Thursday, June 30, 2005

 

A failing rectified

How long have I lasted in the Blogosphere without Victor Davis Hanson on my Blog Roll?

I am a moral reprobate.

 

I am in love.

I am in love with Peggy Noonan. I have been since I read her book "What I saw at the Revolution" in the 90s. It has gotten so bad that my Moms refers to her as my girlfriend. As in "Did you hear what your girlfriend said on Hardball last night?"

I am not ashamed. Read her column and ask yourself why you have not proposed to her.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

 

Ancestral Memories

There are definetly moments when I really dig down into my conservative roots. My post on the rich who will not serve this country is one of those moments. The fear is not that things were really the same fifty years ago, and that the past is being idolized. Any knowledge of the American reaction to World War II will dispell that idea. The fear is that my writing will not be powerful enough to convey the truth about America.

On this note I will step aside and let Bob Dole speak. His acceptance speech in San Diego expressed what we once were and what we could become perfectly.

"Age has its advantages. Let me be the bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquillity, faith, and confidence in action. And to those who say it was never so, that America has not been better, I say, you're wrong, and I know, because I was there. And I have seen it. And I remember. "

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

 

The Battle of our Age

Sometime in the 1760s Americans realized that the revolution was coming. Some brilliant Americans missed this entirely. Benjamin Franklin spent the decade in Europe convinced that the issues would be settled peacefully.

At the end of World War II, the Roosevelt administration,and then the Truman administration completely underestimated the Soviet threat to the U.S. They missed the obvious history of the Soviet Tyranny: from the mass starvation of the Russian people, to the pact with Hitler, to the subjugation of the peoples of Eastern Europe. It was only the brilliant writing of George Kennan and his Long Telegram from Moscow in 1947 that awoke this nation from it's dogmatic slumbers.

The Long Telegram of our time may have been written. If China invades Taiwan in the next few years there will be a World War. The world will plunge into chaos. Historians will look back on the war from the 22nd century and see one of two things. Either the U.S. will have rapidly prepared and organized the world to stop the Dragon tyrant, or the U.S. will have been caught flat footed and the free world will have been devastated before it could muster a response. These two possibilities will correspond to another either/or. Either we listened to Bill Gertz or we did not.

Gertz's recent column outlines the threat. We need to react diplomatically and try to head it off. We need to try to use soft power to push China away from nationalistic furor and towards a self-satisfied capitalism. But failing that, we need to steel ourselves against the coming tragedy. We will need to let go of the strategy against asymmetric warfare and unconventional threats. And we will need to recall the spirit of the great men who landed at Normandy, stood fast in Arnhem, and never gave up. There but for the grace we will go.

 

In the dim and distant past

We live in a time when rich upper middle class parents fret over the possibility that their children may get drafted and may go to Iraq. And they react with righteous idignation if challenged over the fact that they want to raise soft life-long children who have no understanding of sacrifice or service. A generation ago this would have been considered shameful.

The son of Sam Walton, the extraordinarily rich business man, died yesterday in a plane crash. John Walton was also rich and served on the boards of Wal-Mart and the Walton family's charitable organization. The most interesting thing about this richboy's obituary:

Walton served in Vietnam as a combat medic with the Army's elite Special Forces, winning the Silver Star for saving lives under fire, according to a statement from the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company.

There was a time when things were different.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

 

Fighting for Werner!

When Americans go to war we have many reasons. We fight for family, for God, for country, and for our buddies in the mud. But when it all comes down to it, we are really fighting for Werner Klemperer.

Werner was the son of the famed conductor Otto Klemperer, and he was a German Jew. His family slipped out of Germany as Hitler was taking over. When World War II broke out he joined the U.S. Army and seved in the Pacific theater.

After the war, this German exile became an accomplished actor. He won two Emmy awards and was nominated for a Tony. In the 1970s he took up his father's vocation and became an Opera and Broadway singer. Somewhere in their he got a law degree and was a respected attorney. Werner escaped the Nazis, fought against them, and lived a great American life.

But what is really great about Werner was his final triumph over the Nazis. He was the actor who played Col. Klink in "Hogan's Heros." What a country! He agreed to play the part only after the producers agreed that Klink would never get anything right.

This story tells you how great this country is. This is the American dream, the hope, and the triumph that we fight for. We fight for Werner.

Hat Tip: Impromptus.

Sources: IMDB, Wikipedia.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

 

Help Wanted

Spineless Yes Man for U.N. Ambassador.

Isn't that what the President wants? Oh no no that's what the Democrats want. Bush is trying to put a hard-nosed realist named John Bolton at the U.N. The Democrats feel he is too mean and not deferential enough to the international community.

Senator Moynihan would be ashamed.

Note: CNN reports that "An attempt by the Senate's Republican majority to cut off debate failed in May when most of the 44 Democrats refused to join the 55 Republicans and move toward a final vote." We call that a filibuster. By we I mean the Royal we, and that does not include CNN. In their headline piece they do not even use the word. What the hell.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

 

More Stewart

My apologies. But I am on a Stewart kick tonight. I do not own a television, so stumbling on to this internet bonanza is my first introduction to his show. His Colin Powell interview is great.

 

Excellent

John Stewart nails the Hitler references to the floor. Watch it.

 

Excuse me?

A Washington Post quote on Senator Byrd:

"Throughout a half-century on Capitol Hill, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) has twice held the premier leadership post in the Senate, helped win ratification of the Panama Canal treaty, squeezed billions from federal coffers to aid his home state, and won praise from liberals for his opposition to the war in Iraq and his defense of minority party rights in the Senate." (Emphasis mine.)

Byrd does not defend "minority party rights." He never spoke up for these rights when he was in the majority and he was well known as a ham-fisted Majority leader decades ago. He is defending the power of the Democratic minority. It is unthinkable that he would be supporting the filibuster if he was in the majority today.

The Senator is a hypocrite and a tumor on the body politic. And that becomes evident without editorializing. All the Post needs to do is accurately report the facts.

 

Operation Futility

Secretary Rice is once again trying the impossible. She is in the Middle East and working to reignite the Peace Process. Considering that after the deal in Oslo there was never peace or a process, she may find it hard going.

The American agenda should have this goal: a strong defensible Israel. And the necessary step to this goal is a functioning Palestinian State. Israel will always be vulnerable with open borders and a hostile semi-anarchy to it's west. This is true whether the West Bank is occupied or un-occupied by Israeli forces. And the only way to redirect the Palestinian frustrations away from Israel and towards the true source of their misery is to create an accountable government in the West Bank.

To get there the Israelis must pull out and build a wall. They have to pull out in order to become less visible in the day to day lives of Palestinians, and to become less of a target to terrorists. The wall must be built so that immigration to Israel can be strictly controlled and terrorism thwarted long before it comes near any civilians.

Therefore, the U.S. has to foster a real democracy in the West Bank. And this is Secretary Rice's bane. The task may be impossible in the short term. But functioning democracies in Iraq and Lebanon will give the Palestinians a vision of the possible. And this will be the Secretary's best weapon.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

 

Cometh The Rom

Mitt Romney is the conservative Governor of Massachusetts, and he seems to be preparing for a 2008 Presidential run. A Mormon from Mass? We gave you the first Catholic President. We are trend setters. We also gave you the biggest federally funded boon-doogle in history aka The Big Dig. Uhmmm.....thanks for that.


Note: Romney's governorship postdates the Big Dig, he had nothing to do with it.

 

A man I hate

I would like to hate Daniel Drezner. After all it was his post that lead me to read all about Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. I only have 80 years on the planet and I should not waste it trying to decide whether it is a publicity stunt or the story of an old man pushing his cult on a dumb and naive woman.

Going against the spirit of the age, I will not blame Drezner for my weak will. I caused my own suffering. I need a drink.

 

Yes Virginia, they are nuts.

Listening to C-Span Radio I caught a good chunk of the Democrats hearing on the"Downing Street Memo." The memo is a discredit opinion piece coming for the British Intel community that attacks the way intelligence was used in the build up to the war.

The Democrats are nuts. Although a few Republicans were there and tried to put the past in the past and called for an early pull out of troops. The Democrats talked about impeachment and debated if Colin Powell was a criminal or an idiot.

Attending were Rep. Conyers, Rep Sheila Jackson, and Ambassador Joe Wilson among others. Wilson was the guy whose wife got him a job searching for Iraqi attempts to find WMD materials in Africa. He found nothing on his weekend trip, declared it to the world, and then claimed that his wife didn't get him the job. That guy sounds reliable. The rest of the mob were disgruntled Republicans and Left-wing nuts.

I am not quoting them today. Read the article if you want. These people are out in Left field, and obviously have one of two faults: 1. They have no understanding whatsoever regarding the military and intelligence communities or 2. They understand but choose to play partisan games when American lives are on the line.

Let me remind you: these people should never be in power.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

 

Wake up

I closed out a bar in Bethesda tonight. An old friend was in town with her boyfriend, and the conversation was a reminder of the strangeness of modern life.

They are both 20 something college grads in New York City. The conversation, of course, drifted to careers. And my career discussions invariably involve my Army experience. When I explained my time in Korea, sans hyperbole, they were shocked. The idea of a million civilians killed in a few days, and the near certain death of myself in the event of a war was completely foreign to them.

This is as it should be. The average American does not have to worry about death in battle, because there are those who fight for them. But when we talk about Guantanamo, torture, and polls, lets remember how removed the citizenry is from the battlefield. They really have no clue.

Monday, June 13, 2005

 

A babe of politics

Publius has a link to this picture of a Cuban protest babe.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I would invade Havana with a baseball bat, a swiss army knife, and a bottle of Jim Beam if it would impress that girl.

 

Hope

There is no shame in occasionally asking for the intercession of the Almighty, such as: please let the Iranians win their freedom.

 

British induced insomnia

I am exhausted after spending the weekend fighting evil doers. Others may call it serving in the Air Force Reserve.

Without comment, I suggest you read Christopher Hitchens' essay in The Wilson Quarterly.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

 

Doctoring the facts.

So riddle me this: a major liberal is failing at his job, and CNN covers his amazing success. That is so common that we could be talking about any liberal here. We happen to be talking about Howard Dean.

Michelle Malkin writes about Dean's horrible fundraising efforts today. Fundraising is the main function of a party chair. But CNN has this headline over an article about Dean "Dean rallies liberal activists."

The MSM is comical at best.

 

Random Walks in a combat zone.

The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is on his way to the Asian security conference in Singapore. The focus of his mission will be North Korea. This is as it should be. There are three assumptions we need to face.

First. any military conflict will be won by the U.S. and South Korea, regardless of what North Korea or China try to do. Second, any conflict will result in millions of South Koreans dying in indiscriminate North Korean artillery attacks and bio-chemical attacks. Third, we have no real understanding of why North Korea decides to do what it decides to do. It is more accurate to say they are nuts and therefore completely unpredictable, than it is to lean on a simplistic assumption such as that their main goal is to preserve their own power over their nation.

Volatile? Heck yeah. Add nukes and now you're cooking with fire.

 

Dropping the ball

Because my good and prolific friends at Minus the Nemesis have failed to sufficiently alert you to the government threat to bloggers and free speech, I give you this link as a public service.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

 

Knowing is half the battle.

We now know that Deep Throat, the leaker who sank the Nixon Administration, was the FBI man W. Mark Felt. If you want a serious analysis of this please go to Powerline.

My only thought is that this guy has been silent for at least two decades after his political career ended. And in this time many people were accused of disloyalty and betrayal by journalists and academics. It would be fitting if Pat Buchanan flew out to California, and punched this guy in the jaw.

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