But Seriously Folks...

The humorous art forms of satire and caricature require that real characteristics be exaggerated to ridiculous extremes in order to generate laughs.  I am here today to announce that the American Left can no longer be satirized or caricatured.  There is absolutely no legitimate way to exaggerate their positions anymore.

Do you think I'm exaggerating?  Let me give you some examples brought on by the photographs showing the treatment of certain prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

First, we have the image of West Virginia's favorite Grand Kleagle, Robert Byrd, who made a fine Confederate General in "Gods and Generals", dismayed by images of people being demeaned and humiliated primarily on the basis of their ethnicity and nationality.  I'm sure the distinguished Senate orator could have given those prison guards some pointers.

Then we have the court jester of Camelot, Ted Kennedy, outraged over photographs showing sexual domination and bondage.  Would he have been happier if the prisoners had drowned in a car in the Euphrates?  Or perhaps it would have been different if the photographs had resulted in charges against his nephew.  It made sense to have Teddy on national television talking about rape rooms.  There was probably one in the Kennedy compound in Florida.

Oh, it gets even better.  Barney "I have a brothel in my basement" Frank comes out of a viewing where videos of male American military personnel were shown having sexual intercourse with female American military personnel, and expresses that he was "saddened" by the images.  I'm sure he was.  The question is, though, what was it that saddened him.

Then, to top off the absurdity, we have an entire chorus of American leftists demand that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resign or be impeached because he failed to stop or allowed such "war crimes" to occur.  Of course these same people have John Kerry bumper stickers on their SUVs.  You know John Kerry.  The Vietnam War hero who has admitted to PERSONALLY committing atrocities against the innocent civilians of Vietnam.

All this and I haven't even mentioned Maxine Waters or Fortney Stark or Sheila Jackson Lee.  As I said at the beginning, it's official.  Caricatures of the Left are impossible.  To the leftists, absurdity is a synonym for mainstream.

Of Heroes and Heroism

A couple of recent events have illustrated with shocking clarity something that many of us have known about leftists for years.  They don't believe in heroes.  Before you protest my premise, let me prove it to you.

Notice the reaction of the American left to the death of Pat Tillman, a young man who gave up everything to fight for his country.  They have either provided muted praise, ignored it entirely or shown complete contempt for him and his sacrifice.  Now, I know that others have sacrificed as well, but you didn't see the left praising them either.

Then you have Andy Rooney, "60 Minutes" favorite disbeliever in everything, who, in a column, stated that the soldiers serving in Iraq weren't heroes.  He attempted to hide his typical mocking attitude, but wasn't successful.  His disdain for our military was apparent when he said, "Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it."  In other words, these men and women aren't heroes, they're fools.

"But what about John Kerry", you say.  John Kerry isn't honored for his heroism on the battlefield.  Those medals simply serve as credentials on his curriculum vitae in order to make him an expert witness against foreign policy hawks.  Leftists parade his medals so they can sound smart when he and they attempt to weaken and destroy our military.

Of course, the left has used this same tactic with John McCain.  When he disagrees with administration policy, he's a war hero.  When he agrees, he's simply a Republican.

The fact is that the left rejects the idea that there can be ANY glory in war.  Therefore, bragging about battlefield heroics is akin to fascism.  Honoring military service for its own sake is militarism to a leftist.

W. T. Sherman called war "hell".  Robert E. Lee called war "terrible".  It is both.  However, a strong military is necessary to the survival of the nation state.  Heroic men and women are necessary to make that strong military.  Heroes need to be honored and heroism needs to be noted.  It is telling that leftists find it difficult to do that.

It is very fitting that when the leftists found a war hero to nominate for President, it was one that chose to use the fame of his heroism to announce his support for the enemies of this country.  Very fitting indeed.

Questions for liberals

I want those of you who read my musings and have contact with committed liberals to ask them a few questions.  I really am curious to see the answers. 

1.  Do you believe there is anything about the United States of America that makes it special, different and unique in comparison to the 200+ other nations on the planet?  If so what is it?

2.  Do you believe that militant Islam as a political movement poses a threat to the United States?  If so, how should the United States respond to that threat?  Do you limit that threat to only Al Qaeda?

3.  Do you believe the United Nations, as an organization, protects the interests of the United States?

4.  Why do you believe that a majority of wars and conflicts in the world today involve Muslims, including many that don't involve the United States?

5.  Do you believe that any culture on the planet is superior to any other culture?  If so, which one and why?  If not, why not?

6.  If psychological methods of intimidation could be used to elicit information from captured spies and guerillas that could save American lives, should those methods be used?  If you say no, would the fact that information would not be revealed otherwise change your view in any way?

Please take these questions to liberals you know and those you might talk to on message boards.  I really want to know how they will respond.

Thinking Out Loud

Do you think Ted Kennedy has ever been disgusted by the actions of any of America's enemies or does he reserve his disgust for the people who are trying to defend this country?

I know that Hillary Clinton and others have denounced the treatment of the Iraqi prisoners shown in the photographs, but I'll bet money that she, at first, enjoyed seeing a woman leading a man around on a leash.  I suspect that Patricia Ireland and Eleanor Smeal had the same thoughts.

Can you think of a worse humiliation for a Muslim male than to be naked on his knees in front of a woman who has authority over him, ridiculing him?  Apparently, that is worse than being murdered, dismembered, burned and dragged through the streets.

Did you notice that the leftists in America haven't had much to say about Thomas Hamil and his heroic escape from Iraqi captors?  They certainly haven't praised him.  Of course that's because he got a job with Halliburton instead of going on welfare.

Were the prisoners at Abu Ghraib "prisoners of war"?  According to the Geneva Convention, a "lawful combatant" is defined as one that: (is) commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates; having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance; carrying arms openly; and conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

Did you hear that over fifty Democrats wouldn't join in a Congressional resolution that, while condemning the treatment of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib, commended the work that the American military has done as a whole in Iraq?  It would have probably been easier to get those idiotic leftists, which include Fortney Stark of California, to join in a resolution praising Maqmoot Al Sadr for standing up to the forces of "imperialism".

When are the people of the United States of America going to realize that the Democrat party is ruled by America hating leftists who agree with Osama Bin Laden that we are the Great Satan in the world?

Are you outraged?

I know the left will call me an evil fascist, but I'm not outraged by the photographs showing Iraqi prisoners being mistreated and humiliated by American prison guards.  Disappointed? Yes. I'm disappointed that such a breakdown of order and discipline occurred in the finest army in the world.  The guilty parties should be punished for besmirching their uniform.

We should never condone such behavior, but by the same token, we shouldn't make such a big deal out of it either.  Every group has bad apples.  Saint John Kerry's most honorable Vietnam Veterans Against War had members who advocated assassinating members of Congress.  The left would never allow that to paint the entire anti-war movement, though.  Just ask them.  Their mission was honorable and they were a force for good in this country.  (Pardon me while I gag after writing that last sentence.)

As far as this behavior harming our reputation in the Arab world, give me a break.  A big majority of the Arab street hates us anyway.  Who cares if that majority goes from 65% to 75%?  Anyone who TRULY believes we can make these people like us is living in fantasy land.  In any event, Arabs treat each other worse than those few soldiers treated those men.  Remember, this is a society that condones honor killing of a female family member who is raped.

We should condemn the behavior of these prison guards, but for the reason that we are Americans and we are supposed to be better than this.  What should matter are OUR standards of decency.  Yes, I said ours.  International standards of decency shouldn't matter.  The Geneva Convention shouldn't matter.  All that should matter is the fact that our troops should always remember that they are Americans and that they represent an honorable country.  They should behave accordingly.

I'm disappointed and aggravated that these soldiers didn't remember that, but I'm not outraged.  Are you?

We understand terrorism. Do you?

Liberals incorrectly claim that conservatives believe that terrorism can be eliminated by military force.  Then after creating this straw man they seek to knock it down with circular logic, usually by citing the example of Israel's fifty six year battle with terrorism.

So let me put the leftists' minds, and I use the term loosely, at ease.  We conservatives, as a group, don't envision a terrorism free world any time soon.  TheWar Against Terror is a war that we will be fighting for decades, unless we go ahead and capitulate under a President Kerry or Hillary Clinton.  President Bush said in the days following September 11 that this would be a lengthy struggle.  We understand this.  We are prepared to accept this. 

Of course, leftists seem to have a lack of understanding about Islamic terrorism anyway.  First, they are uncomfortable calling it Islamic terrorism.  They tend to downplay the religious component in the terrorists' hatred for this country.  Except, of course, when they are attacking the invasion of Iraq.  Then the terrorists are conveniently religious and Saddam was conveniently secular.

Ordinarily, though, leftists want to make economic or nationalistic excuses for Middle Eastern terrorists.  They want to assign blame to the US or Israel for the causes of terrorism.  Leftists simply cannot fathom that Islamists can be so motivated by religion to engage in homicidal and suicidal acts.  Only American Christians could ever engage in terrorism because of religion in the eyes of the leftists.

They ignore the very words of the Qu'ran and the Prophet's other pronouncements demanding jihad.  They ignore the fact that the great majority of wars and conflicts throughout the world involve Islamic groups, WITHOUT US INVOLVEMENT.  The left can't bring themselves to admit that any group fighting the US is evil, and that their evil is religion based.

The left is convinced that if we simply stopped driving SUVs and stopped supporting Israel the jihadists would leave us alone.  France has tried that and Al Qaeda still makes threats against it.

We conservatives recognize that we are fighting an enemy that is religiously committed to evangelization at the point of a sword.  We are fighting an enemy that only respects strength and looks for any sign of weakness.  We are fighting an enemy that will still fight as long as one jihadist still lives.  We are involved in a death struggle between civilizations.

We conservatives understand terrorism.  I fear the left does not.

The difference between the left and the rest of us.

I have written for a long time about the fact that the majority of the far left in this country doesn't have an emotional attachment to the nation state called the United States of America.  This lack of attachment has manifested itself in extreme ways since the election of George W. Bush as President.

The most disturbing way, though, is the left's yearning for bad news.  If unemployment goes up liberal pundits and politicians describe the state of the nation as the worst in fifty years.  If polls show that foreign countries dislike us, leftists talk about our arrogance and isolation from the "community of nations", whatever the hell that is.  If soldiers get killed in Iraq, the left wants to describe each killing in a way that would make it appear that Bush fired the shot that killed them.  If soldiers commit atrocities in Iraq, the internet message boards are filled with leftists acting like this is commonplace and putting down the same soldiers they claimed they supported even while opposing the war.

Conservatives don't do this.  Bill Clinton was probably the most hated Democrat President of my lifetime, yet you didn't hear conservatives looking for bad news for the country during Clinton's presidency.  Even conservatives that opposed the deployment to the Balkans never wished for a bad outcome.  It simply isn't in the make up of conservatives to hope for bad things for this nation.

Liberals, though, particularly the vocal left, not only are willing to capitalize on bad news to advance their political agenda; they relish in it.  They don't seem to value the supremacy and success of the United States.  They apparently don't think we deserve success.  Therefore, they view setbacks as us merely getting what's coming to us. 

Like I keep saying, the left doesn't have a real emotional attachment to the United States.  They are too enlightened for that.  Who would have known that enlightenment required a longing for negative results?