Policy and Theorists
Deborah Venable
01/05/07
As
I perused the morning news and opinion columns a couple days ago, I found two
that bear commenting on. Both from the
same website – our friends at American
Thinker - these two columns deal with different if connected subjects; the
real trouble with America’s image is the connecting tissue of this recent
analysis on American war policy and the frenzy of conspiracy theorists.
Rewriting the Rules of
War,
by Colonel Thomas Snodgrass, a highly qualified expert on the subject, is the
clearest explanation for America’s difficulties with fighting her enemies since
World War II that I have ever seen encapsulated so succinctly. The terms he uses, limited war, and total war
define this problem impeccably. What
can be done about the effects of American policy being decided under the
constraints of one versus the other is
the big problem facing present and future leaders of America. It is also the challenge that faces the
people, for they are the reason the problem exists in the first place. The “new” strategy of limited war, embarked
on with the Korean conflict and continued throughout the rest of the century
and into this new millennium should have been abandoned almost from the outset
of its usage, but it wasn’t and it is the American people’s responsibility to
shoulder the flawed results. War can never
be “civilized” and yet academics and the apathetic ignorant refuse to admit the
error of thinking that everyone is going to play by rules that a morally
conscious society may dictate. In
warfare, the “right” side may only find comfort in the moral correctness of
their motivations and never in the constraint of artificial “rules of
war.” Until the American public and
those it chooses to lead the political and military process of foreign
relations can get with the program of winning the conflicts above all else, we
will continue to falter and waste lives and other valuable resources. And it will continue to be a much more
dangerous world than it could be.
A
Conspiracy Of Ignorance,
by David J. Rustin, a practiced academic of critical thinking, serves up a
painstakingly acute attack on the fallacy of 911 conspiracy theorists. As Mr. Rustin points out the shocking
reality that over one-third of the polled American public believes some
form of this flawed thinking, it certainly speaks to ignorance more than
anything else. I always like to throw
apathy after ignorance since the connection between the two cannot be
denied. Anyone who doesn’t care about
the results of such gullibility cannot be labeled with simple ignorance. As for the motivations of those choosing to
believe the possibility that America attacked herself in order to fight another
conflict that she would not have the heart to win, one can only assume
total ignorance. It has been said that
those who find the most fault with the American way of life are precisely the
ones who stand to suffer the most from its alteration. This is very true. Those of us who love and respect the American ideal do not expect
the guarantees of security from a collective that anti-American Americans most
certainly do. Rather, we realize that
freedom is the only security we need to pursue our own happiness and therefore
our security. The damage that
anti-individualist thinking can cause a collective dependent public cannot be
understood by those who are really only collective when it is to their personal
convenience advantage. An individualist
realizes that no collective can be called upon to serve individual whims
without paying a collective price.
Hence, we are not willing to give up an opponent’s right to speak his
mind. The same cannot be said of the
collective opponent.
I
had much rather believe that the publication of these two articles speaks to an
optimistic outlook for the prospects of American foreign and domestic policy
rounding the bend out of the dark ages of collective thinking into the bright
light of truth in judgment of what made America great and the motivation to
keep her that way. We must get on with
the important concerns of this modern world, and that includes fighting with a
unity of purpose to protect the American spirit, not the collective goal of
rewriting history to promote the ignorance.
However, brilliant men and women have been writing and publishing great
analysis of truth throughout all the decades of America’s decline, but fewer
people than ever choose to read and study any more – so ignorance, after all, is winning.
Vietnam
should have taught all Americans a valuable lesson, but political scandal of
the times seems to have erased much of that lesson. Just as political scandal of the more recent past blocked much
truth from the public eye as it preceded the present conflict with dangerous
enemies, the ignorance of the unread and unstudied public is more likely to
place its sympathies with the enemies than exhibit the much needed unity of
purpose against them. America’s
reputation took a hit in the latter part of last century not because of the
imperialistic qualities so many like to imagine, but because the public refused
to defend our allies against our common enemies. We abandoned those we had sworn to defend, and now too many would
see us do it again rather than win the conflicts that would free us both. We are a sick society and that illness does
not bode well for our ability to achieve this peace that everyone is clamoring
for.
It
is sad that the passing of a hideous dictator is viewed with such controversy
and consternation in a land that has always hated the concept of hideous
dictatorial regimes and championed victories against them. It is also sad that the recent passing of a
mediocre at best and severely lacking at worst president should cause the media
outcry for bestowed honors beyond those truly earned. While the man was surely of far above average character, he was
not the great healer that he is being heralded as today. Those doing the most heralding were guilty
of throwing the most stones during his short tenure.
Conspiracy theorists could better use their deductive skills to weed out real conspiracies before they take such root as is needed to overcome our national sovereignty, for they are out there – the REAL conspiracies I mean. The conspiracies of the government education system in this country to socialize present and future generations, the conspiracies of well-paid lobbyists to control every aspect of our legislative process through collective means as opposed to protecting the interests of the individual American spirit, and the conspiracies of the haves and have nots to squeeze the life out of middle America and the American dream while trumpeting such nonsense as government security and political correctness. As we grow individually weaker, the federation of power over us grows stronger. It IS a conspiracy, and it has been going on for a very long time.