Monday, January 31, 2005

Tom Wolfe

Fire of Liberty

Tom Wolfe wrote a wonderful Op/Ed in the Sunday issue of The New York Times titled, "The Doctrine That Never Died." Wolfe just argues that President Bush's Inagural address was the 21st century's continuation of the Monroe Doctrine. He sited Teddy Roosevelt's December 4, 1904 speech where TR stated:
"Tyrants and oppressors have many times made a wilderness and called it peace. ...The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven weakness, the peace of injustice, all these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous war. ... The right of freedom and the responsibility for the exercise of that right cannot be divorced."

He also noted Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts promoting another plank in Monroe Doctrine in 1912, where he pushed through the passage of the Lodge Corollary. Which basically stated that no foreign government could have "practical power of control" over our nation. Which the government suspected Japan was doing.

A third plank was the promotion of George Kennan's policy of Containment, which was culled from his famous article Mr. X article in in Foreign Affairs. Basically we would stop Communist actions in our hemisphere. Such a policy would exist until Reagan's rollback policy that push the Soviet monolith into an ash heap.

The final plank in the Monroe Doctrine, so far, is what President Bush is persuing. The Hemisphere of James Monroe has expanded to the entire world. Wolfe notes that the President is following through with the objective with this passage:

"America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," President Bush said. He added, "From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth."


This sums it up on Iraq vote

Fire of Liberty

I think the brothers Omar and Mohammed @ Iraqthemodel.blogspot.com summed up the vote in Iraq with the following statement:

"We had all kinds of feelings in our minds while we were on our way to the ballot box except one feeling that never came to us, that was fear. We could smell pride in the atmosphere this morning; everyone we saw was holding up his blue-tipped finger with broad smiles on the faces while walking out of the center. I couldn't think of a scene more beautiful than that..."

The UN just doesn't get it

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Kofi and the gang are refusing to classify the horrors in Darfur as genocide. Based on an article in The Financial Times, the UN released a report, that noted Janjaweed militia participated in massive killings and targeted a particular group of people to slaughter. Unfortunately, the people at Turtle Bay couldn't say the acts were genocide but said the militia had committed "serious violations of international...law".

Their solution, send the case to the International Criminal Court. As with everything at the UN, "kick-the-can" is their favorite game. Whether its Rwanda, Sudan (late 90's), Darfur, Srebenicia, Kosovo, or Iraq, they just kick the can down the road hoping the problem will fade away. Had the UN acted in these war-zones before these atrocities occurred, they wouldn't be passing it off the the crazy ICC.

Thank God for the US.

Jonah Goldberg at NRO

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I really enjoyed Jonah Goldberg's recent Goldberg File "The Stuff Nations are Built On," where he noted that some predictions and assessments on Iraq and the terror war by Fareed Zakaria and David Brooks havn't come to fruition.

His argument against Zakaria is that he mocked Francis Fukuyama's wonderful article and subsequent book The End of History and the Last Man. Zakaria argued in a post 9/11 article that Fukuyama's end of history was ending with these attacks. Unfortunately Zakaria was wrong because the end of history, i.e. the best way to organize one's society is via a liberal democracy not in the totalitarian style that exists in the Outposts of Tyranny.

Whats more interesting is what Goldberg points out in his article. While Zakaria argued in his article that Fukuyama saw terrorism only as a mere opponent to liberal democracy rather than a competitor. Zakaria implied in his article that Bin Laden and his minion had restarted a new struggle to history. Unfortunately, Goldberg pointed out that any group that offers only death and pain will always lose to the ideology of freedom the exists in a liberal democracy. With these choices, the Iraqi's chose the liberal democracy route.

The other notion that was dissolved was David Brooks New York Times article "For Iraqi to Win, the U.S. Must Lose." Brooks argued that since we didn't defeat the Iraqi people like we did Saddam or the Germans in WWII, we had taken a sort of ownership of the country from the population.

Based on Goldberg's assessment, It seems like the Iraqis have gotten behind the wheel of dad's Buick and is about to take the learners license test of democracy. Yes it is true that the U.S. will come along for the ride but the people of Iraq are driving the car down the road to the city known as liberal democracy.

Check out Jonah's interesting article.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the gang @ The Corner .

Bush's speech

Fire of Liberty

A certain amount of people in the media have observed that President Bush's 2nd Inagural speech is a warning shot to all dictators within the World. While it is true that the President has given a warning to the Egyptians, Saudis, Pakistanis, Chinese and various others in what Secretary of State Rice calls the "Outposts of Tyranny", he meant it as a generational fight. Reagan dealt with such a situation with Marcos, Chun Doo Hwan (ROK) and Pinochet. Such is spelled out in Duncan Currie's Weekly Standard article "Bush Versus "Our SOBs"".

The best part of the article is this quote by Charles Krauthammer:
"The essence of foreign policy is deciding which son of a bitch to support and which to oppose--in 1941, Hitler or Stalin; in 1972, Brezhnev or Mao; in 1979, Somoza or Ortega. One has to choose. A blanket anti-son of a bitch policy . . . is soothing, satisfying and empty. It is not a policy at all but righteous self-delusion."

Harry Reid trying to avoid Poison of Daschle

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On FNC's Special Report, Rep. Pelosi is talking about aggressive training of Iraqi troops but voted against the $87 billion just like Kerry. I guess San Fran Nan knows best. Ironic for this dove calling on the President to strengthen up the spine of Iraqis, when she called it a disaster several months ago. And Kennedy is still stuck in his Vietnam analogy. I can imagine his brother John rolling over in his grave when Teddy speaks on foreign policy.

I guess he failed to read Jack's inaugural Address, where he stated:
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
As for Reid, he stated we shouldn't lay out any time frames for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. The brave Nevadan, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman know what standing behind our troops until their work is done is all about. Will the new Dem. attack squad learn from these brave souls. Here's hoping Reid doesn't become a nattering nabob of negativism like King Daschle.

Anglosphere Challenge: Tools to fight tyranny

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Professor Arnold Kling (Ph.D., Economics) has a interesting examination of the Left and the problems that the party faces in getting back on top. In the same manner Peter Beinhart argued for an re-examination of the Democratic Party's approach to foreign policy in his New Republic article A Fighting Faith, Kling argues that the parties within the West, namely the Democratic Party should return to the roots of yesteryear. This return is done best by returning to the Anglosphere. Since the US is considered a member of the Anglosphere the revert will require little or no work.

While the article The Anglosphere Challenge to the Political Left is a review of James C. Bennett's The Anglosphere Challange, Kling also offers a bevy of insight on what the roots to success include. He reflects on four specific areas that are unique in our society, which are:

1) Our Anglospheric culture, as Bennett calls it, enables people to form and break relationships easily. In economist's terms, the costs of entry and exit are low.

*Kling noted that Americans have always found ways to form associations within the community of inhabitants. Such associations date back 200 plus years ago and were revealed in Alexis de Tocqueville's fabulous book On Democracy. People can move beyond the differences between them and enter and exit freely in such associations.

2) The ability to formulate and dissolve partnerships is very important in the real world of business, yet it receives relatively little attention in business school, much less in economics.

*Kling notes that partnership formulations are also essential. Ex. Legal agreements, Market transactions.

3) In the 1960's and 1970's, a book with the ambition, scope, and intellectual power of The Anglosphere Challenge would have been written by an academic.

*Unlike the 60's & 70's, books and thought proking ideas have moved outside the sphere of academia. Just look at his list. Blogs have also replaced the settings. The academics are freed from their academic plantations. They can spread their wings. The left can't hack outside the sphere.

4) Today's political Left is focused on group solidarity rather than on building a coalition.

*The Dems need to move away from the like minded, lock-step groups like Moveon.org. Do as conservatives, accept libertarians, social conservatives, deficit hawks, supply-siders, pro/anti- immigration, neo-conservatives and paleo-conservatives. Ex. More Liberman's less Pelosi's.

Overall, it's a great book. It's on my list.


Election

Fire of Liberty

The elections in Iraq, Afghanistan and to a lesser extent the ones in the Palestinian territories resembles an scene from The Return of the King. Within the movie you see these various villages and outposts throughout Middle Earth lighting signal fires for a call for help.

In the same manner that the people of Middle Earth started these fires , the champions of Liberty and Freedom within these various countries have lit their own signal fires. Instead of calling for help, these signal fires have provided people within the Middle East with a spark of inspiration to aspire for their God given rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We welcome people who embrace the concepts of Freedom and Liberty and who want to escape the darkness of Tyranny.

Freedom on the march

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I can imagine the mullah's in Iran, the thugs of Syria, and the other dictators throughout the region are shaking in their loafers. I guess their a little un-nerved that freedom is surrounding them. To the West you have Israel, to the East, Afghanistan and Iraq which sits in the heart of the beast of the Middle East. Add in Turkey and these Outposts of Tyranny are completely surrounded and are coming closer to seeing the fires of freedom that exist in the great Shining City on the Hill.

I guess freedom and liberty are pretty good concepts, unless you are the "deer in the headlights" MSM folks that President Bush noted in his most recent press conference. Reagan had the same effect on them. Lord, the MSM are dullards some times.

Fire of Liberty

Fire of Liberty

Just think, some 37 years ago yesterday (January 30th, 1968), the MSM and Walter Cronkite were yelling the sky is falling and all things are lost. While they were wrong about the Tet Offensive (where we eventually won the battle and beat back the attackers). Even some days earlier, blowhards like Teddy Kennedy, Boxer and Byrd were expressing the same arguments about Vietnam and the emerging "quagmire". Along with that, Kerry is still giving his election spill and downplaying the President's notion of spreading the fire of liberty and ensuring other's freedoms.

It's amazing how the people of Iraq demonstrated their desire for to be free when they opted to defy the terroristic thugs and choose the own representatives. We all know that this in one of the many steps that the Iraqis must take to eventually become a modern democratic state but is still a giant leap compared to the years under Saddam.

I wish our freinds in Iraq a fruitful future and our troops God's Speed

First Post

Hey,

How about the wonderful exhibition of Liberty by the Iraqi people.