The sinister side of the blogosphere is working itself into a foamy-mouth lather over Senator Dick "Americans are worse than Nazis" Durbin's report that President Bush had the historic wisdom to compare his current predicament to that of Harry Truman's during the Korean War.The other Glenn (the Mini Glenn?) says:
Bush believes he will be vindicated by history -- like Truman -- and anyone who thinks he is going to change course or moderate his aggression any simply hasn't been paying attention to how he operates.Well, let's take a brief look at the historical record, shall we?
Most people today would consider the Korean War a success. At least a partial success. If the entire Korean Peninsula was not protected from the onslaught of communist tyranny, at least South Korea remained free, and over a period of four arduous decades of sacrifice and hard work the South Koreans were able to propel themselves from abject destitution to EU-class prosperity, and from autocracy to democracy.
By demonstrating to Stalin and Mao that the Free World (16 nations contributed fighting troops, and 5 more support personnel) would fight back against communist expansionism, Harry Truman managed to slow down the expansion of tyranny and poverty that the Wise Old Men's policy of containment allowed. (And not only in Korea; let's not forget his courageous stand in using an airlift to break Stalin's provocative blockade of West Berlin.)
But the Korean War was no more popular in the lamestream media of 1952 than the Iraq War is today. From June 25, 1950 to July 17, 1953, the entire Korean Peninsula was the scene of intense and bloody fighting. 36,940 Americans were killed in three years, along with 415,000 South Koreans, and 16,000 from the other countries in the U.N. coalition -- and on the enemy's side, over 500,000 North Korean soldiers and as many as 900,000 Chinese soldiers were killed. It is estimated that more than one million Korean civilians lost their lives during the war.
As the saying goes, freedom isn't free. Not by a long shot.
In 1952, Harry S. Truman's popularity rating was at 22%, and although he was exempted from the Constitutional Amendment limiting Presidents to two terms, after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary, he withdrew from the race.
According to Senator Dick "Americans are worse than Nazis" Durbin:
By demonstrating to Stalin and Mao that the Free World (16 nations contributed fighting troops, and 5 more support personnel) would fight back against communist expansionism, Harry Truman managed to slow down the expansion of tyranny and poverty that the Wise Old Men's policy of containment allowed. (And not only in Korea; let's not forget his courageous stand in using an airlift to break Stalin's provocative blockade of West Berlin.)
But the Korean War was no more popular in the lamestream media of 1952 than the Iraq War is today. From June 25, 1950 to July 17, 1953, the entire Korean Peninsula was the scene of intense and bloody fighting. 36,940 Americans were killed in three years, along with 415,000 South Koreans, and 16,000 from the other countries in the U.N. coalition -- and on the enemy's side, over 500,000 North Korean soldiers and as many as 900,000 Chinese soldiers were killed. It is estimated that more than one million Korean civilians lost their lives during the war.As the saying goes, freedom isn't free. Not by a long shot.
In 1952, Harry S. Truman's popularity rating was at 22%, and although he was exempted from the Constitutional Amendment limiting Presidents to two terms, after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary, he withdrew from the race.
According to Senator Dick "Americans are worse than Nazis" Durbin:
Instead, Bush began his talk by comparing himself to President Harry S Truman, who launched the Truman Doctrine to fight communism, got bogged down in the Korean War and left office unpopular.
Bush said that "in years to come they realized he was right and then his doctrine became the standard for America," recalled Senate Majority Whip-elect Richard Durbin, D-Ill. "He's trying to position himself in history and to justify those who continue to stand by him, saying sometimes if you're right you're unpopular, and be prepared for criticism."
Durbin said he challenged Bush's analogy, reminding him that Truman had the NATO alliance behind him and negotiated with his enemies at the United Nations. Durbin said that's what the Iraq Study Group is recommending that Bush do now - work more with allies and negotiate with adversaries on Iraq.
Well, from the brief historical review I've outlined above, you can see that President Bush has got it exactly right.
Like the Truman Doctrine, the Bush Doctrine seeks to address the problem of a worldwide war launched by a fanatical enemy propelled by an erroneous and malefic ideology.
And as far as NATO and the UN are concerned, remember that only 16 countries contributed fighting troops to oppose the communists in Korea, and that in Iraq today fighting troops represent 22 nations in addition to the United States. NATO is explicitly committed to the war in Afghanistan, where 56 nations in addition to the US have committed troops, and the UN Security Council has approved a mandate which requires continuing American military involvement in Iraq.
Although it doesn't begin to approach it in scale and in the sheer hell of a massive collision between colossal adversaries, like the Korean War, the Iraq War is more difficult than the American public would like. Moreover, the Korean War was a direct attack on leftist statism, and the Iraq War opposes Islamist Statism. Since undermining American traditions of private property and the free market is a sanctified goal of the leftists who populate American newsrooms, both the Korean War and the Iraq war are ideologically suspect to them. So the press opposes the Iraq War for much the same reason that it opposed the Korean War.
And the unrelenting, unmitigated anti-administration propaganda of the media has had its effect. President Bush is unpopular, he can not get his message across through the screen of the media's distortions, and of course he will not be re-elected.
But President Bush, despite the often weak, confused, and half-hearted execution of the policy that he has outlined in his public speeches -- the Bush Doctrine-- is right.
The Iraq War is as just and as noble a cause as the Korean War. Or the Vietnam War, but that's a matter for another post altogether.
And history, even if the only future historical account of our era is penned by an Aesopian historian in a future worldwide Caliphate, will record that President Bush was right, and that America's cause was just.
And as far as NATO and the UN are concerned, remember that only 16 countries contributed fighting troops to oppose the communists in Korea, and that in Iraq today fighting troops represent 22 nations in addition to the United States. NATO is explicitly committed to the war in Afghanistan, where 56 nations in addition to the US have committed troops, and the UN Security Council has approved a mandate which requires continuing American military involvement in Iraq.
Although it doesn't begin to approach it in scale and in the sheer hell of a massive collision between colossal adversaries, like the Korean War, the Iraq War is more difficult than the American public would like. Moreover, the Korean War was a direct attack on leftist statism, and the Iraq War opposes Islamist Statism. Since undermining American traditions of private property and the free market is a sanctified goal of the leftists who populate American newsrooms, both the Korean War and the Iraq war are ideologically suspect to them. So the press opposes the Iraq War for much the same reason that it opposed the Korean War.
And the unrelenting, unmitigated anti-administration propaganda of the media has had its effect. President Bush is unpopular, he can not get his message across through the screen of the media's distortions, and of course he will not be re-elected.
But President Bush, despite the often weak, confused, and half-hearted execution of the policy that he has outlined in his public speeches -- the Bush Doctrine-- is right.
The Iraq War is as just and as noble a cause as the Korean War. Or the Vietnam War, but that's a matter for another post altogether.
And history, even if the only future historical account of our era is penned by an Aesopian historian in a future worldwide Caliphate, will record that President Bush was right, and that America's cause was just.
well done!
ReplyDeletePostmodernist leftists - who have dominated thre academy, the fedeal bureaucracy/DC-nomenclatura, and the MSM since WW1 - supported FDR and the West in WW2 because the USA was allied to the USSR.
As soon as WW2 ended and the USA and the USSR became adersaries - and the Cold War began - these postmodern leftists stopped supporting the USA and the West.
That's why they hated the Korean War and the Vietnam War and drove the presidents who waged them from office.
And they've been trying to do the same thing to GWB since 9/12/01.
Today, these postmodern leftists are allied with the neolib/isolationists. and they consider themselves realists - as if isolation, containment and appeasement were EVER viable strategies.
History has prove they are not.
And just as surely, history will show that Bush was right to abandon them once again and take the fight to the enemy. Peace though victory.
Joe Wilson/Plamegate was just the tip of the iceberg.