If the Democrats are correct about anything regarding the Bush administration and the war on terror, it is the fact that many nations in the world are not our friends anymore. Some have despised the U.S. for some time and are merely using the terror war as an excuse to go public with their feelings. Others are upset because they don’t have the will or power to respond as we do to attacks. Still others hate the U.S. because of our refusal to bow to their will.
But they all respect us because of our strength. Let’s make no mistake about that.
The Bush administration, you remember, was thrust into this war. Unlike, say, ordering U.S. forces to strike a Sudanese aspirin factory in a bid to overshadow an extramarital affair, the current administration did not start this fight. However, unlike the previous administration – and it’s cult-like supporters – the current White House is determined to finish it, with or without a little help from our “friends.”
For one thing, such help is help we don’t need. The United States is perfectly capable of defending itself, by itself. For another, only a moron and his like-minded friends would criticize any administration for striking back against an attacker strictly over political disagreements. Harboring differences of opinion about Medicare reform, education, the economy and health care should not get in the way of national defense.
Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the founding father of the modern welfare state. I abhor virtually all that he stood for politically. But I would have supported 100 percent his decision to seek a congressional declaration of war against Germany, Italy and Japan after Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec. 7, 1941.
But these days, Democrats and many of our overseas “friends” seem to think America overstepped its bounds by wiping out the Taliban in Afghanistan because it harbored Osama bin Laden, and for destroying an Iraqi regime known to support our terrorist enemies. Those still sore at Bush for beating Gore are more concerned with personal political power rather than defending this nation. That makes them lower than whale excrement at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.
How big does a threat have to be before it’s OK to fight back? And where is it written that America must have permission from dubious allies of convenience to defend itself in the first place? As I recall, the U.S. was attacked Sept. 11, 2001 – not France or Germany, Russia or China. If these “allies” had been attacked as well, I wonder if their resolve would have been as strong as ours.
In the decades since World War II America has often behaved more like an empire rather than a benevolent giant of a republic. Our leaders’ forays into Korea and Vietnam were especially damaging in terms of squandering our newfound global power and success. Many of our civilian and military personnel have been needlessly killed because our leaders are improperly “engaged” in places like Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Bosnia.
But when you are attacked – regardless of the root cause – you have to fight back. There is no other logical choice. If you refuse, you will be attacked again and again until your nation is destroyed. At that point, it is no longer a political issue requiring a political solution.
America may not be respected for its overreaching foreign policy, but even enemies – Libya comes immediately to mind – respect our strength. And as long as they do, they’ll leave us be. This is a principle of fact that has guided and preserved strong nations throughout history, but it is a principle most Democrats so often fail to recognize or appreciate. If it were up to them, bin Laden would not be in hiding, al-Qaida’s organizational strength would be intact, Saddam’s Iraq would still pose a threat to U.S. interests, and more Americans would be dying at the hands of Islamic extremists.
Perhaps the most famous example of appeasement comes from Neville Chamberlain, Britain’s limp-wristed prime minister in the late 1930s. Doing everything he could to keep Adolph Hitler happy while the Third Reich ravaged Europe, the only thing Chamberlain’s modern-day Democrat approach got him – and millions of British subjects – was a German invasion.
Fanatics like the terrorists we face are as irrational as Democrats. Hence, they don’t learn rational lessons. But they do respect strength. Thank God the current administration understands that.
Birthright citizenship is a breach in the border
Daniel McCarthy