I thought this very timely in respect to the current events of Iraq, Islam and our current degraded congress. As you read the words of Patrick Henry, (slightly modified by me to fit the times), ponder the fact that history repeats itself.
I thought this very timely in respect to the current events of Iraq, Islam and our current degraded congress. As you read the words of Patrick Henry, (slightly modified by me to fit the times), ponder the fact that history repeats itself.
Excellent post, celtictexan! You’ve done a very good job of updating Patrick Henry’s speech. Everyone knows the tag line, “Give me liberty or give me death,” but I, for one. wasn’t familiar with the full context.
One of my favorite lines from this great speech is this: “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience.” Learning from the past requires wisdom, not just drawing false analogies (e.g. Iraq is Vietnam).
In my life experience, the defining moment in world politics was the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was the culmination of more than four decades of vigilence against a political system hell bent on destruction of our way of life (Remember Khrushchev’s “We will bury you”?) Before the Reagan Administration, we had settled into a comfortable co-existence with the Soviets which helped to rationalize the abandonment of South Vietnam and the carnage in Southeast Asia that followed. Communist expansionism was on the rise (Angola, Mozambique, Grenada), and most Americans weren’t very concerned.
But Reagan had a different idea. Rather than managing a standoff, he actually believed that Communism could be defeated. Not settling for a nuclear freeze (like Ted Kennedy and others called for), he actually brokered a nuclear reduction – not by making nice, but by holding tough on deploying Pershing and Cruise missiles in Central Europe, and later at Reykjavik. This took place when nearly everyone else thought it would exacerbate the situation. As a result of Reagan’s willingness to buck the status quo, Europe is united and free, and for a season at least, the United States was at less at risk.
But just as Iraq isn’t Vietnam, it isn’t Berlin, either. In many ways, the current scenario is even more dangerous. As hell bent as the Soviets were on defeating us, they weren’t crazy enough to fly airplanes into buildings or consider blowing off a dirty bomb in an American city. We simply can’t manage a “Cold War on Terror”; our adversaries won’t let us. Winning this war is even more imperative than winning the Cold War – our very freedom depends on it.
Time will tell whether George W. Bush will be remembered as another Lyndon Johnson or another Ronald Reagan. Let’s all pray that this latest change in direction succeeds – not for his sake or the sake of the Republican Party, but for the sake of our country.
It’s funny how often I think of the remarkable achiement of Reagan in bringing down the old Soviet Union. But has it made things better? I don’t know. Many are racing in to fill that void, Islam being one of them.
[i]Time will tell whether George W. Bush will be remembered as another Lyndon Johnson or another Ronald Reagan. Let’s all pray that this latest change in direction succeeds – not for his sake or the sake of the Republican Party, but for the sake of our country.[/i]
I will vote Lyndon Johnson. This is a neo-con (aka liberal) war. And while I said in an earlier post that this is not Vietnam, the politics certainly are. As long as Bush continues to walk the egalitarian line that all cultures are of equal value, as long as he continues to extoll the vitues of Islam and blame all on just a “few” radicals, as long as he remains civil and continues to fail to call liberals to the mat for being the liars and cowards that they are then he is just wasting American lives and empowering the growing lack of respect (fear of) for the US in the world.
Bush started out well. When he said, “either you are with us or you are against us” I was filled with pride. I thought at long last, we have a “real man” in power. At last our military will be unleashed to do the job that needed to be done. But just as quickly he showed his neo-con stripes and continued to play the game of politics.
It’s funny how often I think of the remarkable achiement of Reagan in bringing down the old Soviet Union. But has it made things better?
Maybe not for us (at least not in the long run), but in Eastern Europe, things are infinitely better, especially in those countries with a democratic tradition prior to the Cold War.
It’s been a little more complicated in reunified Germany, where the “Ossis” (East Germans) had to overcome not only forty years of Communism, but 12 years of fascism prior to that. I remember talking to a young East German cab driver in 1993 who, after three years of the new Germany, was still reminiscing about the old German Democratic Republic (which was neither German, nor democratic, nor a republic). I sometimes wonder how he feels now, a little over 16 years after the reunification.
Many are racing in to fill that void, Islam being one of them.
During the interbellum period between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the Gulf War, some historians were talking about “the end of history” as we had known it. That school of thought was obviously short lived.
The void you speak of goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. No one knows how long Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect fellowship with God before the Serpent intervened, but intervene he did. Just as nature abhors a physical vacuum, Satan hates a spiritual one.
It was Wendell Phillips who once said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” This is as true on the personal level as it is on the national and international level.
There have been times when George W. Bush seemed to grasp the nature of the struggle (remember how he used to refer to the terrorists as “evil doers”?). This is why I still hold out at least some hope that he can finally rise to the occasion this time.
Every generation needs a Reaganesque leader with moral clarity to defeat the evil of his age. If Bush can’t fill those shoes, I just pray that the next president does before it’s too late.
Yeah Billery and Obamma LOL Don’t have alot of faith there.
Here is a pretty good example of American politics at this juncture.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NqE_baKKkRI