Pacifism and Historical Accuracy

It's hard this week to not see politics through the lens of Adkisson. Guy walks into a church and kills 2, wounds 5 in a strike against "liberals." It's hard not to focus on that. So when I saw Burt Pretelsky's latest article, "Pacifism: The Last Refuge of Hypocrites," I couldn't help thinking of those people in Knoxville who courageously risked their lives to prevent Adkisson from killing or wounding more.

Anyway then I read the article and was horrified at the historical inaccuracies contained therein. They mostly come from the same place - Prelutsky sees the far left communists of the 1930s and 1940s as somehow the same as Obama today. He complains that the Communist movement in America zigged and zagged at Moscow's direction, without noting that plenty of American liberals did not zig and zag, chief among the Roosevelt. Roosevelt realized early the threat that Hitler posed and consistently worked to fight against him in the ways that he could.

Republicans and Conservatives believed that Hitler was no threat and that we could cut a deal with them. Pat Buchannen still seems to think that.

Anyway he then moves on to the Serbian Conflict.

When Bill Clinton sent U.S. troops into Kosovo, a place where no American interests were involved, the left raised no objections. And heaven knows that the MSM never embarrassed him by calling attention to the fact that although he promised that the troops would all be home within 12 months, they were still there when he left office. I suppose he was so busy granting last minute presidential pardons to his campaign contributors that it simply slipped his mind.

Well if you think that's bad consider Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. We defeated Germany and Japan in the 1940s - some 60 years later we still have troops stationed there. What's wrong with us?

We got involved with the Bosnian war because of genocide. We got involved as part of a United Nations task force to stop genocide. We finished our mission and left; although we continued to be part of peacekeeping efforts. We were seen as honest brokers in the region.

The contrast to Iraq couldn't be more pronounced. We went into Iraq largely by ourselves (with a few allies). We did it against the wishes of the global community. We have occupied Iraq for several years, in part because of our desire to control their oil fields. We aren't honest brokers. The difference between Bosnia and Iraq is the difference between competence and incompetence.