Jul 13 2007
How Liberals think: Part 4 - War
Only one other issue seems to polarize people on the two ideological sides as much as the war. No, make that two. I may deal with those tomorrow.
The war in Iraq, and war in general has to be the single most divisive issue among all the current ones.
Cutting to the quick here, let me state the obvious: I have no particular issue with people hating war. In fact, anyone who loves it, or enjoys it, is clearly a psychotic monster.
But, having said that, the way that some liberals address their dislike of war is concerning. It is fine to oppose it, but all that has to mean is making wars as infrequent as possible, and as short as possible.
The conservatives seem to get it. They more are more likely to recognize that war is hell, but a necessary one sometimes. This does not make them war mongers, it makes them realistic.
Where liberals scare me is when they dismiss was as unthinkable without any actual evaluation of the necessities.
The use of the military becomes a factor of the difference. Clinton, for example, did not understand what the military was. Aside from being a photo-op backdrop, he saw it as a broad bladed police force. To him, the idea was to punish terrorism, for example, in a legal fashion, rather then with a military response to an act of war against the country.
The subject of supporting the troops is contentious as well. The troops need a clear focus to do their job, but when they are painted as murderers and terrorists by their own elected representatives it is hard to keep that focus.
The liberals preach that supporting the troops means bringing them home. I don't buy that if bringing them home means having them demoralized, with a worse battle to come for having left this one unfinished. Why not empower them to kick ass and get the job done and bring them home victorious?
The House of Representatives voted today, mostly (but not all) along party lines to call for a rapid troop withdrawal. Bush has already pledged to veto it.
What made me consider this intriguing was the timing. You see, the first of the congressionally mandated benchmark evaluations came out this week. Iraq was found to be only meeting 8 of the 18 benchmarks.
But what is not mentioned as often is that the benchmarks also have an evaluation in September, and that is the one that carries the most weight. At that time, depending on the status of Iraq, more votes and decisions are justified.
Isn't the point of those benchmarks, to measure our successes and measure their progress? How can you do that when you won't even keep to your own time line? Were they a sham in the first place?
And what is the point of this party line feel good vote?
Primarily, I think the liberals are afraid that the results are not as bad as they wanted, so they have to keep the distaste of war spun up as high as possible. Rather then wait to evaluate the effectiveness of the Troop Surge (the one recommended by the Iraq Study Group), they will continue to declare defeat and push to end it now, regardless of the consequences.
And be clear, that is the tactic. It is the Lenin mantra, repeat something often enough and it becomes truth. By continually filling the media with quotes about how bad things are they keep the negative firmly in the public eye.
For example. The average liberal can tell you how much money has been spent, and how many troops have died.
Can they tell me how many schools have opened? What the unemployment rate is? How many hospitals our troops have rebuilt? How many people voted in the free elections (which had a fraud/error rate low enough to bring shame to King County)?
How many miles of water pipes, power lines and roads have been added to their infrastructure? How many tons of food have been delivered?
We see the hot spots daily, the places where the sectarian violence is at its worst. Do we see the quieter happy places?
How many articles about the positive gains are written? And the ones that are, like the recent NY Times article are ridiculed.
Here is my question to liberals? Why is the truth so hard to face?
Why are you afraid to deal with the realities, all of them? The conservatives at least are willing to acknowledge the bad with the good.
Yes, some conservatives focus too much on the positive, but they do that to keep in focus that gains are made, and the war has had a positive benefit to many people, in contrast to the dismal picture painted by many liberals.
The conservatives have the long view in focus, not the short. In fact, if you want this in military terms, the Liberals are tactical in nature, and the Conservatives strategic.
A tactical view point is geared to specific battles and short term goals. Strategic planning is geared to a longer view, the overall battle planning. The Liberals see the body count and decide retreat is needed, because the cost is too high. The conservatives see this as a larger fight, one that may be harsh in the short term, but will pay larger benefit.
Or more accurately, they see the defeat and retreat of the liberals as being detrimental to the long term battle.
And here is where I totally part company with the liberals.
How can you NOT see that bailing out of Iraq sends a bad message and sets a dangerous precedent to the enemy? Kill a few troops and we run. Give us a resounding victory like Desert Storm and we strut and dance, but make is sting and makes us hurt and we run crying home to mommy.
Make no mistake, the liberals are playing directly to the terrorists with their cut and run tactics, as opposed to staying with a long term strategy.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, DeMediacratic Nation, Jeanette's Celebrity Corner, Big Dog's Weblog, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, The Pet Haven, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Allie Is Wired, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Dumb Ox Daily News, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, Gone Hollywood, and Public Eye, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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