August 31, 2005

Get Real

It's late, I'm tired and I just finished watching an incredibly well done and riveting documentary on al Qaeda and 9/11 by National Geographic. And then I read this:

Invoking the spirit of Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Bush on Tuesday cast the war in Iraq as the modern-day moral equivalent of the struggle against Nazi fascism and Japanese imperialism in World War II, arguing that the United States cannot retreat without disastrous consequences.

Bush Calls Iraq War Moral Equivalent Of Allies' WWII Fight Against the Axis. Of all the gall. Comparing the bunch of rag-tag guerillas that has the U.S. paralyzed in Iraq to the fascists and authoritarians of 1940s Germany, Japan and Italy is sophistry. "The Greatest Generation" knew what they were fighting for and knew it was right. Today, we don't know who we are fighting and we are "right" only in that we are acting as a pseudo-benevolent occupation force.

Remember that Bush vowed on 9/11 that he would hunt down those responsible and kill them. Osama bin Laden is still out there, and since 9/11 we've witnessed Madrid, London and scores of other major al Qaeda terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Afghanistan is growing more opium than ever before and Iraq has become a new rallying call for Islamic jihad against Western "infidels."

If Bush had any real courage, he would have nuked Islamabad when he had the chance. But then, throughout American history, it's been Democrats who fight wars, and Republicans who talk but don't walk. Get real, George; you cannot make history by wishing this were World War II. It's a different time, and a different war. The problem is, Iraq is the wrong war. We should be fighting terrorists, but instead we are just sowing the seeds for inevitably more terrorism against all of Western civilization.

 Posted by glenn

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