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"The stream of Time, irresistible, ever moving, carries off and bears away all things that come to birth and plunges them into utter darkness, both deeds of no account and deeds which are mighty and worthy of commemoration. . .Nevertheless, the science of History is a great bulwark against the stream of Time; in a way it checks this irresistible flood, it holds in a tight grasp whatever it can seize floating on the surface and will not allow it to slip away into the depths of Oblivion. "
- Anna Comnena (1083-1153), The Alexiad
"I have taken all knowledge to be my province."
- Francis Bacon, 1592
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Here's Johnny
Johnny Carson has died of Emphysema. I remember when he hosted the Tonight Show, he was always a class act.
May the Lord keep his soul and comfort his family and friends.
Weap the Tears of Regret into the Pillow of Remourse
for the last Booknotes has aired featuring Mark Edmundson and his book Why Read?. A very interesting and likable man from the opposite side of the political aisle from me. It ended in a way that forces a political observation. This is a man who had many insightful things to say, but his view on what drove conservatives and conservative rhetoric was the usual caracature. Then at the end Brian Lamb showed a clip of Milton Friedman commenting on Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, and Edmundson said he'd have to write that down, he had never heard of it! A book I, by the way, happen to own.
Edmundson said during the interview that academe could use more openness to conservatives, be more welcoming of conservatives who might be inclined to teach but see it as closed to them. His response to Lamb's final question on the final Booknotes illustrates why. Even such an obviously widely-read and legitimately open-minded person, tolerant and inviting of other viewpoints, as Edmundson came across as to me, is not very exposed to "the other side's" viewpoint. It could, in my opinion, be accurately said he is oblivious and ignorant of it - it's hard to comment intelligently on the mindset and perspective of English-speaking (Anglosphere) conservatives having never heard of, much less read, Hayek.
It's an often observed blindspot among the Liberal-Left, as opposed to the conservative Right which tends to be more exposed to the works of "the other side" (while disagreeing with them). It would like having me scratching my head and wondering what this "Port Huron Statement" Edmundson mentioned was, but I've not only heard of it, read it, am aware of who wrote it (SDS, in particular one Tom Hayden), and the movement(s) that sprung from it as well as the intellectual currents from which it grew.
To get back to my regret, though, it is that this is the last Booknotes. Such a simple questions producing such illuminating responses - not just this last question, but throughout the interview (as I said, Edmundson was very likable and bright, but had this one Achilles Heel I would say). Brian Lamb doesn't use pointed questioning such as is so common today, but a certain style that is unavailable anywhere else.
I'm really going to miss Booknotes. For 15 years, whenever I watched it I always learned something, and fairly often discovered books I wanted to go read - if not that of the featured author, then something mentioned during the program. But as I said, even if I didn't react by running out and picking up a book, I always learned more in that hour than in just about any other hour of my life.
There's still BookTV, which is good, but just not quite the same. I can only speak for myself, but I'm going to miss Booknotes.
There have been a lot of ups and downs over the last year. This summer my mother transitioned from academic work to getting her Real Estate license, and tried her hand at selling time shares. She found she didn't like that, and didn't have much of an aptitude for the high-pressure "push" sales the boss wanted, and she recently lost that job. Something that never used to happen in our family now seems to be a semi-annual occurance, and except for the latest it would be more accurate to say it's happened not because she was bad at her job, but because she was too good at it (creating envy and resentment), but not at academic politics combined with the new economic paradigm that includes within it a feature that jobs are less permanent-career than they were. Worst case scenario, though, is that she'll end up losing her house and everything she built in a lifetime. My sister has had her own difficulties finding her way in life, and I'm certainly a "late bloomer" myself, still working at getting on the right path (joining the Army has been a big step forward). But we're not the kind of people who will take the comfortable but ignorant route of pointing partisan fingers ("it's all Bush's fault!") But enough of that.
Life is full of tribulations for everyone. There's hardly any family that doesn't face setbacks, some far worse than we have. There remains so much to be thankful for. I'm thankful for:
My family (to include my beloved dog), which is there throughout all life's ups and downs. I wish I could be with them today.
Being born in, and living in, the United States of America, a country of "second chances" and opportunities.
The cliche of being healthy, but it can really hit you as something to be thankful for when you know people who aren't, or whose loved ones are stricken with something.
All those Americans around the world, in uniform and out of uniform, making personal sacrifices to make our lives, and the lives of others, better, often getting no thanks and indeed insulted or accused of ill-intention and malign impact, but the truth is far different. There hasn't been a place that Americans haven't left better than we found it (yes, that includes Vietnam, though it would have been much better if we had won - and hadn't cut our support for those who depended upon it). As one Canadian put it:
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French, and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971, and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous, and possibly the least-appreciated, people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Well who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that's who.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan, and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. And I was there -- I saw that. When distant cities are hit by earthquake, it is the United States that hurries into help, Managua, Nicaragua, is one of the most recent examples.
So far this spring, fifty-nine American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy, all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. And now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war-mongering Americans. . .
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. . .
When the railways of France, and Germany, and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both of 'em are still broke.
I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name to me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They'll come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they're entitled to thumb their noses at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians.
And many Americans, as well. Should I be thankful for the Michael Moore's and Noam Chomsky's of the world? No, but
I'm thankful I live in a country where dissent is accepted to such a degree that people can go around freely claiming that they're dissent is being repressed, shouting it from the top of lecterns, publishing books, making movies, and where the repression they talk about is fame and wealth and global accolades. In some countries, such people might face real repression - death, torture, jail for themselves and family members. Expropriation of their property (Putin's Russia), or laws and regulations aimed at stifling dissent in the name of community values (the EU's Draft Constitution and Canada). Here such "repressed dissenters" who write about "Stupid White Men" suffer mainly from fame, while this website is BANNED IN EUROPE.
I'm thankful for my intellect. This may seem to be me patting myself on the back for being smart, but not really. Like health, intelligence can be cultivated - that is, you can do things to improve your health. But a lot of it is also accidental - not being born with an affliction, for example. I do a lot of stupid things (and have learned to my regret that, yes, "stupid is as stupid does"). I'm not the sharpest tack in the box. But I am blessed with some intelligence, and sometimes it allows me insights, "Eureka" moments, that help me advance ideas and causes that I champion. Or I hope so, and hope to continue to be able to do.
I'm thankful for friends, readers, and countless other people who have entered my life - be it long term or momentarily - extending the hand of help and comradeship. This means a lot, and is far from the last and least important thing to be thankful of. To all those out there reading this who have sent me words of comfort, advice, accolades, and support, I thank you. It has meant a lot to me and sustained me, more than you can know.
There are many other things I have to be thankful of, some which I'm sure have slipped my mind and I'll think of later. Take care and Gawd bless on this Thanksgiving day.
A great and true friend of America, Alistair Cooke has died, shortly after hanging up the mike on "Letter from America". He was one of the best at explaining to a foreign audience just what made America what it is. He will be missed.
May the Lord keep his soul and comfort his family and friends.
Back when I was a student and had nothin' to do and lots of time to do it in, I used to watch C-SPAN a lot. I still catch what I can. Happy 25th and many more!
I'm not huge on celebrating it, as a holiday. But I hope the new year brings good things for you all, and for our Country and world.
I'll have my second annual Year in Preview before the weekend is out. The one for the year just past is here. Note that things did not entirely unfold as they Ought to have, mainly because timing was thrown off by the French overdoing it in being French - by their own admission (or at least the admission of at least one of their self-selected Elect, Dominique Moisi). The French were supposed to behave according to type, in the manner Howard Dean described ("the French will always do exactly the opposite on what the United States wants regardless of what happens, so we're never going to have a consistent policy"). But they had always stopped short of crossing the point of no return before (see for example the Gulf War of '91). This time involved the hypertrophy of that attitude, and that is their fault, not mine, and they will live with the consequences.
I accurately described what they should have done. Had they done that, things would have been better. But they did not. From their failure to behave as they ought to have, a number of rippled were created. French intransigence, for example, beguiled Democrats like John Kerry (D-FR) into adopting a foreign policy platform aimed at appealing to the French electorate. The state of his candidacy, and the likely electoral consequences for Democrats who are following similar paths, will extend deep into next year and possibly beyond (the cold-water of the election, if it goes as it Ought to, may wake them from this revere. But more musings along those lines will have to wait for the 2004 Year in Preview post).
I may not be posting a lot this week, but lots of folks have some excellent posts encapsulating the year in review. I'd link to some of them but I'm lazy. Most of them I've found via Glenn, anyhow, so just follow the links there.
I'm thankful I live in America. That might strike people as jingoistic. Well, I'll say it again: I thank my lucky stars I live in America, and if for whatever reason some people don't like that attitude, then by jingo, I don't care.
I'm thankful I live in the time I do. All expressions of nostalgia to the contrary notwithstanding, We have a duty to be more creative than longing for the past. When one thinks about it, day to day life in past eras were pretty miserable for most people most of the time in most places, and we have gained a lot. There are things to work on, even things lost that should be regained, but it can only be done by moving forward, not looking back, and keeping the best of what we have and building on it.
I'm thankful I live in a country that, by and large and for the most part, respects Liberty, something that's rare in the world. People often think this is a natural state and take it for granted, getting embittered when it doesn't meet utopian standards. They forget, or do not realize, the extent to which we're lucky. We should move forward, and be vigilant and jealous of our Liberty and resist encroachments upon it. But we shouldn't let that cloud our judgement about how things could be, or follow the siren song of those who don't see the value of what we have and would sacrifice it in an attempt to emulate "utopias elsewhere" that aren't really all they're presumed to be.
I'm thankful for the people who, at great personal sacrifice and risk, protect that freedom, which I realize would not long survive without their efforts. They do so with great skill and great honour, showing more concern for enemy civilian populations than that of any other military at any other time in history, for all that they too frequently get no credit and too much blame for their efforts in just that regard, used as a political football by those who disregard, disparage, and devalue their efforts while still claiming to support the troops.
I'm thankful I live in a country where the typical person, through their own efforts, can prosper to the extent of their abilities. Yes, there are problems and we must strive to work on them. But, again, in most places and at most times, opportunities are far more limited for most people.
I'm thankful that I live in a country that responded to an attack on its own soil not by launching a war of annihilation, not by engaging in a clash of civilizations, but in a war of Liberty that has, so far, liberated fifty million people from oppressive tyranny. I am thankful of living in a country that, wherever its soldiers have successfully planted its flag, freedom and democracy, not oppression and dictatorship, have taken root and grown - from Germany to South Korea to Panama and the Philippines and beyond. When the USS Vandegrift sailed into Saigon harbor a week ago, it docked in a land that would be freer, more prosperous, and happy today if we had won rather than lost, kept our pledge of support that we gave to those who fought alongside us rather than withdrawing it as we did in '74 by cutting off their funding. They were imperfect, but today Vietnam would likely have gone the same path South Korea did, to everyone's benefit, especially those who live there. Which invokes a great responsibility: upon our resolve depends the Liberty of millions. We will only lose in our efforts if our civilizational resolve falters. We must be resolute rather than self-loathing.
Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.
Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.
Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation,
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.
Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with might endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.
I'm thankful I live in a country where people, however foolish and misguided, are free to disagree with all of the above, express their disagreement vociferously, and even loudly and stridently proclaim that they're dissent is being stifled. They aren't sent to the gulag or laogai for it, or tortured with their family, or simply disappeared as happens in so much of the rest of the world, including many of the places that not a few of them exalt by comparison with our own country, simply because those places are ruled by despots who oppose this country. All of their melodramatics and that of the apologists who make political common cause with them, who would rather forge and maintain a popular front with them rather than make common cause with those who fight our enemies rather than make rationalizations for them, make me thankful for standing with those I stand with, rather than with them.
I'm thankful I live in a country that has a strong-minded enough leadership, which doesn't crumble in the face of disaproval both at home and abroad, that our foreign policy is still made in Washington, D.C., rather than in Paris or Brussels or UN HQ in New York City in the interests of those who, frankly, do not share our interests nor so many, many other things that would be too long to detail and for which archives were created. My reasons for being thankful for this are fully layed out therein.
I'm thankful for family and friends, and for making more (friends, that is). For each being there in their own way, and for being family and friend to others. For the generosity they show me and the opportunity to show the same to them.
I'm thankful for lessons learned, relearned, and then rethought with the help of such a friend.
I'm thankful for my dog, who is getting rather elderly, is very smart (I know, everyone says that, but you don't know my dog. If I've gotten stupider with age, she's gotten smarter), very demanding, and is always there no matter how ill-tempered or gloomy one gets. You can keep your cats. I'd rather be packmate to a dog.
I'm thankful that no matter how much the flame flickers, it never quite goes out, this idea that eventually a triumph of hope over experience may pay off.
To absent friends, and twice to absent enemies. May fewer of the former and more of the later be absent this time next year.
Well, there you have it. I probably have a lot more to be thankful for than I can even imagine, but these are what I could think of.
No, I'm not old enough to remember when it was called that. However, it is true that when I was young there were still a scattering of veterans of the "Great War" around. Today is the anniversary of the day their war ended. Now, this conflict, the first conflict of a century of ideological war, is probably more forgotten in America than the Korean War is. The bodies of five soldiers who died in that war were found in their trenches, still in their uniforms, in Belgium. At Ypres.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
May the Lord comfort their family and friends, however few remain. Lest we forget. (Regarding poppies).
Other things stick with you. The description the news applied to people in New York as "panic". I didn't see panic. I saw distraught people leaving - but in an orderly manner (even when running). In a helpful manner.
People with the pictures of their loved ones. Hoping they would be found, alive. I never had hope that anyone would be recovered from the site, alive. That was a curse, not a blessing. Things stick with you. I read a story later, about the rescue efforts. What sticks with me is the part about a rescue dog. The dog lives to find people alive.
Never finding anyone alive, the dog grew increasingly crestfallen. Depressed. Why does the dog stick with me?
In retrospect, I regret the Men of Harlech post from earlier today. Does it slight the brave fortitude of Rick Rescorla, who served his fellow countrymen one last time on that day? (Link via Winds). I meant it as a reminder of our dearest ally who stood by us throughout everything these past two years, and that song has entered my head often - but always as "Men of Harlech", as sung in the movie (which seemed to run on cable quite often that year). It's a song of resolve. But as the day wore on, I increasingly regretted the post. Blogging is like that - at least for me. We do not always know what is appropriate. We are human. That post could have been written better. It wasn't.
3,047 people died - were killed on that day. People from 83 countries died in New York. 3,251 children lost their parents.
My little sister still lives on Manhattan. She now works at a theater. I'm so grateful she's alive. Of course, in retrospect she wasn't in danger of dying that day - not really. But we did not know that at the time. At the time, we wondered and worried and cried and prayed. For so many others who did the same, they cannot say that their daughter, their son, their sister, their brother, their wife or husband, their dear friend, is still alive.
For a time after the attack, we feared that no place in America would be safe. Remember, if you can, all the predictions of a flurry of attacks, they would strike us over the next months, years, in random places so that none of us would feel secure. In retrospect, this does not seem to be the case. If they strike again, their are really only a few large, prominent cities that are likely targets. Washington DC. Chicago. Los Angeles. San Francisco. New York City.
If there is another attack, will it be worse? In its aftermath, will I be able to say my sister still lives on Manhattan?
People talk about Our President putting Americans at risk through his actions. They forget that in retrospect it was our inactions that put Americans at risk on that fateful day, two years ago.
There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost
But you'll never see the end of the road
While you're traveling with me
Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won't win
Now I'm towing my car, there's a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion but there's no proof
In the paper today tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the T.V. page
Now I'm walking again to the beat of a drum
And I'm counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only shadows ahead barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and relief
Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
Don't ever let them win
The two words that keep going through my head are grim resolve. I wish I could get the "grim" out of my mindset. Grimness is downright un-American. Resolve, on the other hand, is perfectly American.
I'm not very good at "commemorations". In some ways, I think Christopher Hitchens is right that now is not a time for such things. But if the alternative to that is the kind of attitude displayed by the Democratic Candidates at tuesday's event in the Panderpalooza tour, then commemorate away, I say.
My sister was going to work that morning, two years ago. At the time, she worked in the downtown financial district. Her subway train passed right under the WTC at about the time the first plane hit. I know that because she emerged from the subway, a few blocks away, with ash and (tiny) fragments of debris raining down.
We didn't know that, though. I was driving - obliviously - to work, listening to the radio but they were playing a tape-delay (one hour delay) of the "Bob and Tom Show" and, for whatever reason, the local station didn't break in to report. My mother was at home, though, and had turned on one of the morning shows. So she knew what happened, but couldn't reach my sister's cell phone in spite of frantic calling. Of course, the cell phone system in NYC was clogged, but we didn't know that, either.
I got to work, blithely, and a few minutes later got a call from my mother; the attack had taken place about forty five minutes ago by that time (I have a long commute). No word from my sister. It's hard to remember but at the time no one was really sure the extent of things. We were grief-stricken regardless, but made worse by the fact that we couldn't contact my sister, who worked in downtown Manhattan.
About two hours later, my sister reached my mother by phone. She and some friends from work had taken the ferry across the river to Jersey. They were on the phone together, with my sister looking across the river at Manhattan, as the first tower came down.
Notice I used the word "attack". Starting almost immediately, the media-preferred description of the event was "tragedy". Sure, it was a tragedy - but is that the primary description that should be used to convey the events of 9/11?
It is for some - not an attack, but a tragedy. Not a war, but a crime and a warmonger (American) President.
A tragedy is an accident or an act of nature. Two people get lost at sea when a storm swamps their boat and they drown. That's a tragedy. December 7th, 1941, is not described as "the date that will live in tragedy as thousands of lives were lost" (passive voice is so useful in looping out culpability, eh?) - even if the events of that day and what followed were, in many ways, tragic. No, it was an attack, not a tragedy. Sept. 11th 2001 was an attack.
Just as in 1941, there was already a war on but most Americans - and I exempt not myself - were detached from it. That was something that happened "over there", even if, from time to time (more often than we might like), it affected Americans. In Israel or India. In Yemen. In Africa. In European countries. Now, I always, even then, thought that we should take stronger responses to such attacks. But I cannot and will not delude myself or my readers into thinking that I, me, felt this was a priority then, was in a wartime mindset. At Dawn on Sept. 11th, We Slept.
For some Americans, Sept. 11th changed our mindset. We know now that we are at war - whatever we might prefer. The idea that us "pro-war" people oppose peace is a fallacy. We - the vast majority of us - would prefer peace over war any day. However, we refuse to build a fantasy and delude ourselves on the matter.
For some Americans, we could be at peace tomorrow if only we stopped fighting. They put bumper stickers to that effect on their cars, festoon their office space with like emblems, and back candidates, Presidential and otherwise, who exude that sense, even where their words may differ. The attitude they convey is as unmistakable to their supporters as to their opponents (count me among the later). They not only prefer peace to war, but in their hearts if not their head, Sept. 11th is willed away and fantasies engaged in - the hopefully expressed meme that "violence never solves anything" (unless you're the terrorist, in which case their concerns should be accommodated), terrorism "cannot be beaten by force" (a favorite of the BBC & NPR set). If we close our eyes and wish real hard, the people who were killed - not "died" but were killed - and Tinkerbell will return to life (or, almost as good, we can forget and "get over it"), and we will have peace. Imagine - it's easy if you try. It isn't hard to do. I may say these people are dreamers, but they aren't the only ones.
Their dream is a nightmare. They want the pre-Sept. 11th world. Fine. Maybe I do, too, but hard, cold reality is not something I want to ignore so I can live in a mental dream world. For many of them, they believe Peace will come if we change Presidents - a President more like Clinton would be their preference. They remember the Clinton years fondly. There was no war then, back in the '90s. Clinton was multilateral and we were at peace and all was well with the world.
The fact is there was a war but we - not just Clinton, we Americans, including most Republicans - didn't recognize it. Didn't want to recognize it. The first WTC attack in '93 was not enough to rouse us to react. Remember that attack? People familiar with it, by the by, will also remember the strands connecting it to Saddam Hussein (the man those who Visualize World Peace say has no involvement with terrorism. Forget. Forget). This halcyon era was a dream palace for Americans. Some Americans and many other countries prefer that to reality - after all, who can blame them, when reality is hard, cold, and bloody? Reality is a rain of fire in Manhattan. Reality is a hole in the Pentagon. Reality is a scorch mark in Pennsylvania as the first American counterattack thwarted the Fourth Plane from striking its intended target.
Reality is that the same people who opposed our march to Baghdad already, as early as the campaign against the Taliban, were withdrawing their sympathies already. Reality is that not everyone who was allied (however tenuously in reality, France) with us in the previous war (the Cold War) will necessarily be on our side in this one. They may be neutrals. They may, for reasons of their own, seek to block us. Reality is that, just as in the Cold War where the Soviet Bloc used their influence in the United Nations against us when they could, others will do so now. That is part of reality. Reality includes the fact that no, getting together, consulting, and trying to form "consensus" does not always work when views differ so sharply that they cannot be papered over or negotiated away - just as no amount of "negotiating and diplomacy" would have brought the Soviet Union to support our positions in the UN during the height of the Cold War.
Reality is a hard and difficult spouse. Not as soft, seductive, and beguiling as the fantasy mistress, singing her siren song of peace and (international) community. I understand why people are seduced. Why they want to prefer that if we're just nice enough (stop being assertive "bullies" and be more accommodating), everyone in the world will like us and these problems will go away. They put the onus (I chose that over "blame") on us because in their worldview, it is something that we can affect. After all, we can change Presidents with an election, right? If we get the right President, enacting the right sort of diplomacy, then the clouds of war will part. The war will go away, quickly and bloodlessly- thus their furrowed brows over the fact that we're "still" taking casualties in war. If we had the right diplomacy and the right partners and the right policies, Death would go away. (See here and here, via Oxblog on the topic, also worth reading).
One heres it from time to time in the frequent reaction such people have to criticisms of their emphasis. The argument amounts to "we can control us"; "I'm an American so I emphasize America's role" and whatnot. If that were it, that would be one thing. However, their entire attitude is that if we "control us", the problem will (quickly) dissolve, like a dark, heavy fog dissolves in the light of the sun. But that attitude is misplaced; it is not that we are without flaws or mistakes, but the attitude is that if we simply correct them, the problem goes away. That treats us as the source of the problem - France would be more cooperative if we simply had better diplomacy and a better, less "unilateralist" attitude on our end. Terrorism would fade if we adjusted our policies in response to attacks, but won't if we respond aggressively. (see here and here).
Now, I simply cannot accept that. People aren't dissuaded from doing what gets them what they want. Rather, they go with what works. If terrorism gets Israel to withdraw, then terrorism obviously works. If terrorism gets us to change our policies, then terrorism obviously works. Rather than removing the incentive for terrorism, one just generates more by walking that path.
One of the key dividing lines in this war is between those who agree with the above as opposed to those who, for whatever reason, will want to quibble with it or who don't think that putting it so starkly is fair. Knowing how people will react to that is likely a predictor to how they will vote next year; perhaps not a perfect one (nothing in social science is a perfect predictor), but a good one. Remember, their bumper-stickers and buttons and office-pastings aren't "fight a smarter war"; they are "peace"-oriented, and none of the people who might be inclined to object to my "dividing line" likely spend much, if any, time and effort objecting to that when they see it in their friends. As James Cramer (a Democrat) wrote a year ago:
In years to come, there will be people who stayed pacifist or ignorant or oblivious to what has happened, and they will be looked upon in later history as cowards or dreamers or fools. And then there will be the people who saw Sept. 11 for what it was, a declaration of war against us, and acted accordingly. I want nothing more than to be in the latter camp, if only because yesterday was and always will be Sept. 11 until our enemies are vanquished.
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The Messaia of death (with Lenin as a sort of "John the Baptist" of this sort of thing) is fondly recalled on the aniversary of his demise.
He guided many of those who came after him (including a Tikriti lad) in the ways of rulership, and also became an example for those who are apologists for evil down to this day. The methods used by the "peace" crowd today were pioneered in the '20s and '30s. Reporters like Robert Fisk have their predicesors in the likes of Walter Duranty. The New York Times - then and now.
There is much to commemorate about the man who, more than any other single individual, shaped the world's Left into what it is today.
