New Sisysphus must have been very impressed last night.
To our right, a man in a suit stood up, identified himself as being from NBC. A reporter, no doubt. The President looked at him and called his name. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt! FDR himself!
The reporter spoke:
“Sir, a report released today by the Department of War notes that last year, 1943, was a record year for deaths of Americans at the hands of both the Germans and the Japanese. If the “war on fascism” is a success as you say, why is it that more acts of fatal aggression are now being committed by the Germans and the Japanese than ever before, after more than two years of war? Why do you think we are winning? How do we measure success?”The President began to respond. We tried to hold on to the vision, no longer fighting it now. We heard that strong, reassuring voice we only know through old radio and film recordings. We thought we heard something about “being on the offensive” and “engaging the enemy” and fighting “relentlessly until victory,” but it was too late.
The vision was gone and had passed.
Last night, in real life it went like this.
Q Your top military officer, General Richard Myers, says the Iraqi insurgency is as strong now as it was a year ago. Why is that the case? And why haven't we been more successful in limiting the violence?
THE PRESIDENT: I think he went on to say we're winning, if I recall. But nevertheless, there are still some in Iraq who aren't happy with democracy. They want to go back to the old days of tyranny and darkness, torture chambers and mass graves. I believe we're making really good progress in Iraq, because the Iraqi people are beginning to see the benefits of a free society. They're beginning -- they saw a government formed today.
The Iraqi military is being trained by our military, and they're performing much better than the past. The more secure Iraq becomes, as a result of the hard work of Iraqi security forces, the more confident the people will have in the process, and the more isolated the terrorists will become.
But Iraq has -- have got people there that are willing to kill, and they're hard-nosed killers. And we will work with the Iraqis to secure their future. A free Iraq in the midst of the Middle East is an important part of spreading peace. It's a region of the world where a lot of folks in the past never thought democracy could take hold. Democracy is taking hold. And as democracy takes hold, peace will more likely be the norm.
In order to defeat the terrorists, in order to defeat their ideology of hate, in the long run, we must spread freedom and hope. Today I talked to the Prime Minister of Iraq. I had a great conversation with him. I told him I was proud of the fact that he was willing to stand up and lead. I told him I appreciated his courage and the courage of those who are willing to serve the Iraqi people in government. I told him, I said, when America makes a commitment, we'll stand by you. I said, I hope you get your constitution written on time, and he agreed. He recognizes it's very important for the Transitional National Assembly to get the constitution written so it can be submitted to the people on time. He understands the need for a timely write of the constitution.
And I also encouraged him to continue to reaching out to disaffected groups in Iraq, and he agreed. I'm really happy to talk to him; I invited him to come to America, I hope he comes soon. There are a lot of courageous people in Iraq, Steve, that are making a big difference in the lives of that country.
I also want to caution you all that it's not easy to go from a tyranny to a democracy. We didn't pass sovereignty but about 10 months ago, and since that time a lot of progress has been made and we'll continue to make progress for the good of the region and for the good of our country.
The vision didn't fade last night. There was an answer to the question.
Whenever and wherever one encounters the hypocrisy that is today's MSM, one must treat with it on a very elementary level as concepts such as national security, tyranny, and freedom are very difficult for them to understand.
Like FDR, Bush bet the ranch on doing the right thing and standing up to the enemies of freedom and democracy knowing that it would work out because anyone given the fundamental choice will soon not only opt for freedom and democracy, but will eventually realize there is no substitute worth living for. From that point it is a very small leap (if leap we can call it) for a true nationalist (of any country) to realize that sometimes you have to go to war to prove you are in fact someone (or a nation) that abhors war because wars are essentially conflicts of freedom and tyranny and tyranny must always be stopped.
In today's America there is a generation that has grown up with power and privilege and come to believe it is their inherent right to have these benefits. They have insulated themselves from the very conditions that created these benefits so as to allow themselves that added luxury of being able to utilize their powers and privileges so as to make others understand that what they do is indeed in all our best interests and therefore the means are justified and the ends are assured.
We call these people denizens of the ivory tower because they have divorced themselves (and their followers) from the need to consider abject reality even when their actions are so far removed from reality to be ludicrious on their face.
As in the past, this always leads to tremendous problems that can only make the very existence of us all a continuing at-risk experience.
The press is therefore to be forgiven because just like a retarded child, their actions are clearly understood once it is realized that what they seek is their own self-aggrandizement at the price of us all.
The only question you have to answer is whether you will "assume the position" and continue to take it (i.e.: bent over asking for more) or stand up and make it clear that this kind of conduct is unacceptable to anyone and should therefore be eliminated wherever it is found.
Well? Do you have the guts?
Posted by: Clint Lovell | May 01, 2005 at 06:27 PM