COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

When The Whistle Blows - Over the Top!

Regardless of which party gains control of the House or Senate tonight or tomorrow or after the post-election litigations are decided, the unfinished business in Iraq will be waiting. We can debate our past successes and failures for the rest of our lives but that will not change the past. For good or bad, what's done is done. Our focus-the whole country's focus- should be on the future and how we can build on or correct the past successes and failures in order to best affect the future.

It would have been wonderful if half the country could have seen the danger posed by radical Islam and had been shoulder to shoulder with those of us who do. But they didn't and they weren't. With all the criticism that's been leveled by the Democrats, it's gratifying to see it when one does "see it all clearly." Here's the column The Only Issue This Election Day, by Orson Scott Carr, that's gotten a lot of attention from conservative circles. I'm sure that Carr, like Joe Leibermann or Zell Miller, will receive a lot of heat from the left for daring to contravene Democratic dogma. Please read all twelve pages.

Some of Carr's points bear repeating even here at the Elephant Bar:

...there are several excellent reasons why "War on Terror" is the only possible name for this war.

1. This is not a war that can be named for any particular nation or region. To call it "The Iraq War" or the "Afghanistan War" would lead to the horrible mistake of thinking that victory would consist of toppling certain governments and then going home.

In fact, it is precisely the name "War in Iraq" that is leading to the deep misconceptions that drive the Democratic position on the war. If this were in fact a war on Iraq, then in one sense we won precisely when President Bush declared victory right after we occupied Baghdad. And in another sense, we might not see victory for another five years, or even a decade -- a decade in which Americans will be dying alongside Iraqis. For a "War in Iraq" to linger this way is almost too painful to contemplate.

But we are not waging a "War in Iraq." We are waging a world war, in which the campaigns to topple the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan were brilliantly successful, and the current "lukewarm" war demands great patience and determination from the American people as we ready ourselves for the next phase.

2. We cannot name this war for our actual enemies, either, because there is no way to name them accurately without including some form of the word "Islam" or "Muslim."

It is our enemies who want to identify this as a war between Islam and the West. If we allow this to happen, we run the risk of achieving the worst of all possible outcomes: The unification of one or both of the great factions of worldwide Islam under a single banner.

President Bush and his administration have shown their grasp of our present danger by stoutly resisting all attempts to rename this war. We call it a "War on Terror" because that allows us to cast it, not as a war against the Muslim people, with all their frustrations and hopes, but a war in which most Muslims are not our enemies at all.

That can be galling for many Americans. When, after the fall of the towers on 9/11, Palestinians and others poured into the streets, rejoicing, it was tempting to say, A plague on all of them!

But it is precisely those people -- the common people of the Muslim world, most of whom hate us (or claim to hate us, when asked by pollsters in police states) -- whom we must treat as if they were not our enemies. They are the ones we must win over for us to have any hope of victory without a bloodbath poured out on most of the nations of the world.


As bad as the situation seems right now. Imagine what it would be like if we had declared "War on Islam" and attempted to level the middle east.

On the question of whether we can win in Iraq, Carr writes:
That is certainly not what most who call for withdrawal intend. They see Americans dying and they have no hope of victory. The Iraq War (as they call it) is costing lives and shows no sign of ending. Meanwhile, Iran is getting nuclear weapons, North Korea already has them, Syria and Iran are sponsoring continuing and escalating attacks on Israel -- how can we possibly "win" a war that threatens constantly to widen? Let's cut our losses, retire to our shores, and ...

And will you please stop and think for a moment?

There is no withdrawal to our shores. American prosperity requires free trade throughout most of the world. Free trade has depended for decades on American might. If we withdraw now, we announce to the world that if you just kill enough Americans, the big boys will go home and let you do whatever you want.

Every American in the world then becomes a target. And, because we have announced that we will do nothing to protect them, we will soon be trading only with nations that have enough strength to protect their own shores and borders.



Character is revealed during times of adversity. Unfortunately, it seems that after having faced only a small amount of adversity, the character of our country has been revealed as less than admirable. That's not to say that we can't redeem ourselves but if we continue to engage in the internecine politics and the finger pointing recriminations, we lessen the opportunities to move forward. I don't have any great hopes that the left will experience a "road to Damascus" epiphany but those on the right must close ranks, form up lines and advance.

It's time to move forward or die in your holes...

93 comments:

  1. Again we are offered an either/or proposition. Stay the wrong course or leave.

    Also the "G;obal" aspect, it is nothing of the kind, from the US standpoint.
    We are not engaged against the terrorists or their training camps in Sudan, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Somolia, to name but a few of the countries where the terrorists are given Sanctuary against US interests.

    If we were to "name", accurately, the enemy, it'd be harder. Wow, ain't that somethin'. Best to labor under misconceptions. Losing the support of the US ublic by disseminating falsehoods to them.

    Catch & Release, Enemy Sanctuaries and empowering the Enemy, politically and militarily in Iraq, just a few of the challenges posed to the US and it's present course of action in Iraq.

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  2. Desert Rat wrote:

    We are not engaged against the terrorists or their training camps in Sudan, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Somolia, to name but a few of the countries where the terrorists are given Sanctuary against US interests.

    There does not exist political capital, nor congressional largesse, nor sufficient fresh troops to prosecute the War On Terrorism against additional countries by military force. For the foreseeable future, the War on Terrorism will be fought as a Clintonesque law enforcement action involving banks and Interpol and raids on safe houses in Frankfurt. Yet Debka and the like continue to post tales of training camps and terror havens, because the government thinks its more fun to put grandpa Al Gardiner on a no fly list because of his terroristic first name while throwing out the red carpet for Somali and Yemeni "airline pilot students."

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  3. Well over half of the voters said the war weighed heavily on their vote, with Brown winning a majority of those votes.

    About as many said concerns about terrorism influenced their vote.


    Ohio

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  4. 1. It is a "World War On Terror".

    2. The Enemy, in the W.O.T., is ISLAM. Although one would wish to say, "radical Islam" only, we have not seen "multiple banners of Islam" indicating a peaceful movement "here", and a violent one "there". The Enemy seems to have a single banner already, present in most Muslim nations. To name a "moderate" Muslim nation? The best choice might be Turkey? Turkey, however, has not openly and repeatedly condemned "radical Islam". No, I'm afraid the Enemy is ISLAM! Unfortunately, Islam, like Nazism, has already become the enemy's "single" banner, whether we like it or not. The average Muslim will continue to hate America no matter how well we treat them. That is what they're taught; in ALL Muslim countries. This "fascism" is part of the worldwide Islamic philosophy.

    3. The Solution!?!. We can start by declaring real WAR against this worldwide Islamic movement. We must begin to fight the enemy on all fronts and we cannot do it alone. This is WWII, all over again, but bigger. All the "Western" countries need to ban together now.

    ... this won't happen? If it doesn't then we're in big trouble. I don't like this situation, but it's where we are! And, for heavens sake, somebody out there, come up with a better solution, 'cause this one isn't looking too good!

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  5. "Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion."

    --Norman Schwartzkopf

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  6. Please, Please, Please [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

    Tell me Tony Snow didn't say this. Via a reader: "FoxNews reporting from the White House: White House spokesman Tony Snow reacted to the change in House control by allowing they're disappointed, but that it presents some intriguing opportunities, such as passing comprehensive immigration reform which failed in the previous Republican House."
    ---
    I hate that man more than Clinton!

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  7. You want recriminations, you got em.
    Bastard destroyed the country.

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  8. Allen is ahead.
    ...not that it matters since the President might as well be a commie.

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  9. Talk about low-down:
    The GOP house is the only one that did the right thing.
    They lose cause of Bush.
    Bush gets to do the wrong thing.
    AGAIN.

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  10. http://sbe.virginiainteractive.org/index.htm

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  11. doug,

    Reports I've read show that Webb may get a lot of help from as yet untabulated areas.

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  12. Virginia precinct workers go home to sleep.
    Votes uncounted.
    ---
    CA Rep John Campbell predicts Pelosi speaker.
    Calif has 31? votes.

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  13. TKS
    It is a good, good night for Democrats, a bad bad night for Republicans, and a brutal night for my predictions. It is a tushie-kicking from coast to coast.

    You can find my fine, fine book in your local remainder bin in the near future.

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  14. Bill Kristol is betting on a Democratic led Senate.

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  15. well, lesse, house gone, senate gone, president gone, supreme court gone,war gone, economy gone, markets gone, what else?

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  16. i think I'll get out my Crosby, Stills, & Nash, buy me some pot, grow my hair long, buy me some bellbottoms, and head on up to Aspen.

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  17. Well, in all honesty, I do not see how with the momentum in illegal immigration so well established, the Republicans can establish themselves as a majority party. Bush owns this night.

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  18. Talent will lose.
    Burns will lose.

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  19. Bush was never a conservative. This is a rejection of Bush and a cynical Republican Party that was more in love with power than principal.

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  20. Rahm Emmanuel put it together--he's a Clintonite. Tomorrow the push will be on to reduce the GOP to dust, preparatory to Hillary's big sweep in 2008. Then she'll drop her centrist act, slide hard left, and we will have irretrievably joined the wholesale march into western oblivion. Stick a fork in us, we're done. Iraq is done, the war is over, we lost. MSM won, UN won, Chavez, Castro, AQ, Putin, ChiComs, all won big. Aussies and Brits will fold now, and that's just about all she wrote.

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  21. Lord, fly me away, on the wings of an angel, take me back a hundred years, I really love that America.

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  22. Oh, and with Reid as Senate Majority Leader, the mob won, so dope & vice won. Walmart is a goner, growth-wise, just a memory as anything but a defendant. Free trade growth, over, the unions will have it no other way. Protectionism means trouble with China, trouble for globalism, trouble for inflation, trates and the dollar. Watch gold gain $20 tomorrow. We are f**ked, boys and girls, now the 30s really are back.

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  23. For the better part of a year, the Republican leadership was aware of the disenchantment of the Republican base. Instead of adjusting to that, the leadership chose to go after the independent/undecided sector.

    As we say in Texas, "You leave with the one that brung ya." The leadership's poor manners were inexcusable, and weren't.

    Take heart, many Democrats detest Ms. Pelosi even more than most Republicans.

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  24. Well, I wouldn't correct you, Allen, if it weren't a crucial distinction, but the old saying is actually "You dance with the one who brung ya".

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  25. If the doomsaying of Buddy is on, this just hammers home the virtue of self-sufficiency. You can't depend on national politics to be anything but a national racket.

    Get off the grid as fast as you can. Another catalyst for energy self sufficiency, wireless internet access and decentralized services (education, health etc).

    Government will goto the mexicans, as European "society" is going to the muslims and the nihilists. But the american economy should be ours to guard, preserve and nurture.

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  26. As with Cardinal Wolsey, so with Secretary Rumsfeld. The King can do no wrong.

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  27. buddy larsen,

    re: brung ya

    I bow to your sagacity. ;-}

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  28. ppab--intriguing comment, very intriguing comment.

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  29. buddy,

    Senator Clinton may be Mao in drag, but the Dems owe this victory to the conservative recruiting of Emanuel and Schumer. Now, these two may think it possible to turn liberal their new charges; they may be wrong. It may be possible these two Dem leaders know the world has changed.

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  30. This election is more about rejection of Bush and a cynical Republican leadership. It is not a radical turn to the left.

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  31. I just never saw the cynicism. I saw the trying to govern from the center, to make that old governing coalition, but the way the left went hammer & tong people just want it to stop.

    But, I'm just a boob, what do I know.

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  32. Buddy, compare the Republicans today to the group that came in with Newt and the contract with America.

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  33. Not one incumbent Democrat has lost. Not one.

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  34. For my Vietnam era brothers, in 1968 Richard Nixon promised a plan to end the war. The war went on for nearly five years longer. There may be an Iraqi lesson here.

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  35. yep, I know. But I'm always a lesser-of-two evils guy, so the comparison that drives the moment, is the one between the gov't we had this morning and the gov't we have now.

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  36. I am grateful that it is not a swing to the Left. I do not read that at all.

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  37. This belongs on the desk of George Bush. it is a rejection of him and his policies, mostly Iraq. The Republican base is part of that rejection.

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  38. rufus,

    Where else in the world can the control of the Congress rest on a recount of about 2,000 votes out of 80,000,000 without troops in the streets. This is a GREAT country, where every two years the electorate gets to torture the chattering pols. I love it so!

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  39. Again,
    Amnesty is irreversible.

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  40. wish I shared your sanguinity & ebullience, fellas. I feel more like "jacko" over on BC's "After the Election" post.

    Whupped, and with nothing left to do but wait for the shit to hit the fan.

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  41. Americans are not losers. The younger generation, who made some headway tonight, albeit for the wrong party, are much more conservative than their parents and grandparents. Losing is not something they will accept.

    Consider the polls, which repeatedly show that of those opposing the war, only about 1/3 are opposed to the war per se. Two-thirds of these disagree with HOW the war is being fought.

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  42. Hugh Hewitt | 1:34 AM
    I have to assume that the Dems will get the Senate as well as the House, though Conrad Burns may be able to pull off an upset, in which case I hope the GOP in the Senate reject the silly rules they agreed to the last time the body was 50/50. (McConell told Rush they would accept them)

    They got no cooperation from Dems over the past two years, and if by good luck and the Veep's vote they have the majority, they have got to begin to use it.

    The long and short of this bad but not horrific night was that majorities must act like majorities.

    The public cares little for the "traditions" of the Senate or the way the appropriations process used to work.
    It demands results.
    Handed a large majority, the GOP frittered it away.

    The chief fritterer was Senator McCain and his Gang of 14 and Kennedy-McCain immigration bill, supplemented by a last minute throw down that prevented the NSA bill from progressing or the key judicial nominations from receiving a vote. His accomplice in that master stroke was Senator Graham.
    Together they cost their friend Mike DeWine his seat in the Senate, and all their Republican colleagues their chairmanships. Senator McCain should rethink his presidential run. Amid the ruins of the GOP's majority there is a clear culprit.
    A second loser was Bill Frist.

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  43. Good post, Doug--the attitude of it anyway. I hated to see DeWine go down--he is a good 'un.

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  44. Quote of the night by Soxblog:
    "Our Senate hopes have stepped in the macaca."

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  45. Bush's Ship of State was manned by a bunch of Mutineers.

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  46. Hewitt;
    "President Bush will not flag in the pursuit of the war, and Senator Santorum is now available for a seat on the SCOTUS should one become available. GOP senators will have the chance to select leadership equal to the new world of politics which, as the past two years have demonstrated, does not reward timidity."
    ---
    HOW in the World would he ever get a good Judge through???
    Santorum would be Supreme indeed.
    Didn't know Hugh Smoked.

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  47. Well, we probably won't have to worry about these damn elections all that much longer, anyway.

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  48. I wonder how Hugh's book sales are doing?

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  49. Who would have predicted a year ago that Senator Lieberman would become the most powerful man in the Senate, if not the entire Congress, if not the most powerful man in foreign policy. Lieberman will support the war against Islam, which is a hell of alot more than can be said for some RINOs.

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  50. In perhaps the final pieces of good news we'll have tonight, my pepperoni pizza was delicious and Frank J's cat will get what it has coming.

    Filled with despair? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com

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  51. Hewitt's comment that Bush will not flag on the war, misses the point that the election was about the war, and we lost, and the troops are coming home now. Good--if this is how it is, get the kids home ASAP, we will need them here, building ethanol stills and rickshaws.

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  52. doug,

    re: Bush's Ship of State was manned by a bunch of Mutineers.

    Indeed! Just look what the asshole Armitage is saying in Australia. He undermined TWAT at every opportunity.

    Among the President's readings should have been the biography of Elizabeth I. The Queen can do no wrong. Heads should have rolled. There is much to commend domestic political terror.

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  53. Why will Liebermann be powerful?
    ---
    Update: Webb declares victoryposted at 1:04 am on November 8, 2006 by Allahpundit
    ---
    Now he can't lose even if Maccaca wins the recount:
    The Rioting would never stop.

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  54. building ethanol stills and rickshaws.
    LOL
    Gallows, of course.
    Rufus is runnin on the fumes.

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  55. Pore old rufus--I sure admired his attitude, as a fellow dumb sonofabitch.

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  56. Stem cells winning in Montana:
    The Equivalent of Global Warming as a Pseudo "Science"

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  57. cell phones must have finally killed off too many brain cells.

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  58. lots of winners tonite--Rat, cedarford, hitler.

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  59. How do you make a Gallows Smiley?

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  60. Hell, I guess you, too, doug. You, 2164, allen, all of you got rid of nemesis Bush. Oh, his ghost will lurk around DC awhile longer, but he's through. Now, what do we do? I think me I'll buy me a Harley.

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  61. The Democrats may surpass the average gains in post-WWII House gains.

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  62. Males - Allen 55% - Webb 45%

    Females - Allen 45% - Webb 55%

    Them Muzzies were smarter than us re:
    Sufferage.

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  63. NYT can now recommend their favorite Intelligence Committee chairmen.

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  64. Hey Allen:
    Buddy just lumped us in with C4, Rat, Hitler, et al:
    Good thing I'm in a gallows state of giddiness.

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  65. I forgot about that:
    Harman out.
    Alcee the Criminal in.
    Wonderful.
    ...and Harman used to be sane Dem.

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  66. The blogosphere just became a flea on the MSM T-Rex, again. Like about '96, I'd say.

    Oops. All this telling-truth, and nobody was ever listening.

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  67. Yeah, Optimistic Hugh says just the opossite, but...
    They even got the Polls right to our wrong this time.

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  68. Wretchard is suggesting some silver-linings. I'd copy 'em but it is too much like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

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  69. With the MSM in charge, Maccaca/Foley outdid all the Kerry's et al combined.
    BUT,
    It REALLY all started when the GOP passed on that Stupid idea to jettison Delay merely because some hack took him to court.
    The Dissolution started there and snowballed on.

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  70. buddy larsen,

    re: President Bush and Adolf Hitler

    You may understand my disapproval at being held equivalent to Hitler. Believe it or not, I am as disappointed as you. Unlike you, I see the President as responsible for destroying the Republican Party. If you need someone to blame, take a look at the President.

    I am a conservative and a Republican. Can the same be said of Mr. Bush? I think not, as every Republican notable also attests.

    Now, you are certainly excused for blowing off steam. Tomorrow, we will have to make the best of an unfortunate situation created by the Republican leadership.

    You are a better person than the Hitler comparison might indicate. Please, reconsider.

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  71. well, guess i'll stagger off into the sunset for the nonce. Fetal position awaits whimpering repose. Don't take any wooden nickels--

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  72. That was just a joke, allen--a non-sequiter like juxtaposition calculated to be rueful humor. Didn't mean nuffin by it--

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  73. You know, like, who is the worst person i could throw in, for a jibe. it's always "hitler". sorry--

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  74. Ed Rawlins has just said it all: "A year ago the trends were obvious. Karl was just tone deaf."

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  75. buddy,

    Thanks!!!!!!! My faith in humanity remains intact.

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  76. heh--"faith in humanity"--nice phrase to meditate on. nite all--

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  77. Yeah but he didn't take back C-4.

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  78. dammit, doug, I'm trying to shut down and go nighty-night-ums.

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  79. I just watched Pelosi, so consider yourself lucky.
    Her Multimillionaire husband has a winery in NorCal.
    Powered by Slave/Illegal labor, of course.
    But I think she got her eyes closed some after all those pictures on Drudge.
    Still has NO Brains.

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  80. Testor is a far left Moonbat that went pro gun to win.

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  81. Oregon had a super sterling Rep Gov hopeful w/all kinds of experience including Nationally known for his performance as Sheriff.
    Beat by a 36 year old female Harvard Grad with ZERO experience in anything.

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  82. Senate 51 to 49. Who is that "1". Why is Mr. Lieberman the most powerful man in the Senate?

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  83. buddy, you are the man, or "Everyman". How's that for a heavy mantle?

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  84. whit,

    I commend your post, with one exception: the American public has not jumped ship; the administration has. With committed leadership, of whatever stripe, victory is possible.

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  85. Signing off this morning, I say, "Thank you, Mr. President, this debacle could not have happened without you.”

    To genuine conservatives and Republicans, tomorrow we must begin the renovating of our party. Oh, tomorrow Mr. Snow will attempt to put the best spin on the repudiation of the President by his base; pay no attention.

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  86. The old and sick Supremes can quit now:
    Leahy in charge, right?
    Bush should appoint folks 65 or older.

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