They Ought To Know . . .
Vol: 19 Issue: 20 Sunday, April 20, 2003
I received an email this morning from one of our soldiers serving in Iraq. In it, he told me a bit about what it was like to be in the cradle of civilization. One of the most striking things that shone through his email was his conviction of the justness of the war.
He told me that he had the feeling that “Jesus was saying, I’m here and I love these people, tread lightly for this is holy ground. Your mission is just, but be just in your mission.”
I watched the TV coverage of US troops celebrating the Resurrection on the banks of the Tigris River, in the heart of the cradle of civilization. Once again I was struck by the way the troops themselves see the war. A major told the TV cameras, “I grieve for our fallen comrades, but they died for something good. Something good will come out of this.”
That seems to be the overwhelming sentiment of the troops on the ground in Iraq. None of them want to be there, all of them want to come home, but all of them seem genuinely convinced that they are fighting for ‘something good’ and that something good will come from the sacrifices that they have already made and those sacrifices that may become necessary in the future.
The antiwarriors back home are mostly quiet now, hoping nobody will remember that they put partisanship before patriotism and supported Saddam Hussein over George Bush, not because they liked Saddam Hussein, but because they hate George Bush and are still smarting from Election 2000.
Tim Robbin was whimpering recently because a Bull Durham celebration at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., was canceled to prevent it from turning into a Michael Moore acceptance screech.
Only a Hollywood lefty would say that his First Amendment right to free speech is in jeopardy when he s invited to the National Press Club. It is a typical tactic employed by the left — instead of being wrong, they assume the mantle of victim while pressing the attack.
Both before and after a speech where he refers to the U.S. as a rogue state and compares it to the Soviet Union, Robbins drivel is picked up by every wire service, appears in most newspapers and dominates TV and radio coverage.
Robbins’ live-in girlfriend, Susan Sarandon, complained, “It’s so ironic that we should be quote unquote liberating another country and giving them a democracy when we’re telling people here if they open their mouths, they’re not allowed to participate.” What in the world is she talking about?
I received an email from one of these antiwarriors, (a Canadian attorney) containing a column from Adrianna Huffington entitled, ‘Why The Antiwar Movement Was Right,’ in which she writes, “From the moment that statue of Saddam Hussein hit the ground, the mood around the Rumsfeld campfire has been all high-fives, I-told-you-sos and endless prattling about how the speedy fall of Baghdad is proof that those who opposed the invasion of Iraq were dead wrong.”
“What utter nonsense,” she writes. “In fact, the speedy fall of Baghdad proves the antiwar movement was dead right. The whole pretext for our unilateral charge into Iraq was that the American people were in imminent danger from Hussein and his mighty war machine. Well, it turns out that, far from being on the verge of destroying Western civilization, Hussein and his 21st century Nazis couldn’t even muster a halfhearted defense of their own capital. . .”
This kind of drivel denies reality, which is also a hallmark of the liberal left. Robbins found a way to complain his 1st Amendment rights were trampled — from the podium of the National Press Club. Adrianna Huffington argues that she was right to oppose the war because we didn’t lose more troops and ultimately won a speedy victory?
Saddam’s defense crumbled because most of the Iraqis wouldn’t fight for Saddam. The speedy fall of Bagdad was followed by cheering Iraqis mobbing our troops with flowers and gifts.
One soldier recalled a little girl who brought him flowers and he wondered, “Where did she get the flowers? I haven’t seen a flower since I got to Iraq.”
Assessment:
Now the Hollywood half-wits are complaining that they are being unfairly singled out, as they begin to realize that the Constitutional right to free speech doesn’t carry a Constitutional guarantee of immunity. It seems that they are beginning to realize that free speech is NOT free. It was paid for with the blood of patriots. And while everyone has a right to speak, everyone else has a right to freedom of association.
The United Way of Tampa Bay canceled an event April 11 with Sarandon after organizers got three dozen complaints about her anti-war views.
Calls and e-mail have come in threatening to boycott ABC and its advertisers if Janeane Garofalo’s sitcom Slice O’Life gets on the schedule. But the comedian, who has been outspoken against the war, says she’s going ahead with the show. ABC already had pushed it back to midseason.
A Lipton iced tea ad featuring the Dixie Chicks may be in jeopardy creators are at work on a backup ad idea as the public continues to react to Natalie Maines’ anti-Bush comments four weeks ago. At Thursday night’s Country Music Television video awards show, Brett Butler suggested “forgiving” the Dixie Chicks, and the audience booed.
Just five weeks ago, Bill O’Reilly asked Garofalo what she would do if her predictions that the war would be a disaster turned out to be wrong. She promised, “I would be so willing to say I’m sorry, I hope to God that I can be made a buffoon of, that people will say you were wrong, you were a fatalist, and I will go to the White House on my knees on cut glass and say, hey, you were right, I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
When asked about that promise, she told WABC Radio’s Steve Malzberg, “I have nothing to apologize for.”
Nothing to apologize for? Here are two recent Garafalo quotes. “So when I see the American flag, I go, ‘Oh my God, you’re insulting me.” “We’re here, we’re queer!’ — that’s what makes my heart swell. Not the flag, but a gay naked man or woman burning the flag. I get choked up with pride.”
This is kind of an odd Resurrection Sunday message, but the contrasts that exist in America on this Easter Sunday are worthy of note.
Watching American troops celebrating the Resurrection of Christ on the banks of the Tigris River in Iraq, their conviction that they are doing ‘something good’ and their willingness to make the supreme sacrifice to free Iraq from thirty years of brutal oppression seemed to fit the message that ‘greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13)
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