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Monday, November 06, 2006

The Voice Of The Old Democratic Party

Update: See also The Anchoress' post. She is eloquent in the service of wisdom today, and she links to a group of superb pieces:
If we pull out of Iraq, how do we remain the nation we have always been? How does America continue to stand for something great and unique and age-defining? How do we prevent ourselves from slipping into the same suicidal-and-cowardly mindset which is very quickly disabling France and Germany and Belgium and Spain and Italy?

If we pull out of Iraq, as the Democrats want us so desperately to do, then America throws away her greatness with both hands. She simply becomes one more dis-spirited country unable to rouse herself to anything beyond a sluggard and blearily-asked question: what’s in it for me?
End Update.

Jimmie at The Sundries Shack begged his visitors to read Orson Scott Card's "The Only Issue This Election Day" before voting, and because I have a lot of respect for Jimmie, I did. Now I'm joining his plea. This is the best statement of our current position I have read:
I say this as a Democrat, for whom the Republican domination of government threatens many values that I hold to be important to America's role as a light among nations.

But there are no values that matter to me that will not be gravely endangered if we lose this war. And since the Democratic Party seems hellbent on losing it -- and in the most damaging possible way -- I have no choice but to advocate that my party be kept from getting its hands on the reins of national power, until it proves itself once again to be capable of recognizing our core national interests instead of its own temporary partisan advantages.

To all intents and purposes, when the Democratic Party jettisoned Joseph Lieberman over the issue of his support of this war, they kicked me out as well. The party of Harry Truman and Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- the party I joined back in the 1970s -- is dead. Of suicide.
This is the voice of the old Democratic party. If you have time, also read Orson Scott Card's "Groupthink and the Intellectual Elite".

From the first essay:
Iran and its puppet, Syria, are cooperating support of the Sunni resistance in Iraq. Why? It's not because Syria's rulers are nominally Baathist as Saddam was -- Baathism is dead. Instead, it's the ancient tribalism that is at the fore. Syria's rulers are members of a tiny religious minority that is an offshoot of Shia, and thus they help Iran maintain access to its Shiite allies in Lebanon partly in order to shore up their own position vis-a-vis their own mostly-Sunni population.

So why are these Shiites and crypto-Shiites supporting the Sunnis in Baghdad?

Because anything that keeps America distracted is good for them. And if the Americans do pack up and go home, then the Shiites can claim the victory -- even though it's mostly Sunnis who are blowing themselves up in Israel and Baghdad.

Besides, the Sunni insurgents in Iraq are keeping the Iraqi Shiites off balance. The last thing the Iranian ayatollahs want is for Iraq to become a democratic nation with a Shiite majority, because at that moment it will be the Iraqi Shiite leaders who will have the most credibility as leaders of the Shiite wing of Islam.

So the leadership of the Iraqi Shiites are perceived as rivals by the ayatollahs of Iran. Thus the Iranians support the Iraqi Shiites' enemies -- providing the weapons that are used to murder Shiites in Iraq.

It's an astonishingly twisted game -- and as long as we don't do anything really, really stupid, like withdrawing from Iraq, all these various treacheries will inevitably lead to the fall of the tyrants in Iran, and therefore in Syria, and therefore the taming of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Bush's game is to keep from letting any of these faction unite, while preparing to deliver strategic blows that can bring down the ayatollahs at relatively little cost.

Every action has repercussions. Just as our withdrawal from Iraq would terrify and silence our allies everywhere, and embolden our enemies, so also would the fall of the ayatollahs -- particularly if it is as the result of an American intervention in the Gulf -- make waves everywhere. Democracy would be perceived as the wave of the future. Our friends in many countries would feel free to speak up for democracy and pro-American policies -- and their enemies would be afraid to silence them.
That's right. And worse yet, as soon as we go Turkey intends to establish a protectorate over the Kurdish area in northern Iraq, and to do so it will ally itself with Syria and Iran. They are already writing newspaper articles about it. Then this crescent will establish a hegemony over the Gulf.

It's not that Bush is stupid, but that we have all been dealt a bad hand. There never was any good way out of this, and anyone who pretends there is a simple or easy answer is deeply deluded, which phrase deftly describes the leadership of the current Democratic party.

The final kicker is this: Europe will not fight. Oh, some of them would, but those who would, like the Poles and part of Italy will not be allowed to fight. If the Turkish/Syrian/Iranian triangle above is accomplished, Europe will not fight. The current EU twits will simply go along with everything this bloc wants, including open immigration, and will pay tax in the form of elevated fuel prices with the payback of the Euro becoming the default world currency.

So what will be left? Either Israel fights with nukes or Israel goes down, and then the UK, Canada and Australia are left as islands that depend on sea power, and cannot maintain that sea power because of fuel problems. To survive this bloc would have to take over part of Africa and South America. The best case scenario is of bloody, prolonged world war.

All war sucks, all war is destructive, and some wars are necessary. This one is necessary.

Comments:
MOM,

What a great post. This is certainly what was on my mind as I filled out my absentee ballot last week. There is no way that I would turn over this war to the Democrats.

If we were not at war...who knows, but since we are, the choice is obvious.

Thanks,
Kev
 
Yes, we are. We all wish we weren't, but wishes are worth nothing. You are right, and don't worry even if this election seems to go badly.

Remember, 70% of the US population does realize that we are in a prolonged struggle with this ideology. Bush will hold and the US population will hold with him. I do not see us hanging you guys out to dry, and once again, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.

Believe nothing you read in the media. Underneath the surface, the old Dems are still here and the old-style Reps are still here. I think Americans are very concerned that the services have been put in a bad, bad position in Iraq, but something's going to break there soon. Here in GA, we have great confidence in you and for you.
 
The best case scenario is of bloody, prolonged world war.

Why should our Baby Boomer Betters care, as long as they can enjoy their one generation of Bread & Circuses before the ten thousand generation of "ALLAHU AKBAR!" begin?

Their one generation of Viagra and Total Sexual Freedom (TM) before the ten thousand generations of FGM and burqa?

"I Got Mine,
I Got Mine,
I don't want a thing to change
Now that I Got Mine..."

-- Glenn Frye
 
Headless, some of them have children and grandchildren!
 
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