All the Bushies are going around trying to convince a dubious public that the war in Iraq ranks up there with World War II or the Cold War. Bush has called it the “decisive ideological struggle.” What tripe. He ought to read a little history.
I was listening to historian, David McCullough, yesterday and he said a couple things worth considering. For one he noted that unlike any other war time period we have it pretty good on the homefront today. McCullough noted with displeasure that our President hadn’t asked the American people to sacrifice.
I’ve got my grandmother’s old ration book from World War II. Americans sacrificed back then. George Bush just asked us to keep spending money. Its only the troops who have been asked to sacrifice.
The scattered Muslims who are conspiring against America don’t come close to Joseph Stalin’s or Adolph Hitler’s police states. The Third Reich and the USSR both had resources that were as great or greater than those of the United States. Osama bin Ladin is hiding in a cave for crying out loud.
The ideological struggle is this. Freedom and material wealth, vs. a medieval and narrow interpretation of often ambiguous religious ideas. This is no contest. The vast majority of the Islamic population, who we have succeeded in alienating, would much prefer westernization to the veil. The best Bin Ladin and crew can hope for is that America keeps stomping around cluelessly and making more enemies of young hot heads.
The other thing McCullough said was that we owe it to our nation to act respectfully toward our President. He didn’t say we had to like George Bush. He didn’t say we couldn’t point out that he was wrong. He didn’t even say he had to respect him. McCullough said we should treat him respectfully.
Too bad the Republicans set such a low bar on this standard towards Bill Clinton.
