Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The search for resolve - Here’s Tony Blankley on RCP with “Making the last mistake in Iraq”: “If we, the most powerful force on the planet, in a fit of disappointment and anger at our bungling policies to date, decide to shrug off our responsibilities to the future -- we will soon receive, and deserve, the furious contempt of a terrified world.”

I actually believe that most Americans understand the consequences of a Saigon-type withdrawal from Iraq. But I also think they simply don’t give a damn, they just want the troops home. Finally, I’d like to believe that a liberal democracy is the creed of every person in the world, but recent circumstances would suggest otherwise. Those proud purple fingers seem like artifacts from a different era.

1 comment:

Synova said...

Here's one to try on for size...

The next time someone talks about how we have to leave Iraq and let the Iraqi's sink or swim on their own since it's all up to them... and besides, their culture makes democracy too difficult.

Ask them just how long we're supposed to provide assistance to those Americans whose culture is one of dependance? Let them sink or swim, it's ultimately up to them if they succeed or fail.

Right?

If a libertarian holds those two views, they are consistant. If a "liberal" holds that we need "safety-net" programs for those in our culture who can't make it on their own, but that Iraqis must be left to succeed or fail without us, no matter the human cost of that failure... they aren't liberal... they aren't even libertarian.

What would that be called?

I think at best it's called turning a blind eye and making excuses. At worst it reeks of racism or nationalism (something "liberals" supposedly abhore, but if it fits?) when those *other* lives, those *other* people have to stand on their own, pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, or else it's their own darn fault no matter what happens..., while *these* people, *my* people, are deserving of assistance, of charity, of help to pull them up and their failure is our failure too.

What would you call that?

Isolationism? Used to be one of the foundational beliefs of liberalism was the value of all people and working to end injustice and inhumanity for any person, people not like me, people different than me...

What happened?