The Solar Rhino

I originally wrote this post (as "hottub") as a comment on this blog entry. After editing a bit, I decided to re-post it here:

You know, somebody should just tell the truth about all this. Critics of the war, especially Hollywood critics, don't give a rat's ass about the soldiers. A death count of 2000+? There were training exercises during WWII that killed more Americans.

They don't really care about the welfare of the Iraqis either. After all, what were the alternative to this war? The embargo? Doesn't anybody remember when, during the Clinton years, UNICEF estimated that the embargo killed 1M Iraqis, half of them children? Of course, most of whatever harm was done was the result of the corrupt conspiracy between the U.N. and Saddam Hussein himself, but it was the embargo that made that possible. Tell me, which is better for the Iraqis - taking 100K losses in a struggle to be free, or being starved and neglected with no end in sight?

The truth is, these critics care about is preserving the mythos of the Viet Nam protesters and draft dodgers. Remember them? These sons of the Greatest Generation, spoiled by the enormous success and productivity of their victorious parents, didn't want to go and risk death in some swamp. I know, I was there - just young enough to avoid being drafted myself – and I assure you, that was the reality underlying all the protests.

The trouble is, saying you were against Viet Nam because you feared for your own skin just sounds a little too ignoble after all these years. After all, millions of South Vietnamese and Cambodians were butchered as a result of our abandonment. That's the main reason, in my opinion, why the aftermath of our sudden pullout is so rarely discussed.

Of course, Viet Nam really was a stupid war for us - it wasn't going to make the U.S. more or less safe no matter which way it went. But they can't say that too loudly either. Someone might notice that it was Kennedy and Johnson who made that mistake. That would unravel the amazingly successful efforts to pin the Viet Nam war on Nixon.

Far better to pretend that, somehow, after only one generation, the sons and daughters of Americas greatest warriors suddenly became so enlightened as to realize that war is always bad, and peace is always good - even if "peace" means injustice, danger, and the suffering of millions.

No wonder the left is so angry. They got away with this sleight-of-hand for years, but now the deception is finally being exposed for the nonsense that it is.

Iraq isn't Viet Nam. Winning there will make the U.S. much, much safer. Al Qaeda certainly thinks so – why doubt them? Besides, what are the alternatives? As I've already pointed out, continuing the embargo against Iraq would have only hurt the Iraqi people. Dropping the embargo would have been even worse. An unleashed Hussein would have unquestionably endangered the entire Middle East - a region that even peacenik J. Carter acknowledged was a "vital National Interest" – never mind the rest of the world. Or do anyone think that S.H. somehow decide to live in peace, forgiving-and-forgetting that the entire region supported the U.S. in kicking him out of Kuwait?

And the American men and women fighting in Iraq are not draftees, they're volunteers... volunteers who are re-enlisting at a record pace no less. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to protest against their deployment anywhere in the world - that's what they signed up to do.

War can be both good and bad. War of aggression, war for conquest – those are wars we can live without. But the threat of war is sometimes necessary, as is willingness to make war when the threat is ignored. War of liberation, war against clear and present dangers – those wars are good wars, and must be fought and won.

The only good thing about the liberal hysteria about this subject is that, hopefully, all of this will eventually be made crystal clear. Perhaps then the U.S. will finally be able to shake off the malaise caused by its deliberate self-deception, and resume it's rightful place of leadership in an ever freer world.