Sons and Daughters of Liberty

What does it mean to be an American today? Whether you are a U.S. citizen by birth, or a naturalized American, you should think about this daily. What is an American? What is it about our way of life and culture that makes millions of foreigners risk life and limb to get here? Do we have a unique American culture? Why do people fear us? Why are there those out to destroy us? These are the questions and issues that will be explored here.

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Location: Pasadena, California

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Democratic Party Needs Reform

If the Democratic Party hopes to make any gains this November and in 2008, they will need a major overhaul of their leadership, image, and their message, plain and simple. The Democrats in Washington have lost touch with the vast “Silent Majority” of American people that President Nixon once spoke of. From the Global War on Terrorism, to immigration reform, homeland security and the values that Americans hold dear, the Democrats have positioned themselves as weak, appeasing Europhiles, whose hatred of President Bush has blinded them to the realities of the global Islamist threat while preventing the Democratic leadership from developing any coherent war strategy or foreign policy.

Democratic double talk about “strengthening America at home” and troop “redeployment” just makes most Americans scratch their head and go “Huh?” Strengthen America here at home? We haven’t been attacked since 9/11; and where would the Democrats propose we “re-deploy” the troops we pull out of Iraq? Cleveland? We’re fighting Al Qaeda and their allied Islamist groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, and places where we already are. Is the Democratic Party fighting the same war everyone else is?

We’re in big trouble, people, and I’m a Democrat! Joe Lieberman was one of the few party giants who realized that despite one’s personal feelings for President Bush, the man, for better or worse, was taking the fight where it needed to be—to the enemy! So what can we—as Democrats—do to return our party to the glory days of FDR and JFK, and away from all we seem to be able to offer anybody—Bush-hatred?

For one thing, FORGET ABOUT BUSH! Can we get off him already? It’s killing us! George W. Bush didn’t steal any elections. He won them fair and square. We lost. Let’s move on. Besides, President Bush is halfway into his second term. He’s going to be history soon, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. Then the conduct of the war and the direction that our nation takes might be our problem, so let’s be careful what we wish for. The Democrats need to put a halt to any and all talk of impeaching Bush. We need to stop saying he lied to America about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction—everybody knows he didn’t. There are books about it. You can find his exact quotes.

We need to stop the propaganda that Bush took America to war in Iraq “unilaterally,” without the consent of Congress or the U.N. These are lies that just make Democrats look stupid, whiny, and vindictive. Bush had the authorization of Congress, he had the authorization of the U.N.—hell he was enforcing U.N. resolutions authorizing force against Saddam Hussein’s government! I’m not making this up, all of this can be found out there—look it up. And yes, Bush assembled a coalition of almost thirty nations for this effort, including the UK, Spain, Italy, and Poland. He did not “go it alone.”

Secondly, we need to get rid of the “Michael Moore” wing of the Democratic Party. These people aren’t Democrats. Who knows what they are? They might not even be Americans. The collection of Bush-hating Hollywood crackpots like Martin Sheen and Whoopi Goldberg; along with the radicals and socialists like Cindi Sheehan, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Reid, Maxine Waters, and (thank goodness she was voted out of office) Cynthia McKinney—that enemy of American law enforcement—are doing more to prevent Democrats from being elected that anything Bush could do. If Senator Hillary Clinton doesn’t become the first American woman to be elected President of the United States, it will be the fault of Democratic “Michael Moore” types. Sweep them out of office. We need to purge our leadership of these folks. They need to break away and form their own progressive socialist party or something.

How else can we clean up our act? The Democrats need to stop sucking up to Europe and the United Nations. They are not going to help us. A lot of the time they are trying to hurt us or see that we hurt ourselves. The Democratic Party is correct to cherish long-standing foreign alliances and to value diplomacy, but not blindly and with just anybody. A perfect example is France. Aside from nefarious business ventures with Saddam Hussein’s government on the eve of the launch of the Iraq Campaign in 2003, the French authorities actually provided information and “blueprints” to the Iraqi military regarding many of the weapons systems that the U.S. was prepared to use against them. It becomes quite clear why France and the United Nations were opposed to military action against Saddam’s regime. After all, U.N. Secretary General Khofi Annan was up to his neck in the “Food for Oil” scandal with Saddam Hussein.

What else can we do? President Bush and the Republican Party have been weak on immigration reform. But are the Democrats stepping up? No, and I’ll tell you why in a single word—AMNESTY! As long as we are perceived as the party supporting calls for amnesty for illegals, we’re doomed. The Democrats need to come forward with a realistic, definitive program for stopping the flow of illegal immigration while addressing the threat to our security that a porous border poses. The Democrats need to call for an end to “slave labor” wages that encourage the hiring of illegal immigrants while hurting American workers. Yes, paying American workers “American wages” would make the costs of everything rise, but that also means that salaries across the board would be raised too, evening it all out. I wouldn’t mind paying $20 for a head of lettuce if I was making $150,000 a year!

The Democrats are going to win the White House during this war. It is inevitable. The Global War on Terrorism—which may very well become World War III—isn’t going to end soon. In fact, our children in pre-school and Kindergarten today might be in uniform in fifteen years, fighting it. So we need to do more than the current administration has to prepare the American people for the struggle ahead. My biggest complaint against President Bush isn’t the cockamamie things Democrats have been harping on for the past five years. My concern is that Bush hasn’t done enough. He has yet to come out and identify Islamic fascism as the “enemy,” not “terrorism.” He has failed to put America on a “war economy,” nor has he asked Americans to sacrifice anything for the war effort. These are things that the Democrats need to start thinking about.

How’s this for a scary scenario—in less than twenty years, France will be an Islamic Regime, and the moon and crescent will fly over several other European capitals on that continent’s way to becoming an Islamic caliphate. What will we, as Democrats, be talking about then?

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Americans Learn Lessons From History the Hard Way

It is a blessing that the military and political leadership of the United States seems to be the most historically knowledgeable element of American society. If what appears in the media is any indication of what the American public understands about the Global War on Terrorism, we can all sleep better knowing that our common defense isn’t in their hands. Phrases like “No Blood for Oil,” and “War Is Not the Answer,” and the ridiculous attempts to get city councils to pass anti-war resolutions reveal how far removed many Americans are from historical and geopolitical reality.

The American public has always been slow in recognizing external threats not only to our own, but also the world’s collective security. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan are but the most glaring and shameful examples of American reluctance to look past our isolationist natures. That US military and materiel contributions in World War II more than made up for our late entry does not excuse American lack of foresight and resolve during the 1930s and early part of the war.

FDR and our military leadership were not to blame. Roosevelt early on recognized the threat to world peace that the Axis Powers represented, especially Hitler and the Nazis. It is a dark stain upon the American conscious that while Nazi panzer divisions were rolling across Europe subjugating millions of human beings, and Japanese forces were raping and murdering millions more in China, we had to wait until American lives were lost at Pearl Harbor before our “public” would stomach sending American troops to fight against tyranny. Ironically enough, there were still voices in the United States who questioned why we needed to focus our main effort against Nazi Germany, when it had been Japan that attacked Pearl Harbor! As if Nazi aggression wasn’t linked hand-in-hand with that of Imperial Japan.

Does this sound familiar?

There are Americans all around us today who do not understand that we are already at war. They seem to have forgotten that we have been at war since our country was attacked on September 11, 2001. United States military forces have been in continuous military operations in Afghanistan, and later, Iraq, ever since. We have military advisors and Special Operations forces fighting in the Philippines and East Africa. Currently, our military is preparing, if necessary, to launch another campaign in this war (not a “new” war) against the nuclear ambitions of the psychotic dictator in Iran. North Korea may be next.

Yet what do we hear and read about everyday? Americans asking why we are in Iraq, and perhaps later, North Korea? They’re not the ones who attacked America! It was Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization, backed by the Taliban government of Afghanistan. The Taliban’s fallen, and bin Laden’s probably dead, so we should all pack up, go home, and call it even, right? September 11’s been avenged. This war’s taking too long, it’s messing up my travel plans! Let the UN and Europe take care of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea—heck, Germany, France, and Great Britain got the world into the mess it’s in today, anyway! Who cares if Tehran and Pyongyang are trying to get nuclear weapons, we have them, too, so who are we to tell them what to do?

Can Americans really be this ignorant? Does anybody really believe that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda are completely separate organizations, with no ties whatsoever to any other militant Islamic group or Arab government? Does American public and UN/world opinion actually need President Bush to conjure up evidence that Iran and North Korea are threats to world peace? What will be good enough? A photo showing Iranian dictator Ahmadinejad shaking hands with bin Laden? North Korea declaring a resumption of nuclear development, and a right to preemptively attack the US? They’ve already done this. Captured plans revealing Ahmadinejad’s intention to bring “Death to the United States” and “Death to Israel?” We already know he would love nothing better than to achieve this goal. What kind of “smoking gun” does the US have to find that will make folks put down their “War Is Not the Answer” bumper stickers, and make the UN actually do something to fight evil?

Is this what Americans want? A world where US leadership, power, and the right to defend ourselves has been subordinated to a consensus of timid appeasers both here at home and in the United Nations, whose sense of history goes back only to the point where America became the world’s sole superpower? These people are cut from the same cloth as those who let Hitler march into Austria and annex Czechoslovakia. Today, those who would want “Peace in Our Time” are begging that “diplomacy” and “talks” run their course. They want “inspections” before action. They will do anything to delay a US attack on our enemies for who knows what reasons! Maybe so they can continue trading and cutting “Food for Oil” deals with them.

America did not wake up after September 11, 2001. Trust me, we are still asleep. We will continue to be asleep until Americans realize that there are evil forces in the world that hate us “just because.” They hate our culture, our power, our wealth, they hate how free we are, and they hate all the good that we have contributed to humankind. They will hate us whether we support their causes or oppose them. They will try to destroy us whether we march for peace or war. Even if we stopped backing Israel, withdrew all of military forces from every corner of the globe, and gave every poor person in the world a check for $1,000, those forces would still hate us and want to destroy us! They are only emboldened by timidity and appeasement, and understand no diplomacy other than violence. And we are in big trouble if we refuse to accept the fact that at this very moment, there are groups of people—agents of Al Qaeda, Ahmadinejad, Hizbollah, and North Korea, who are planning to seriously harm Americans and the United States. No, America will not wake up until one of our cities is destroyed.

In a side note, the Pasadena Unified School District Board once tried to get one of those anti-war resolutions passed just before we launched the Iraq Campaign. Part of the wording of the resolution reads, in effect, that the school board “opposes any military action against Iraq unless as a response to a direct military attack by that country.” Ironic, isn’t it? I wonder if Americans would think differently if on September 10, 2001, all of the companies in the World Trade Center had signed a similar resolution opposing military action against Al Qaeda and the Taliban regime, “unless as a response to a direct attack” by them.

Preemptive attacks always seem more attractive when you’re the one who’s going to get killed waiting for a “smoking gun.”

Any volunteers?