The Politics of Survival
One of my favorite Mark Twain quotes is, “There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” That sums up how I feel about politicians on most days. Perusing their low approval ratings, it appears I’m not alone in thought. Not all members of Congress are of the criminal class as Mr. Twain expressed it. On most days, however, the manner in which they go about doing what we hired them to do should be a crime.
I believe that most people we elect aim to be good public servants when they arrive in Washington DC. They mean to be good stewards of our resources, pass sensible legislation, look out for the public safety, defend us… things that our government is supposed to do. Following a few terms in office and a taste of power, pork, and privilege many of them become career politicians. When that happens, you and I lose. America loses.
I don’t much care for political party affiliation. I’ve been a registered Democrat and a registered Republican. Our system with two major parties is the best the world has to offer and works fine, until the politicians screw it up. They screw it up when the focus becomes the sport of politics and ceases to be public service. When the party in the minority has as its focus the destruction of the party in the majority rather than service to our country, the system fails. For a few minutes past 9/11, the system served us. Since then it’s failed us for the simple reason that those within the system are more focused on politics than on the most important problem confronting our country. The politicians of both parties need to understand that if we disengage on any front, which most certainly includes Iraq, in our war against the Islamic fascists we’ll all need to go out and buy dhimmi suits and burkhas.
There’s an awful lot of political prognosticating going on right now. The political pollsters, strategists and pundits are in their glory coming up to November. They’ve temporarily displaced the retired Generals on the cable channels. If their political prophesies hold true, logic tells us we’ll end up with the ultra-anti-war left leading our country. If that happens, we may as well dig in for America’s version of Custer’s last stand.
The ultra left is abandoning candidates who support the war, even if they’re 99 percent liberal otherwise. This is why popular liberal politicians who voted for the war are now publicly against it. The ultra right is threatening to stay away from the polls in November to teach their candidates a lesson for not being conservative enough. This is why conservatives are stumbling over one another while trying to appear more conservative than the next guy is. Both political parties have liberals and both have conservatives. Both have sensible people that have the best interests of the country at heart. Both have people who’d cut a Faustian deal with Satan just to keep his or her job or to put their party in power in Congress or the Whitehouse. Our job is to sort them out and ensure the right people are on the job after November.
People knowledgeable in history are pointing out for us the similarities between the rise of Nazism and the rise of Islamic fascism. There are some marked differences however, the most prominent being that other Western countries did not have large populations of Nazis within their borders and Islamic fascism has been on the rise for over a thousand years, but most notably since 1979. The major similarity is the head in the sand appeasement approach toward them. History can teach us about past errors made in similar situations. With even a general knowledge of history, we should be able to avoid repeating past mistakes. 1938 and 1939 are finally entering the public debate. It’s unfortunate that our current leaders waited until now to bring out what many of us have been talking about for sometime. I think, however, that Americans need to know our more recent history to understand where the wrong choice at the polls will take us.
Republican President Eisenhower supported the French in their Indochina war, right up until their defeat at Dien Bien Phu. He then supported the government of South Vietnam with economic aid and military equipment. When the communists continued to threaten South Vietnam, it was “bear any burden, fight any foe” Democrat President John Kennedy that committed U. S. advisors. Democrat President Lyndon Johnson escalated U. S. involvement dramatically increasing the numbers of troops. He had more U. S. troops in Vietnam than we have currently serving in the Active Army. For all of those calling for more troops on the ground in Iraq let this be a lesson for you. We can put a Soldier on every square foot of Iraqi terrain and still fail behind stupid politics. Republican President Richard Nixon inherited Vietnam, the anti-war leftists and a Democrat Congress. Read very carefully his 1969 speech on Vietnamization of the war. If you have knowledge of current affairs, you can’t help but see the striking similarities between then and now – politically speaking.
Vietnamization was the process whereby we trained, equipped and supported the South Vietnamese so that they could defend themselves and we could leave. Former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird gives an explanation in this essay suggesting that we might better heed this lesson from Vietnam. Historian Victor Davis Hanson explains how that failure and others led us to 9/11 with a promise of more to come if we quit again. You can read a recap of the legislation Mr. Hanson and Secretary Laird references in this Congressional Research Service paper - legislation that withdrew funding and established timetables and strength levels for U. S. Troops. While Ted Kennedy and John Kerry traded high-fives, with support withdrawn, South Vietnam collapsed and the Cambodian killing fields opened for business. The new politics of survival are about the survival of our country not the politicians. Our country’s survival depends on the choice we make to go to the polls and the choices we make when we get there. Have no doubts. If the wrong group is in power following November elections, they are prepared to repeat the political failures of Vietnam. The difference this time? The communists stayed in South East Asia and killed their own. If we run from the Middle East, the jihadists will bring the battle to our neighborhoods.
Copyright (C) 2006 J. D. Pendry