Victor Davis Hanson does his usual excellent job of laying out the facts in his essay on our foreign successes and setbacks since 9/11. I continue to find it fascinating that almost none of the amazing accomplishments of our troops ever makes the MSM news.
This truth was underscored by a conversation, for lack of a better word, that I had this week with a left-wing radical (Froggy would call her a moonbat). Among her impassioned points: the atomic bombs that ended WWII were war crimes, our military is brainwashed, we invade any country we want to pillage and control, just look at all the invasions of Latin America under Reagan, we're currently fighting for oil in Iraq, and "there was a reason" for September 11.
Yes, I agreed, there was a reason. Radical Islamist hatred of us was the reason. Of course, you can guess the indignant response to that. "They" just want the big, bad U.S.A. to "leave them alone."
Excuse me, I asked, but who's been attacking whom since the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979? I cited the requisite examples--Beirut 1993, Khobar Towers, WTC 1993, U.S.S. Cole--to no avail. According to her, America is just a bully that pushes every other country around.
Exactly how were we bothering "them" on the morning of 9/11? I told her flat out that there was no justification for 9/11 on any grounds, period. It was the last full sentence I was able to manage with this seething lefty.
Naturally, you can't reason with such a radical lunatic, so I didn't waste too much time or breath debating her. Interestingly, this woman is not even American--but she has lived here for decades and enjoys all the benefits this country has to offer, although she insisted to me that many other countries "had more freedom" than the U.S. Funny, she didn't name any...but then, I didn't ask, because at that point I knew I was dealing with a fire-breathing leftist fanatic and was only interested in excusing myself from the scene of psychosis as quickly as possible.
She didn't answer my one question: Who will help the less fortunate countries of the world, if the U.S.A. does not? That's probably because there is no answer, although such hard core lefties would rather die than admit it. There is no where else to turn except towards America.
So we as a nation will continue to roll our rock of Sisyphus by ourselves, up to the top of our mountain of responsiblity, each time learning more lessons, gaining more traction, and achieving better progress, each time hoping that this will be the trip that finally sweeps the burden downhill, away from us. And each time knowing that we are in this task unheralded, unappreciated, for the long haul, and alone.
