Monday, January 29, 2007
I Support President Bush
It seems to me that I hear those four words far too infrequently these days. For a nation at war, that's just not right.
I support President Bush. Period. No qualifications, no "if only he would...", no "except for" pet peeves.
President Bush is the Commander in Chief of the United States armed forces. Those forces are fighting a war on our behalf, the outcome of which will determine the course of Western civilization for decades to come -- perhaps even centuries to come. If we don't want Islamic sha'aria imposed upon us, if we don't want to have to worry about daily Islamofascist terror attacks at our local supermarkets, then we need to support the President who is fighting these things.
Do I agree with the President on everything? Hell, no! I still cringe every time he says "nucular". "Intelligent design", I firmly believe, is a singularly bad idea. I still don't know what on Earth Bush was thinking with the UAE ports deal, and I'm relieved that the issue was taken out of his hands. The ever-growing Federal Government, which has grown tremendously on Bush's watch, truly alarms me. The list goes on.
But when your very survival is at stake, other issues become secondary. This is not the time to debate a higher minimum wage; rather, we should ensure the long-term survival of a country that can afford such things. And debating the merits of legalized gay marriage seems irrelevant, when we're fighting a war against an ideology that prefers its homosexuals dead.
Orson Scott Card, as is his wont, puts the matter quite well:
I'm a Democrat -- a Scoop Jackson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Joseph Leiberman Democrat. The kind that believes freedom is worth fighting for -- both our freedom of other people's as well.Indeed. We are now hearing, more and more, from both sides of the aisle, about "symbolic resolutions" to express disapproval of President Bush's management of the war, and of our national security. This is the equivalent of a passenger trying to wrestle the controls away from the driver. (Perhaps the passenger is a better driver; perhaps the current crisis could be handled better. But you don't switch drivers in the middle of a crisis, and you don't joggle his elbow; you help as much as you can, and then you stay out of his way.)
The kind that places the interest of the American people and, yes, of the world at large over the temporary political advantage that can be derived from attacking a President in wartime.
So when I watch Democratic leaders completely ignore the security interests of the United States in order to engage in cheap sloganeering ("bring our boys home!") and demagoguery, I am filled with shame and rage.
Are they really so completely ignorant of history that they do not realize the golden opportunity we have, and the disastrous consequences of not seizing it?
. . .
The Left always wants someone to "do something," but never wants to do anything that works. And never wants to admit that President George W. Bush has ever done anything right.
Well, he has; and the Democrats right now are doing something dangerously wrong. Every word they say strengthens and encourages our enemies, while discouraging and weakening our friends and allies in the Middle East. They are the best weapon Al Qaeda and the murderous Iranian and Syrian governments have against us. Every time they open their mouths in their misleading and deceptive attacks on Bush and demands for unilateral withdrawal from Iraq, they are helping ensure the future deaths of Americans and others, at home and abroad.
As Card points out, publicly challenging the President on his wartime leadership is not just speech; it actively emboldens our enemies. Our soldiers in the field are demoralized by knowing that their Congress does not support them or their mission -- and the terrorists see that demoralization, and are encouraged by it. This can, and will, result in the deaths of more American troops.
I can only wonder how our elected representatives, with their impassioned speeches against the President's new plan -- while presenting no reasonable alternative of their own -- would respond, if they only knew that their words made the deaths of Americans more likely, not less, as a direct consequence.
As a result, I have signed the pledge. And I want to declare, now more than ever, unequivocally and without reservation --
I support President Bush.
Do you?
Labels: GWB, U.S. politics
