Wake Up to Make Up

I think some of us, here and elsewhere in the world, are finally acknowledging the real conversation we need to be having...the one that Mark Steyn summarized so succinctly. Partisanship and ideology are moot if you have no place to practice them.

After seeing threats only in the guise of the Soviets and their client states, we have taken a bit long to recognize the asymetricals - terrorism, creeping immigration powered by a fervent belief in multiculturism that espouses a tolerance for a barbaric, oppressive monoculturistic society as if it were a legitimate idea. It takes a leader with backbone and single-mindedness to address these issues.

I don't care what Party that man or woman may belong to, but they better understand the role. I believe Bill Clinton got lucky in that he presided over a country that accepted his lackadaisical "don't attack, don't defend" approach to terror and were lulled by the inability of the terrorists to successfully attack us on our soil. 9/11 changed all of that - or should have - and I think even Clinton would have handled it differently than he did during his terms. I can't imagine him trying to continue to criminalize a war after being attacked directly.

Like him or hate him, we need a Bush-like leader right now. Until this threat is minimized, we need ALL future Presidents to have his attitude. Electing an non-Bush-like Exec will not make the threat go away. Terrorists will not stop their jihads. Fatwas will not cease. Iran will not stop it's nuke program. North Korea will not become suddenlly sane.

I bet life was very different on December 6, too. After Pearl Harbor, it took a while for the country to get with the program. Roosevelt and Truman had the advantage of a Nazi Germany and an aggressive Japanese Empire to declare war against, and standing armies to do battle with. This new style is subtle and we sometimes seem to forget that we are making this up as we go. We will make big mistakes. Soldiers will die. Lots of money will be spent. What is our other option?