Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Quotes from Townhall

"While these antiwar types in America recoil with feigned outrage at the suggestion they're anti-American, when is the last time you heard them praising America? I'm waiting ... Regardless, most of them are useful idiots – useful to Saddam, that is, and idiots if they don't realize it or don't care."
David Limbaugh

"To march against the war is not to give peace a chance. It is to give tyranny a chance. It is to give the Iraqi nuke a chance. It is to give the next terrorist mass murder a chance. It is to march for the furtherance of evil instead of the vanquishing of evil."
Michael Kelly

"It is a tough time to be grown-up. To have moral courage, to swim against a tide of tantrum-throwing dissidents who can't quite put a finger on what's bothering them, but it's bad, whatever it is. Real bad. American stuff. Big bad meanies. Where are the weapons? Where's bin Laden? What's Saddam got to do with it?"
Kathleen Parker

OK lets run this down. What does Limbaugh mean by praising America? Presumably he means simply praising American agression throughout the world. Most protesters do praise the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and what they believe are American values. As for the second part, it's the best argument in the conservatives repretoire (Michael Kelly uses it as well). To oppose Bush's drive to inflict war on the Iraqi is to be pro-Saddam. To oppose this war against a war because we believe they may pose a threat to us down the road, is to be pro-Saddam. To be concerned about how a unilateral war will play in the middle east where we require the support of the governments to prosecute the war on terror is to be pro-Saddam (and to forget, that all Muslim Arabs are so full of hate that they are incapable of changing their minds anyway, so there's not point worrying about what they think).

And the humorously Kathleen Parker tells us all to grow up. The only reason people oppose war is because, infantile-like, they think war is bad. And that's as far as it goes. Of course Ms. Parker doesn't comment on the adultivity (to quote Kearny) of saying any opposition to the war is being pro-Saddam.

For those grown ups out there, here's how this works. Life is full of crappy decisions. Yeah, those who oppose the war are indirectly supporting Saddam. But that's not why they oppose the war. They oppose the war because they believe this is the wrong war, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. You might not agree with that assessment. Fair enough. But it is really so impossible for you to believe that hard working Americans who love their country and who take the time to study the issues might disagree with you?

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