No more praise for America’s fighting spirit until we show it where it counts

An e-mail I wrote to Michelle Malkin on April 29:

You wrote:

Keep our special ops forces in your prayers as they continue to vital mission of killing the terrorists overseas before they kill us here.

Rough men

There’s a character trait that’s decided by fate
Comes (sadly) to many, far too faint, far too late.
They won’t face the aggressor, stand up to his ire
They have not the will to fight his fire with fire.
So they bend over backwards to see all sides as fair,
Till they’re faced with dragon breath fire in their hair.
Like our brethren in France, who’d know better than we,
Yet seem never to learn, seem doomed never to see.

I don’t believe in praising national courage while our country is in headlong surrender to invaders. To do so is to engage in vain and dangerous fantasies. It allows people to imagine that we’re strong and fighting, while in fact we’re in retreat.

I supported the invasion of Iraq, despite the fact that we were not confronting the invasion at home. I said to many anti-war conservatives, “The fact that Bush is not defending us at home does not mean that the fight in Iraq is not important. We can’t let our unhappiness with him on home front blind us to the importance of Iraq.”

But that was when we were invading Iraq to get rid of WMDs. Now what are we doing there? Not seeking to defeat the enemy, but rather treading water, until the Iraqi forces are competent enough that they can replace us as the water treaders. That is Bush’s own definition of “victory” in this supposed war. I don’t support a single American losing his life for that. I have been saying for years that we should withdraw our forces to an isolated base in the region, and if bad guys take over, go in and destroy them, which we’re good at (we’re not good at running and rebuilding a Muslim country), and beyond that have nothing to do with the internal affairs of any Arab country.

Let’s see some national courage employed against our real enemies right here at home, against enemies who directly threaten us and whom we can defeat, before we indulge in praising America’s fighting spirit. Until then, no more national self-congratulations.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 01, 2006 09:01 PM | Send