The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Right-Wing Cotton Candy

8.20.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 5 of 6)

I would like to add one bit of information regarding the response from Mark Tarnowski where he stated, "Will someone please tell Senator McCain to quit using the term 'My friends'? I bet he used it at least dozen times during the Saddleback interview. It sounds so disingenuous, like Richard Nixon's 'My fellow Americans.' It makes me cringe."

My memory is far from perfect, so I cannot recall if Richard Nixon ever used the words, "My fellow Americans." However, I am sure Mr. Tarnowski's memory is better than mine on this point so I trust he is correct. I would like to add that the phrase is older than Nixon because I can recall in my youth hearing Lyndon Johnson use those very words to begin an address. With respect to his Texas background however, he tended to pronounce them as "Mah fullow Amurcuns," which would sound very much the way they would be pronounced by Earl Pitts (Gary Burbank's hilarious character on the radio in Cincinnati some years ago). Mr. Burbank's signature radio signoff was pronounced, "Url Piyitts, Amurcun!" Consequently, if Nixon did use those words as noted by Mr. Tarnowski he first appropriated them from Johnson, and I cannot say with certainty that Johnson himself originated the phrase. But I would be willing to believe that Johnson had the most singular pronunciation for the phrase.

As to the point of Mr. Tarnowski's response, I agree. I do not know any state or federal politicians that I consider to be my friend. I do know quite a few that are certainly working to harm my family and that is about as far from friendly as you can get in my book. I can't pretend to know what form of address any presidential candidate should use, but I am not comfortable with politicians assuming I am their friend or assuming that I consider them to be my friend.
-- Craig Bondy
North Carolina

ON TARGET
Re: Christopher Holland's and Michael Tobias's letters (under "Feel the Chill") in Reader Mail's Primetime McCain and George Wittman's Refreezing the Cold War:

Christopher Holland and Michael Tobias are right on track with what's happening with Russia and Western reaction to it. I would go a step further and say that our pathetic response to the events in Georgia points up to something no one up the street in Washington has quite figured out or admitted -- our weakness. We have become what the Chinese Communists used to refer to us in the 1960s -- a paper tiger. Consider -- our industry has been hollowed out and gone to China, India and elsewhere -- we couldn't build a nuclear plant if we wanted to. All the modern engineering is done overseas now.

We have no surge capacity in our industry and are having a hard time meeting equipment needs in Iraq and Afghanistan with existing capacity.

Next -- we depend on imported oil to meet 70% of our requirements due to idiotic restrictions we have placed on ourselves in obeisance to the mythical earth goddess Gaia.

Next -- our currency has become debased over the last 8 years, hence one of the factors contributing to the high price of oil, seemingly by design by an administration that has to rank among the most incompetent in our history (I am ashamed to admit I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004). Next, our armed forces were gutted during the 1990s to give Clinton bragging rights over reducing the federal deficit; despite the superb performance of our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, we still haven't recovered from that and have sacrificed capabilities that had been resident prior to the mid-90's. While I was still on active duty in 2003, even then I heard talk from our Defense Secretary about CUTTING the number of troops. Utterly stupid, and even more so in the midst of a war or two. But the result of such a policy, of not increasing our armed forces when it would have mattered, is that our effective military capability is committed to the Middle East and Afghanistan. We are hard pressed to meet a threat from another quarter. In fact, it would be far better if Rice and Bush clammed up; we are in a position where we cannot back up this foolish, bellicose rhetoric.

The big lesson in all of this is: ENERGY IS POWER. Economic power, military power, political power flow from it. Most of the threats looming on the horizon, except for China, are energy exporters: Russia, Iran, Venezuela among others. China, which actually once did meet all of its needs domestically, is now pursuing its national interest by securing its supply lines -- overland and by sea via its naval buildup. We are losing our independence and freedom of movement, and we are on the verge of possibly electing a candidate representing a party which doesn't understand it (charitable) or doesn't give a damn (probably the more likely). Unless we go all out to develop ALL sources of energy to dramatically reduce our energy dependence on foreign sources, then we are at the mercy of external influences which are not benign.

Back to our industry and our economy, laissez faire economics and unfettered free trade after several decades of experience are discredited -- the desolation of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania were enough to convince me. If there really was a level playing field, then perhaps the theory would work. But, mercantilism is alive and well today, and we hang on to this naive notion that there is a level playing field, and our craven, corrupt, overpaid, incompetent CEOs of today continue to export capacity to become mere brokers of commodities and merchandise, and the Chinese, Indians and others are laughing their way to the bank.

The principal objective for a domestic industrial capacity, today as it was in the 1790s, is to meet national defense needs. The small Constitution Party has it right in their platform -- nothing less than a protective tariff regime, some sort of equalization to ensure products are not dumped into our markets, puts our people out of work and jeopardizes our industrial capability to provide for our national defense.

Back to Russia. Despite the seeming confidence of having planned and executed a successful joint combined arms military mission, the Russian bear has also shown us a few things about its military. It's still a conscript army which mauled a country with an army of approximately 30,000. Drunkenness is still a problem and apparently a number of soldiers didn't know what their mission was, even felt forced to do what they had to do. Its air force is ineffective. Despite its petro-wealth, the country still has a lot of problems. Outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, the majority of Russians still live in primitive conditions. The average life expectancy of a Russian male is not much past 62 years, due to alcoholism. The country is a demographic mess -- the Orthodox Slavic population is shrinking and aborting itself out of existence, while the Muslim population, inside and outside of Russia, enjoys high birthrates. The population of Siberia is decreasing, and I am sure the Chinese have covetous eyes on that rich source of mineral resources. Therein lies the silver lining, which may help bring Russia back to reality.

I have always considered that the U.S. and Russia could be allies, particularly against Islamist terrorism. In retrospect, our triumphalist attitude after 1991 and pushing NATO eastward beyond Poland caused us to lose an opportunity and helped to pave the way for a revanchist Putin. As long as he is on the scene, I see more nationalistic stirrings on the part of Russia. In fact, a year or so from now, I am looking for Russian advisors and troops making a return to the Caribbean -- Cuba and Venezuela -- to tweak Uncle Sam's nose, due to our lack of a REAL and forceful response to the aggression in Georgia.
-- Col. D. Moroco USMCR (Ret)
Quantico, Virginia

I was delighted to hear John McCain's bold response to the Medvedev-Putin-led Russian invasion of Georgia.

I was proud to hear his subsequent strong statements forewarning attendees of the August 18 Veterans of Foreign Wars convention that Russia's ambitions, as evinced by their action in Georgia, are increasingly resembling the same posturing that prompted the Cold War.

Letter to the Editor

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