The American Spectator

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When the Going Gets Rough

12.11.06 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

I hated to see Rumsfeld go for that reason alone -- he was capable of skewering and serving his inquisitors up en brochette at every press briefing. Delightful.

I have an idea! Get yourself a temporary press pass. Join the cream of journalists at the White House briefing, rise and say "With all due respect, President Bush, your problem is you can't talk." And offer to tutor him. It would be a service to your country.
-- Diane Smith
South San Francisco, California

Lawrence Henry is a prime example of a conservative catch-22 -- mythologizing Ronald Reagan. By mythologizing Reagan they're making it impossible for any conservative leader to measure up. The real Reagan cut and ran from Lebanon, raised income taxes twice to appease the Democrats and warmly embraced James Baker with open arms. The less than eloquent, but real George W. Bush is the only U.S. President to actually fight Islamic terrorism, has never raised income taxes and seems to be politely telling the "Iraq Study Group" and majority of cowardly Americans -- "thanks, but no thanks" when it comes to surrendering to Islamic imperialism.

Face reality: the majority of Americans are bored with the war. Not even Reagan (who passed on the chance fight Islamic terrorism) or Lincoln (who was probably won reelection through Democrat methods) could motivate the American public out of its self-induced stupor. Sadly, far too many Americans in the Northeast and on the left coast with a sizable sprinkling in the Midwest are morphing into gutless Eurabians. Maybe in the next Clinton or McCain administration when the Muslims have nuked New York City or are killing lily white liberals in New England with suicide bombers we'll finally appreciate George W. Bush who's keeping America safe despite itself.

Finally, before swallowing all the BS on the war conservatives should talk to the Marines, Sailors, Coasties, Soldiers and Airmen doing the fighting. We're winning, but despite the low casualty rate and the threat of Islamic imperialism Americans would rather complain than support their Commander-in-Chief and military. Fortunately for them the ineloquent George W. Bush isn't Reagan and he'll keep fighting despite the growing desire for national suicide.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

Jeff Jacoby partially nailed it when he said, "...I would wager that countless Americans are upset with Bush, not because he isn't skedaddling from Iraq quickly enough, but because he seems to have no serious strategy for winning..."

Given that the Democrats and liberals seem to have only an exit strategy and are committed to losing and abandoning Iraq -- consequences be damned -- how is the Dems' and liberals' being the new Congressional majority reconciled to Jacoby's assertion?

Regardless of an answer, as you say, it does appear that we've lost this one and a great deal more. Likely those yet-to-be-fully-calculated-and-felt losses will not only haunt us and the rest of the world for decades, maybe longer.

President Bush could've prevented that, I think, if he'd but told the truth about the war against Islamic fascists and terrorists, and about the real effort required for victory. But the snipers who constantly shot at him bear almost as much responsibility. To date, they seem to have hit their target and got the desired results, haven't they?
--- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, West Virginia

I agree with everything you said in this article. I have long believed and stated that we are not killing our enemy brutally enough nor fast enough. We are at war, but you would think that we were in a '50s rumble, with codes of honor at stake. Yesterday (Dec. 8) I saw TV footage of the aftermath of a firefight in which 20 or so insurgents were killed. The most impressive images that I saw were those of the children's faces. Usually they are somewhat happy and jubilant just to be on camera, you know the scene, but these kids yesterday looked stunned. There was no joy in their appearance. The look was "jeez, did you see that ?..they [ the Americans] f****d those guys up real bad. They looked real serious about killing these bastards." We will only win hearts and minds of the people in Iraq by being in bin Laden's words "the strong horse." If they truly want freedom they will follow us, but only if the seriousness of our commitment demonstrates clearly that we are the "strong horse" and we can only do that now by being dead serious in our will to kill to win.

You don't see that much in this war, but it is what is needed. We have to get serious about killing, crushing, obliterating this enemy, without mercy because they are enemies of humanity and all that humans find decent in this world. We should condemn them to hell and the media and populace that supports them and never look back.

I am afraid that Mr. Bush doesn't have the guts to do it and that saddens me. Our troops deserve better support that what they get from their generals and their commander-in -chief....this from a longtime Bush supporter. Shame, shame on us.

Thank you for listening,
-- Gene Hauber
Meshoppen, Pennsylvania

PRAYERS FOR DAWKINS
Re: Richard Kirk's Exercise in Contempt:

Nice article.
-- Paul Brown

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