Condi on the Hill
I happened to recently catch some of CSPAN's broadcast of our Secretary of State being grilled by lesser intellects of the Senate. Particularly lesser is Barbara Boxer. Man, but I pity California! (Wait a minute-I better reserve some of that pity!) But I digress.
While Secretary Rice was explaining the progress we're making in Iraq, and how we're helping the Iraqis in their struggle to establish self government where it never existed, Senator Box-O-Rocks renewed the liberal lament that the administration's focus in Iraq has changed.
Condi might have replied: "Yes, Senator, much as the focus on a baby changes from the birth process to neonatal care, our involvement has to adapt to the changing needs of an infant democracy, not quite viable yet-to use a term you're fond of, Senator-without the aid of a mature and experienced party who has their best interest in mind." But she didn't.
Instead, she voiced a truism. Rice answered that this is the way the world works.
I was reminded of that when The Dennis Prager Show alerted us to a rare occurance for the LA Times: a good piece of commentary by a regular contributor! David Gelernter retells the Boxer-Rice exchange as an intro to a discussion about the history of our nation's expansion-of-vision during war. I especially like this excerpt: "...once a war is underway, free peoples tend to think things over deeply. Casualties concentrate the mind. We refuse to let our soldiers die for too little. America at war has lifted its sights again and again from danger, self-interest and self-defense to a larger, nobler goal."
Writes Gelernter: "At first, Colonial America made war on Britain to loosen the British grip on commerce and society, not to create an independent state. Only as the war dragged on and costs and casualties mounted did public opinion swing round toward independence. In 1861, the North reluctantly made war on the Confederacy to hold the Union together. President Lincoln was painfully aware that, at the start of the fighting, freedom for the slaves would not have commanded popular support as a cause for war. Only later, as casualties mounted and blood ran in rivers, did freeing the slaves become the Union's ultimate goal."
And then he points out: "We marched into World War I behind an idealistic war message from President Wilson to Congress. But the U.S. was in a fighting mood because of Germany's threat to sink unarmed American merchant ships and a German secret message (intercepted by Britain) offering Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico if it joined Germany against the U.S. Only later did self-determination in Europe and the creation of a League of Nations become American war goals."
In the Senate hearing, Secretary Rice tried to explain to Box-O-Rocks "...that this is the way the world works. For example, we did not go into World War II to build a democratic Germany…. Here Boxer interrupted. World War II, she told Rice curtly, has nothing to do with Iraq."
As Ronald Reagan once famously said, "There you go again!": a liberal refusing to learn from history.
As Condi was trying to illuminate, and as Gelernter points out about WWII: "Once the war was over, we spent years cultivating democracy in Japan and Germany. But we entered the war because Japan attacked us and, four days later, Adolf Hitler declared war on us."
Likewise, Al Qaeda attacked us and we began hunting them down in Afghanistan. This GWOT then turned to Iraq, with the ouster of a murderous UN-defiant tyrant who openly supported terrorism, especially against us and our ally, Israel.
As Gelernter put it: "America at war has lifted its sights again and again from danger, self-interest and self-defense to a larger, nobler goal. Same story, war after war. Iraq fits perfectly."
We've liberated 50 million peoples.
The seeds of democracy have been sown in the heart of the Middle East, in a desert where once the Hanging Gardens of Babylon flourished. Let us hope that liberty will flourish there as the Gardens once did.
Brad
While Secretary Rice was explaining the progress we're making in Iraq, and how we're helping the Iraqis in their struggle to establish self government where it never existed, Senator Box-O-Rocks renewed the liberal lament that the administration's focus in Iraq has changed.
Condi might have replied: "Yes, Senator, much as the focus on a baby changes from the birth process to neonatal care, our involvement has to adapt to the changing needs of an infant democracy, not quite viable yet-to use a term you're fond of, Senator-without the aid of a mature and experienced party who has their best interest in mind." But she didn't.
Instead, she voiced a truism. Rice answered that this is the way the world works.
I was reminded of that when The Dennis Prager Show alerted us to a rare occurance for the LA Times: a good piece of commentary by a regular contributor! David Gelernter retells the Boxer-Rice exchange as an intro to a discussion about the history of our nation's expansion-of-vision during war. I especially like this excerpt: "...once a war is underway, free peoples tend to think things over deeply. Casualties concentrate the mind. We refuse to let our soldiers die for too little. America at war has lifted its sights again and again from danger, self-interest and self-defense to a larger, nobler goal."
Writes Gelernter: "At first, Colonial America made war on Britain to loosen the British grip on commerce and society, not to create an independent state. Only as the war dragged on and costs and casualties mounted did public opinion swing round toward independence. In 1861, the North reluctantly made war on the Confederacy to hold the Union together. President Lincoln was painfully aware that, at the start of the fighting, freedom for the slaves would not have commanded popular support as a cause for war. Only later, as casualties mounted and blood ran in rivers, did freeing the slaves become the Union's ultimate goal."
And then he points out: "We marched into World War I behind an idealistic war message from President Wilson to Congress. But the U.S. was in a fighting mood because of Germany's threat to sink unarmed American merchant ships and a German secret message (intercepted by Britain) offering Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico if it joined Germany against the U.S. Only later did self-determination in Europe and the creation of a League of Nations become American war goals."
In the Senate hearing, Secretary Rice tried to explain to Box-O-Rocks "...that this is the way the world works. For example, we did not go into World War II to build a democratic Germany…. Here Boxer interrupted. World War II, she told Rice curtly, has nothing to do with Iraq."
As Ronald Reagan once famously said, "There you go again!": a liberal refusing to learn from history.
As Condi was trying to illuminate, and as Gelernter points out about WWII: "Once the war was over, we spent years cultivating democracy in Japan and Germany. But we entered the war because Japan attacked us and, four days later, Adolf Hitler declared war on us."
Likewise, Al Qaeda attacked us and we began hunting them down in Afghanistan. This GWOT then turned to Iraq, with the ouster of a murderous UN-defiant tyrant who openly supported terrorism, especially against us and our ally, Israel.
As Gelernter put it: "America at war has lifted its sights again and again from danger, self-interest and self-defense to a larger, nobler goal. Same story, war after war. Iraq fits perfectly."
We've liberated 50 million peoples.
The seeds of democracy have been sown in the heart of the Middle East, in a desert where once the Hanging Gardens of Babylon flourished. Let us hope that liberty will flourish there as the Gardens once did.
Brad
posted by Brad @ 11:30 PM
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