News-Record.com

(Sorry for the length, Allen...I know you won't publish it. Maybe that's my way of avoiding recriminations. It's a chill wind that blows.)

I am deeply disheartened by the rampant vitriol aimed at those who "dare question" the wisdom and vaildity of the Iraq "liberation"-cum-invasion, as well as the now-admitted ineptitude of its ongoing "reconstruction" (seen by most as "occupation") phase. Our own "Reconstruction" as a nation came only after costly civil war, of course. Now, we are in the midst of a similar great battle; but it's someone else's war between states: Kurd, Sunni and Shiite.

Yet, we don't need another Lincoln right now, replete with suspensions of writs of habeas corpus, denying people lawyers and even charges while holding them indefinitely. We need a diplomat extraordinaire. We need statesmen and patriots who recognize when to retrench and change tactics.

Even Churchill, that bull-doggedly determined and brilliant orator, who "never, never" gave up, knew when to marshal his forces against the true enemy. He didn't alienate the Soviets --- he made alliance with them --- and lived to later stand up to Stalin. It took later statesmen and sheer internal lassitude to bring down corrupt Communism. Had Churchill and FDR made war upon what they feared was the same enemy on every side, Hitler would have lorded over the Isles and we would have been a second-class world citizens in the 20th century.

The current administration clearly understands this, as the relative and sometimes uncomfortable deference accorded Russia today attests. But the domestic atmosphere today reeks of the bad old McCarthy era, when sunshine patriots hunted witches down throughout the media and academia. Today, there is a chilling effect on many levels of our society as Orwellian strategies to mine our daily electronic communications undermine our vaunted American optimism and intellectual curiosity. Instead, one hunkers down in abject fear of --- not fear itself, but of that government formerly "of the people, by the people, for the people". It is now a government of multi-millionaires, run for the de facto aristocracy who buy it for themselves and their narrow interests.

A patriot defends his country in mind as well as in body. It is not patriotic to destroy the fabric of freedoms that are truly the soul of one's nation by waging unwise and unwarranted war, or by goading our former allies into despising us. If, rather, such acts leave us more vulnerable to future attack by spreading our defenses too thin, it is positively a danger and plain diplomatically dumb.

Unlike FDR, this President doesn't ask for sacrifice from the well-off or even the middle-class: he asks us to go deeper into personal and national debt by maxing out credit cards, getting home equity loans with adjustable rates, and then not letting us declare bankruptcy.

He's too late. Declared or not, we are bankrupt. We need a new deal, a chance at a new birth of freedom. We need oil executives with the consciences to stop gouging, and regulators to make them play fair. We need to hit the books and learn about Islam, learn new languages and speak to others across the globe, both as professional diplomats and as everyday Americans, rather than holing up and lashing out like xenophobes.

Americans will make sacrifices if asked. Many do without prompting. But when the advertisers and bankers woo us, ply us with cheap money and promise us our houses will appreciate to the sky, who can be surprised when we mortgage our future and that of our children's children? And then we roll the dice on staying healthy enough that our entire retired population of Boomers doesn't blast us into Depression.

It's a fool's game. Only the new baronial class will survive such a catstrophe. Will it then be considered "unpatriotic" to ask more of them than the morally-suspect tax giveaways they've garnered these past twenty years? Will those who arouse sympathies against government cronyism and kickbacks for corrupt reconstruction companies like Halliburton be thrown in jail, maybe without specific charge as "enemy combatants"?

When a Republican criticizes a Democrat it's called "right-wing hate speech."
When a Democrat criticizes a Republican it's called "patriotism."

So, jaycee, that's your response to the questions Allen posed?
What constitutes patriotism, then? Never criticizing anyone outside your narrow party line? Try critical thought when forming opinions, please, and back it up with logic, reason and some history with specific examples.

Just my observations, I wasn't trying to "answer" any questions.

When far too many a Republican wants to deflect criticism, he belittles and casts aspersions on a Democrat or Independent.

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