Zach LarkinsSTUDY YOUR HISTORY
The liberal left wing never ceases to amaze when it comes to dealing with history. If they're not re-writing it, they simply ignore it. The adage of learning from one's mistakes seems to be completely lost on them. The cut and runners of today have their eyes focused on Iraq and Afghanistan and how quickly we can desert the people of those nations and bring our armed forces home. Perhaps it is time to have a bit of a refresher course.
The war in Iraq just passed its 4th anniversary. The war in Afghanistan has gone on longer. Perhaps this is why the Americans are so upset. They didn't join WW II until 1941 and by 1945 it was all over. In WW I, they didn't get involved until 1917 and by 1918 that war was over. No one will find fault for the Americans coming to the party late and saving the Allies, but the point is that the Americans have a short memory and have not, in recent times, been exposed to any conflict that lasted this long. The Viet Nam War was a bit different in that it was an undeclared war and so we won't discuss it here.
After all the ‘shock and awe' of what should have probably been over and done with in a couple of days, and GWB's bluster that the Americans had won again, the wars rage on. Again, the reasons for that happening won't be discussed here. Suffice it to say that the coalition forces are fighting a war the likes of which have not been seen before. However, to pull out now and leave these countries in dire straits is certainly not the answer. The fighting, while still happening, has subdued and the rebuilding is underway. But along with that comes the fact that the Allies must look into the future, learning from past experience that the liberal wing chooses to ignore.
Every Iraqi knows the freedom "that came their way has been a gift of the Americans", as writes Fouad Ajami, a peerless commentator on politics of the Arab world. In Arab-Muslim history the notion of freedom is practically non-existent. The freedom of individual rights and responsibilities, respect for one another, equality for women and protecting minorities, remain alien in a part of the world where questioning those in authority can be a capital offence, despite what the terrorist and self proclaimed experts of Shariah law say. It does take time for people and a culture to make a transition from tyranny to some semblance of representative government based on laws and accountable to the people. America's gift to the Iraqis is not merely freedom.
Americans need to ask why the media and the liberals are prepared to abandon Iraq where sacrifices of American soldiers are no less valorous than those made, at a different time in places such as France, Italy, Japan, Korea, or anywhere else on the globe for that matter, in the fight for freedom. Why, they should ask themselves, do the media and the liberals blame the Bush administration for whatever goes wrong in Baghdad?
Four years after the hostilities in World War II were silenced in Europe and Asia, fear and violence were still stalking both continents and beyond. In March of 1946, Winston Churchill, speaking to an American audience, said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." The liberals seem to forget, or ignore, the Soviet engineered communist coup in Czechoslovakia in early 1948, the insurgency in Greece, the Soviet demands for territorial concessions from Turkey and Iran, and of course, the Berlin blockade which was followed by the Soviet acquisition of the atomic bomb. Churchill was a conservative. Maybe he had psychic powers too. We'll never know, but he was right. The liberals could learn a lot if they studied history. America's efforts come at a high cost, providing support to a new breed of Iraqis, willing to learn the art of government in the midst of being battered daily by the worst elements of a culture that exalts tyranny over freedom.
History shows us the communist uprisings in Asia, the insurgencies in the Philippines and Indonesia, the split of the Indian subcontinent with all its bloodletting, wars in the Middle East, the communist victory in mainland China and then the war in Korea. Truman staked his reputation and presidency on halting the Soviet ideology of communism and laying the groundwork for, during the Reagan years, the defeat of a second bid of the misguided tenets of a dictatorial regime which sought dominance of the free world. The liberals are blind when they see no co-relation between what is happening today in Iraq and Afghanistan and what was happening 60 years ago.
It is a global struggle that cannot be won without America's might, resources, and long-term commitment. Britain and her empire might have failed against the first bid of totalitarian ideology's drive for world dominance were it not for America's leadership. Radical Islamism is the rage of a people and its culture in death throes. The effort required to erase this nuisance is a pittance of what was needed to defeat German Nazism, Japanese militarism and Soviet communism.
American hand-wringing over difficulties in Iraq and the region four years after Baghdad's fall is unbecoming of a people who remain the last, and best, guardians of freedom and democracy in our world. The liberals should take note.
Sources: Salim Mansur Iraq Still Has Washington Jittery Toronto Sun
The war in Iraq just passed its 4th anniversary. The war in Afghanistan has gone on longer. Perhaps this is why the Americans are so upset. They didn't join WW II until 1941 and by 1945 it was all over. In WW I, they didn't get involved until 1917 and by 1918 that war was over. No one will find fault for the Americans coming to the party late and saving the Allies, but the point is that the Americans have a short memory and have not, in recent times, been exposed to any conflict that lasted this long. The Viet Nam War was a bit different in that it was an undeclared war and so we won't discuss it here.
After all the ‘shock and awe' of what should have probably been over and done with in a couple of days, and GWB's bluster that the Americans had won again, the wars rage on. Again, the reasons for that happening won't be discussed here. Suffice it to say that the coalition forces are fighting a war the likes of which have not been seen before. However, to pull out now and leave these countries in dire straits is certainly not the answer. The fighting, while still happening, has subdued and the rebuilding is underway. But along with that comes the fact that the Allies must look into the future, learning from past experience that the liberal wing chooses to ignore.
Every Iraqi knows the freedom "that came their way has been a gift of the Americans", as writes Fouad Ajami, a peerless commentator on politics of the Arab world. In Arab-Muslim history the notion of freedom is practically non-existent. The freedom of individual rights and responsibilities, respect for one another, equality for women and protecting minorities, remain alien in a part of the world where questioning those in authority can be a capital offence, despite what the terrorist and self proclaimed experts of Shariah law say. It does take time for people and a culture to make a transition from tyranny to some semblance of representative government based on laws and accountable to the people. America's gift to the Iraqis is not merely freedom.
Americans need to ask why the media and the liberals are prepared to abandon Iraq where sacrifices of American soldiers are no less valorous than those made, at a different time in places such as France, Italy, Japan, Korea, or anywhere else on the globe for that matter, in the fight for freedom. Why, they should ask themselves, do the media and the liberals blame the Bush administration for whatever goes wrong in Baghdad?
Four years after the hostilities in World War II were silenced in Europe and Asia, fear and violence were still stalking both continents and beyond. In March of 1946, Winston Churchill, speaking to an American audience, said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." The liberals seem to forget, or ignore, the Soviet engineered communist coup in Czechoslovakia in early 1948, the insurgency in Greece, the Soviet demands for territorial concessions from Turkey and Iran, and of course, the Berlin blockade which was followed by the Soviet acquisition of the atomic bomb. Churchill was a conservative. Maybe he had psychic powers too. We'll never know, but he was right. The liberals could learn a lot if they studied history. America's efforts come at a high cost, providing support to a new breed of Iraqis, willing to learn the art of government in the midst of being battered daily by the worst elements of a culture that exalts tyranny over freedom.
History shows us the communist uprisings in Asia, the insurgencies in the Philippines and Indonesia, the split of the Indian subcontinent with all its bloodletting, wars in the Middle East, the communist victory in mainland China and then the war in Korea. Truman staked his reputation and presidency on halting the Soviet ideology of communism and laying the groundwork for, during the Reagan years, the defeat of a second bid of the misguided tenets of a dictatorial regime which sought dominance of the free world. The liberals are blind when they see no co-relation between what is happening today in Iraq and Afghanistan and what was happening 60 years ago.
It is a global struggle that cannot be won without America's might, resources, and long-term commitment. Britain and her empire might have failed against the first bid of totalitarian ideology's drive for world dominance were it not for America's leadership. Radical Islamism is the rage of a people and its culture in death throes. The effort required to erase this nuisance is a pittance of what was needed to defeat German Nazism, Japanese militarism and Soviet communism.
American hand-wringing over difficulties in Iraq and the region four years after Baghdad's fall is unbecoming of a people who remain the last, and best, guardians of freedom and democracy in our world. The liberals should take note.
Sources: Salim Mansur Iraq Still Has Washington Jittery Toronto Sun
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