So this post actually has a bit of history behind it. Originally, I was going to write a rant about things that piss me off. However, that fell by the wayside primarily due to me passing out from lack of sleep (43 hours of being awake cramming will do that to you.) Anyway, I read several things today that helped gel some thoughts I've had floating around my head. You might want to, as they say, grab a cup of coffee because this is going to be rather long-winded.
A few of my friends are involved with College Republicans. Something that has always struck me about these people (CR in general) is that they always seem to value the party above all else. If one shows the slighest Democrat/socialist/independent/otherwise non-GOP leaning, they are instantly persona non grata. I really hold the culture in which they were brought up as the culprit. These people have no concept of true bipartisanship because there hasn't been much of it in the past 15 years. Democrats hate everything Republican and vice versa. If you happen to be not of one of the two parties, your ideas don't really matter unless you happen to be the swing voter flavor of the month that everyone is trying to triangulate to. Oftentimes you'll hear people discuss their domestic opponents as "the enemy."
"Enemy, " of course, is a very loaded term. It implies battle, war even. And this takes us down a very slippery slope. The slope ends when you have people who support a women's right to choose lining up with those who support the Islamists' right to deprive women of all theirs. This is the slope of moral relativism, a narrow short sighted myopic view of the world where all that matters is the short term. Bush is against abortions, Bush is against terrorists, I like abortions, therefore I will like those who support terrorists because it will help my "enemy" out of power. This is the viewpoint that happens when one forgets the democratic nature of our republic, the inherent need for parties of differing viewpoints if we are to remain a viable and succesful nation. Our domestic opposition is just that: opposition. The enemy are those who doesn't want there to be any domestic opposition. Of course, it's hard to see things any other way when one party allows its knee-jerk hatred for the other party to influence every decision it makes. Think Scoop Jackson would last a second in today's Democratic Party? Joe Lieberman sure hasn't.
Adding to this disturbing trend of witch hunts is the policy of the country as a whole to listen to the cries of victimization from Muslims. We unquestioningly accept the pleas for equality, non-discrimination, and religious tolerance while their religious bretheren have engaged, are engaging, and will engage in horrific acts of religious based violence with nary a peep from their domestic apologists. If Muslims living here really do support our values, our system of government, and our way of life, they need to fix their leaders and
fix the message. Right now the message the American people are getting is the one I stated above: victimization and demands for tolerance. In my eyes, they have no place to be making demands of anyone, and they won't until I hear the CAIR fifth columnists decry, in full and graphic detail, the daily acts of violence committed in their religion's name. Pie in the sky denunciations of "terrorism" in general aren't going to cut it. Until CAIR directly states that they do not support the acts of violence committed by Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida, and all the other militant groups around the world, they shouldn't complain about how things are so bad for them in the U.S.
It's not like it will matter a damn, though, since our elected leaders
seem to have trouble telling all those damn A-rabs apart. And even when they can tell them apart, they still can't tell who is on who's side. This kind of conduct is reprehensible, although not entirely unexpected. We should just be glad these people aren't busy stocking their freezers full of cash or texting young interns. But is it really so much to ask that someone who is directly responsible for the oversight of a very important front in a battle for the survival of our civilization at least have a basic understanding of who is who? Apparently that task is too much for a Congressman to master.
These three seemingly disparate areas of interest are combining to create a kind of perfect storm when it comes to the war. As regular readers of this blog know, one of my major concerns is maintaining the will of the American people in order to fight a generational war. It is the Center of Gravity, after all. Apparently
I'm not alone in this:
"Gen. Schissler said he is concerned that Washington politics is weakening the will of the nation.
"I don't care about the politics. I care about people understanding the facts of what's our enemy is thinking about, what's our strategy to defeat them, and for [Americans] to understand that it will take a long fight, mostly because our enemy is committed to the long fight," he said. "They're absolutely committed to the 50-, 100-year plan."
"One of my concerns is how to maintain the American will, the public will over that duration," he said." (h/t to
Eagle1 and
Spook 86)
We have a seemingly endless unpopular bloody war, domestic "opposition" that sides with our enemies, and a minority population here at home who seems more intent on preserving their victim status and sowing discord rather than defending their religion against those who supposedly hijack it. Add to all that sunshine an incompetent government, and things look bleak indeed. Lex has
more thoughts on that.
There is one very important but often overlooked thing that needs to be made clear. This war is not one of a primarily military nature. As such, we will not be defeated militarily. No, this defeat will be of the long and quiet variety, and it will be of our own doing. We are already seeing the start of such a defeat in parts of Western Europe. A civilization which is no longer willing to fight for its values and ideals is as good as dead, even if it still sputters on in name. This is a defeat that will be ushered in by misguided idealism, by a desire for all creeds and ideas to be equal, by a wish to not offend others. Forgotten in this insane rush for equality and politeness is the cold fact that some creeds and ideas are better than others, and that some ideals are worth fighting to defend, and others are worth fighting to destroy.
It is a defeat that only we can impose upon ourselves. Right now Western Civilization still holds the keys to its own gates. We can reverse this tide, but only if we act soon. If we do not, the collective struggle we have engaged in over the past 300 years for the betterment of man will have been for nothing. We will sacrifice our beliefs, our values, and our way of life because we were not willing to tell someone that our way of doing things was superior to his.
This is a very dark post, I will admit. But that is because we live in dark times. As you may or may not know, I am a huge Battlestar Galactica fan. I've been listening to the Season 2 soundtrack for the past couple of days. The entire soundtrack is deliciously dark (which makes sense if you've seen that Season) but I like one song in particular. Appropriately, it is entitled "Something Dark is Coming." That statement sums up my feelings quite well, and leads me to my last point.
The USAF Gen. I quoted above also had this to say: "Ultimately, Muslim scholars, clerics and other religious and government leaders will have to "take a stand," albeit one that carries grave risks because of the extremists' harsh methods" Left implied in that statement is something of great importance; namely, that if these scholars, clerics, and other leaders do not take a stand, the patience of the American people with their religion as a whole will grow thin. Eventually, probably sooner rather than later, we will be forced to act. When we do, we will not differentiate. And things will get a lot bloodier.
For them.
Something dark is coming, indeed.
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