Friday, January 21, 2005
Norman Podhoretz
The Bush Doctrine has a powerful coalition arrayed against it, and the coalition will fight with everything they have. We see it in the statistics of which Chrenkoff posted: Bad news from Iraq heavy reporting on anything negative in Iraq and little about the positives. According to Podhoretz, the coalition consists of four groups:
The Isolationists both the Paleoconservative right, typified by Patrick Buchanan and slightly anti-semetic; so many of our problems in the Middle East are the results of Israel and the "neocons" who just happen to be Jewish; and the Hard left typified by Noam Chomsky, quick to find fault with America and believes America is bad for the world.
The Superhawks typified by Angelo M. Codevilla and Mark Helprin, who believe we should show no mercy, the Middle East has no history of democracy and thus we will be there for years and years.
The Liberal Internationalists This is the foreign policy establishment members of CFR and the Brookings Institute who believe that negotiations are the best and only way to resolve conflicts and have an undying faith in the UN.
The Realists Prior to 9/11 both Presidents Bush were in this group, believed in the "Balance of Power" pardigm, the soverneignty of a nation is paramount, and force can be used in all its awesome power to repel aggression
I wrote this synopsis of Podhoretz writings to help me keep the players straight and to help me maintain my confidence in the Bush Doctrine, for the Coalition, just like the Democrats, root for our defeat to stay in power or to regain power.
It has seemed eerie to me that on the one hand we are at war and young men are dying for us; and in the streets of America there is no burden except for the one borne by wives, children, and relatives of our servicemen and women. Podhoretz says
This time there is no draft, there are no shortages or rationing, and taxes have not been raised. But on the other hand, we have more cause to be anxious over the safety and security of our continental homeland, which none of our enemies in those earlier wars ever managed to strike.That's why I won't forget where I was on Thursday January 20, 2005. President Bush told us straight where we are going and it will be hard, and it will be worth it.
Furthermore, facing a conflict that may well go on for three or four decades, Americans of this generation are called upon to be more patient than "the greatest generation" needed to be in World War II, which for us lasted only four years; and facing an enemy even more elusive than the Communists, the American people of today are required to summon at least as much perseverance as the American people of those days did—for all their bitching and moaning—over the 47 long years of World War III. Indeed, in this area the generation of World War IV has an even more difficult row to hoe than its predecessors in World War II and World War III.
Mover Mike
