Posted by
Buddy on Thursday, January 11, 2007 6:49:31 PM
I have little use for Buchanan. It is actually worse than that. I can't stand him. He is a screaming anti-Semite. As a Christian I consider myself joined at the hip with the Jews. Anti-Semitism makes very little sense to me. I've complained to my friend Bob Fruitman on a number of occasions about my inability to understand it. As far as the points raised in your e-mail are concerned he does identify some issues.
I personally think the problem in Iraq is that the terrorists are pouring in from the surrounding Muslim world. An Arab democracy is antagonistic to Islamic theocracy. So is Israel.
I understand the hatred of the Jews by Muslims much better. In fact, I'm over half way through reading A book entitled, "Islam and the Jews" by Mark A. Gabriel that makes it pretty clear. Dr. Gabriel is an Egyptian who had memorized the Quran by the time he was 12 years old and went on to become a professor of Islamic history and culture at an Egyptian University in Cairo. He was a Muslim for 34 years before he converted to Christianity. His book is loaded with quotes from the Quran. I recommend his book to everyone. The Muslim religion is not one of peace. It is a religion that preaches hatred and murder of non-Muslims, primarily, Jews.
If Iraq is a colossal mess than we should obviously try something different. I am not convinced that it is a mess. Even if it is, we should not turn tail and run at the first sign of difficulty. Consider the sorry straits our revolutionary army was in before Valley Forge, the Union army was in before Gettysburg, the Allied armies in both the first and second world wars before we were able to turn the tide of battle. Admittedly, this is different and our task, as I view it, is to try to train Iraqis and Afghans to the task and provide a measure of security while they get up to speed. As far as what to do is concerned I am satisfied to leave that up to the president and his advisers. The way things are now every politician, would be politician, journalist, would be journalists, pundit, and would be pundit thinks he or she knows how to run the war. There can only be one commander-in-chief. He gives the orders and the troops follow. Congress has the power to declare war and I wish it had. Instead, it simply passed legislation empowering the President to invade Iraq. However, having done that, it a then became the president's job and solemn duty to conduct the war and the best way possible. If the president and his commanders in the field believe we need more troops,, we need more troops. As far as I can recall they have consistently said they do not need more troops. There's an excellent reason for this. Today's Army has very little use for cannon fodder. War is technological these days and those who wage it must be highly trained technicians. You cannot hand them a rifle and send them to the front. All you'll get is a dead soldier. The technological prowess of our military is, to me, astounding. My astonishment is only outdone by my astonishment at the number of unqualified people who want to second-guess what we're doing and how. My son, whom I love dearly, is a great Monday morning quarterback. In fact, he doesn't even wait for Monday morning. That is relatively harmless when it comes to football. It is not harmless when it comes to war or foreign affairs.
As to whether or not we should invade Iran and whether or not Israel is urging us to do so I pray that those who are in a position to make such a decision have wisdom and do the right thing. I do believe that negotiating with Ahmadinejad who is an outright madman committed to starting a global war would be the ultimate folly. There seems to be an uncommon unanimity of opinion that we cannot allow Iran to get a nuclear bomb. Beyond that I'm unaware of anybody that has a workable plan. Military action may be our only option. I certainly hope not. On the other hand, the United Nations is useless and is little more than a platform for those who wish to criticize America and our allies.
There's never been a military power to even come close to what we possess at the present time. I think the risk is that we're so feckless and cowardly that we will not use it. The comparison with with the late 30s and Hitler and his allies is inescapable. As far as Buchanan is concerned I am unaware of him having any particular military qualifications and I think he's a big blowhard anyway.
The last point touches a nerve. I lived in the Marysville-Yuba City area for the last 40 years and still have an office there. There are four rivers within about 25 miles of those two cities and two of them run right through town. The smallest of the four is the Bear River. The other three are formidable. The Yuba River and the Feather come together right in Marysville & Yuba City (the two cities are separated by the feather River). Those flow into the Sacramento river 25 miles south of Yuba City. The two cities are protected by levees. Periodically, the rivers reach flood stage and the levees fail. The last time, I heard to my surprise, that FEMA was handing out checks and that all one had to do was go and tell them that you needed emergency funds and they would give you a check. I thought that was really extraordinary and a wonderful thing for the government to do. There were also a few government helicopters flying around plucking people off the tops of houses. I thought that was wonderful too. It never occurred to me that it was the federal government's duty to save everybody or anybody and I certainly did not think, nor do I do now, that the federal government has any business rebuilding the area.
In New Orleans, the scope of the damage was enormous and certainly greater than the damage sustained by Mississippi. However, Mississippi apparently took care of its own problems with, I assume, some government help. The fiasco in New Orleans was perhaps, in part, a federal shortcoming for not acting sooner but it seems clear that the city of New Orleans and the State Louisiana were the first responders and have their own share of the blame for things not going well. From a conservative point of view, however, the first response should have been that of the people who lived in New Orleans.
The entire Yuba City area was evacuated during one of our flood scares. People did what they were told. It went very smoothly, and everybody got out that was willing to leave in a matter of hours. If anyone sat around on his butt waiting for some government agency to come and rescue them, I don't know who it was.
To sum up my feelings, the individual has the first responsibility. In the event that individuals need some help it should come from the lowest level of bureaucracy first and then as each level is unable to bear the burden, if that turns out to be the case, shared by the layer above it.
As usual, I run on. In conclusion, however, I wish Buchanan would drop out of sight.