Curmudgeons Corner

by John Dawson

Jan 19, 2005

The Choice is Win or Die

Well, here it is, another Presidential Inauguration. Happy Inauguration Eve! There are the traditional festivities planned, as well as some new-tradition protests staged by the malcontents whose man was defeated.

One has to wonder if we will ever again have an election where one side clearly wins, both sides acknowledge the fact, and we all then get on with our lives and address the  business at hand. If the last couple of elections are any indication, we may not.

The 2000 election in Florida caused a considerable fuss, and it was many days before we knew who had won. The standard Democrat mantra since has been that Bush stole the election, and they love to say he was not elected to the presidency, but, rather, was “appointed” to the position by the U.S. Supreme Court.

With teams of precinct workers scrupulously studying the ballots to discern how the voter really meant to vote, and very selective re-counts being proposed that would have been very beneficial to one side only, the whole process was becoming more like a circus than an election with each passing day. When all this is being remembered by the Democrats, little is said about their tireless efforts to not count the Florida military absentee ballots which went by a large margin to Bush...

There were several studies of the votes after the fact by a variety of groups, at least one decidedly pro-Gore, and all concluded Bush had won. This is not talked about much, either.

Now we have endured the 2004 election. Bush was re-elected by a comfortable majority, the first to do so since his father won by a majority in his election. People tend to forget President Clinton did not get a majority of the votes either time he ran.

But, in spite of Bush’s receiving a significant majority of the votes, the wailing and hand wringing from the left continues as in the 2000 election. This time, those folks insist, Bush stole the election in Ohio.

As a result, there will be some anti-Bush demonstrations tomorrow along the parade route and outside some of the parties..

Under ordinary circumstances, all this would be high drama and great fun. Unfortunately, these are not ordinary circumstances. We are in a war potentially more dangerous than World War II. This is so because we are not dealing with standing armies or national boundaries. We are at war with a group that does not want to conquer us, it wants to kill us.

Regardless of our personal political beliefs, we should never forget one thing – all this did not begin with the invasion of Iraq, or even the 9/11 attack. All this started a number of years earlier. There have been about ten such attacks, including military barracks, overseas embassies, the U.S.S. Cole, and, of course, the earlier attempt to take down the World Trade Center. With the passage of time the terrorist acts became progressively better planned and more brazen and deadly. Does anyone really think this sort of thing would cease had we not invaded Afghanistan or Iraq?

It is confession time. I have to admit once in a while I can change my mind. As I watched that dissipated buffoon, Senator Teddy Kennedy, blathering on last week about all the mistakes our President has made, and how Iraq is indeed Bush’s Viet Nam, it suddenly occurred to me, contrary to what I’ve stated before, that there is a great similarity between Viet Nam and Iraq.

You may recall that long after our involvement in Viet Nam ended, the communist government admitted they knew they were beaten on the battle field, but on the basis of what they knew of the anti-war sentiment here in America, they knew they would ultimately succeed – and they did.

Tragically, we are in the early stages of doing the same in Iraq. In Viet Nam, it took the better part of a decade for the people to really turn against the war. In Iraq, it started before the initial invasion, at least with the “loyal opposition” political party, the hostile media, the Hollywood intelligensia, and, of course, a large percentage of the college faculties.

There is one very important difference, however. In Viet Nam we could have left at any time – as we did – and the war would be over. We can leave Iraq with the job undone, and we will merely have shifted the battlefield from Iraq to America. An encouraged enemy can then assault us here at home. And they will.

My greatest fear, and I pray I’m wrong, is that the next atomic weapon detonation will take place here in the United States. Be assured, the amount of aid and comfort we are currently giving the terrorists will only compound this danger.

We have a simple choice – and it’s ours to make. Do we choose to win or to have a significant number of us die?

Which will it be, Teddy?