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Jewish World Review August 22, 2005 / 17 Av,
5765
Bill O'Reilly
Deja vu, all over again
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Thirty-five years ago this summer, the USA was exploding in
protest over the Vietnam War. And today, the radical left wants to revisit
those awful days by replicating the anti-war movement over the Iraq
conflict. The question is, will they succeed?
As you know, the radicals have latched on to Cindy Sheehan, who
lost her son, Casey, in Iraq. Mrs. Sheehan strikes me as a decent woman who
has no clue with whom she is currently swimming. Sensing a chance to
humiliate President Bush, the Michael Moore crowd has rallied around Mrs.
Sheehan, and she has become the anti-Iraq war poster person. But it's sad to
watch this woman being used by organizations that not only oppose the Iraq
war, but also believe the USA is a fundamentally flawed nation. Cindy
Sheehan's byline now leads the Michael Moore website. Is she really that
bitter?
It is one thing to object to a war, it is quite another to throw
in with people who are consistently hateful toward traditional America.
Cindy Sheehan now calls President Bush a murderer and the USA an
"imperialistic" country. But the woman has paid a price for her political
leanings. Her husband filed for divorce last week, and some reports cited
his wife's radicalism as one of the reasons.
I don't believe Cindy and her radical left pals will succeed in
dividing the country this time around. It is true that most Americans now
believe the Bush administration is fumbling the war, and that may well be
true. Certainly, the continued violence in Iraq is troubling. But it is an
open question as to whether the Iraqi people themselves will fight hard
enough to win freedom, and that is the crux of this matter.
The communists prevailed in Vietnam because they had a stronger
will to win than the U.S.-supported South Vietnamese. At great sacrifice,
America gave the South a chance to be free. They did not step up. The result
was decades of totalitarianism that continues to this day, and millions of
South Vietnamese and Cambodians murdered by the communists. Funny how the
radicals never mention that or the decades of atrocities committed by Saddam
Hussein.
President Bush has made two major mistakes in Iraq. The first is
keeping Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld, understandably,
is simply exhausted. He needs to be replaced by a battle-hardened commander
who will bring a fresh perspective to the conflict.
Second, Mr. Bush must define the danger he sees if the USA "cuts
and runs." The WMD controversy and poor post-Saddam planning don't matter
now. Terrorists want to kill us, and a victory in Iraq will embolden them
and deliver huge momentum to their jihad. Why isn't the president on TV
everyday saying this? If America cuts and runs in Iraq, the place will
devolve into another terror state where Al Qaeda will have free reign.
The question is, will Americans buy what Cindy Sheehan is
selling or, instead, focus on what is really going on here? Unlike Vietnam,
we are now fighting a war against people who want to come to our country and
destroy it. These people are the driving force behind the "insurrection" in
Iraq. They have chosen this battlefield because America made a mistake by
underestimating the difficulty of imposing democracy in a culture that does
not revere it.
Once again, that mistake is history. What President Bush must do
now is clarify the stakes in Iraq and rally Americans to support the global
war on terror. If Mr. Bush does not do that, America will be in big trouble.
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