings rather than reply with similar “grace and humility.”

There’s no doubt that national unity is needed, but the problem is not the President’s rhetoric.

President Bush is not the divider. As far as I can tell, he’s held the olive branch out to Democrats, to Muslims, to hispanics, to every group under the sun.

WHEW! I actually deleted the section about most Americans not having the time or interest, but put it back in..just..because I guess. It IS an important point. People don’t like war. It’s a lie for the war’s opponents to suggest that people do. There are no warmongers here-including President Bush since he has MASSIVE political capital to be gained by a victory parade down PA Ave. If he could bring troops home with victory, it’d be the worst day for the DNC since Clinton’s cigar moment. So it is that people are tired of war, not interested, don’t like it, and if they have to keep up with the news they prefer to do it with Jon Stewart, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stoner, and other less honest and truthful outlets. See also Keith O!

Glad I kept it in there.
😉

Got here this afternoon via Larwyn.

“The problem is the deliberate division of the nation from people who lead the calls for retreat not after hearing military or intelligence briefings, but after meeting with MoveOn.org and Code Pink leaders. For those “leaders” who oppose the strongest and the loudest are people who have no leadership to offer. They are empty hats who are still fighting the 2000 and 2004 elections.”

Amen and Amen!

Scott – I must not be an average American, because I don’t give two shites what a politician says about anything anymore. I don’t need to be led by any of those corrupt a-holes. I haven’t watched the mass media, read a mass media “news”-paper, read a mass media “news” website since 2003, nor watched nor listened to any politician speech since the 2004 Republican Convention.

Since 9/11/2001, I have taken it upon myself to get myself educated and informed about the military community, military history, military science, politics, American history, Middle East history and, most importantly, Islam, history of Islam, history of Islam in the Middle East, the history of war, dominance, oppression and forced submission of others by Islam and the current state of Islam across the world and specifically the movement here in America and in Europe to spread Islamic sharia law and restore the Islamic Caliphate.

I did that all because I take an interest in my country, not because joe schmoe corrupt politician told me to do so. Is our country that effing lazy and apathetic that they need the President or a politician to tell them what to do? If that is the case, we are doomed.

And I seriously believe that.

The fact is the Left and the Islamist groups (such as CAIR and the ISNA and the Muslim Students Association, etc) work to divide the country through spreading hate, lies and propaganda and the “Right” does nothing of consequence to fight back. Political Correctness has destroyed this country. The Right simply does not have the will to fight back against it. Even the mighty Michelle Malkin demonizes one of the few on the Right who dares fight back against the Left… Ann Coulter. Malkin and her cohorts pushed the movement to push Ann Coulter from relevance, saying she was too mean-spirited and (OH NO!) “makes us look bad”. Please. Ann Coulter is the only one who doesn’t take shite from the Left and bitchslaps them right back using their own tactics. No one on the Left OR the Right even debunks Ms. Coulter based on the content of what she says, they just demonize her based on how she expresses herself.

We need more Ann Coulters, not less. We need more fighting back and exposing the Left for the hate-mongers and liars and racists and socialists and Communists and anti-Semites and gay-bashers and bigots that they are, not less.

If we don’t fight back and fight back hard, we will lose America to the Left. Worse than we already have. We have lost the mass media. We have lost Hollywood. We have lost the public education system. And we have lost the University system. The Left controls every major mass medium for communication. Every one. And just recently, some schmuck Left blogger took control of an entire political party with the YearlyKos Convention. The Left controls every communication outlet now. Every.Single.One. And what have we “progressed” to in politics? Left-wing bloggers forcing an entire political party to boycott a major news network’s debate and right-wing bloggers forcing an entire political party NOT to boycott snowmen asking questions on YouTube.

This country has gone to shite and it is because the Right has no spine, no balls and no will to fight back, because of “political correctness”.

The only thing I read are military blogs like Mudville Gazette and Blackfive and FA and NRO THE TANK and I get my news there and from all the military blogs to which they all link (especially MG DAWN PATROL by Mrs. Greyhawk)… and then I see what the mass media reports and what the politicians are saying and what the so-called political pundits are saying and it is just night and day. Hell, it is worse than night and day, it is like I am living on two different planets when I compare the facts I read with the utter crap coming from the mass media, politicians and political pundits.

I admire you all here, because I just don’t know how you do it. How you all keep up with this and press on. Because I have given up. I have given up on my fellow Americans to actually give a damn about this country and take it upon themselves as I have to get educated and get informed. I have no faith in my fellow Americans and no faith in the American goverment to do what is right.

I feel bad for the men and women of the US military who live with a sense of honor and duty and sacrifice for a nation and government who care nothing for either of those things. I admire them all though. They are the true “American Idols” and yet their countrymen and their government treat them like dogshite.

Thanks Michael. There are definitely those days for all of us. We keep up, because we hold each other up, and our interest is the nation-Democrats and KOSsacks included.

Me, I have many friends and family who are strongly against the war, but common denominator in them all is that they don’t like W. That’s been interesting until now. I mean, hey, if one doesn’t find a leader compelling enough to follow, then the leader’s not good at leading. It’s that simple. W was not my first choice in 00 or 04. More importantly, now that Dems have Congress (and are failing there), opponents of the war who have opposition based in dissatisfaction with W are forced to face the reality…if for no other reasons than:

He’s a lame duck
He’s gonna be replaced

and so it is that people are coming to ask themselves (finally), candidate X is no different than W…then what was all this anti-war effort for? If the war is doing some good…then what was all this anti-war effort for? If the WMD thing wasn’t a Bush lied gig, but a result of bad intel as half a dozen investigations have shown…then what was all that anti-war/Bush Lied rhetoric for? If no intel agency seriously looked at Saddam’s ties to AQ before the war, and even the 911 Commission members are saying there’s enough evidence to reasses (to say nothing of the 10-20000 Al Queda killed in Iraq)…then who wanted me to believe that and why?

People are looking at 08 and asking, “Am I going to have to vote for a Republican or for Clinton who is just the same as W?”

Like I’ve said before Michael, armies fight wars, but politicians decide when they’ve been won. An asymmetric war like this one is fought in hilltop firebases, caves, and IED packed roads, but it is won when politicians agree it’s won, and they’ll do that (are doing that) now that the American people (56%) see that the war is not lost, and at the same time see success in Iraq.

btw, my favorite milblog was Jake’s
http://badgerjake.blogspot.com/