Blue Collar Muse

There is little question that John Edwards is an intelligent man. He graduated from college with high honors and from law school with honors. He spent many years practicing law and later served in the US Senate. His widely reported, recent remarks at a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), however, demonstrate that even very smart people do and say some very stupid things.

Speaking of America’s involvement in the Global War on Terror, Edwards accused the Bush Administration of walking “… straight into the trap that the terrorists have set …” Labeling our military efforts a War on Terror implies , “…that we are engaged in some kind of clash of civilizations and a war against Islam.” Edwards went on to say, “The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It’s a bumper sticker, not a plan. It has damaged our alliances and weakened our standing in the world.”

A bumper sticker … Not a plan … Amazing!

I remember shortly after 9/11 when the President revealed to the American people and to the world his concept and his resolve to deal with the attack on our country. On September 20, 2001, from the House of Representatives the President said,

Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.

On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars — but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war — but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks — but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day — and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.

Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the same murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.

Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world — and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.

The terrorists’ directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.

This group and its leader — a person named Osama bin Laden — are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.

The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.

Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.

Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what we see right here in this chamber — a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.

Americans are asking: How will we fight and win this war? We will direct every resource at our command — every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war — to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network.

This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.

Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.

Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom — the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time — now depends on us. Our nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.

It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal. We’ll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good. Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass.

I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.

The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

Fellow citizens, we’ll meet violence with patient justice — assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America.

That’s a bit much to fit on a bumper sticker. And that is precisely my point. That is, indeed, a plan. It’s a plan to fight and win a war against a terrorist foe with a global presence. It’s not the intelligent Democrat plan to surrender and pull the troops out by announced timetable, to make nice with detainees at Gitmo, to be sensitive to the horrors faced by prisoners at Abu Ghraib at the tender mercies of American tormentors or a plan to demonstrate support for the troops by cutting off funds for their mission when their lives depend on the supplies they’re being denied. But it’s a plan, nonetheless.

For Senator Edwards to disagree with how the War on Terror is being prosecuted is one thing. He’s welcome to criticize the President’s plan and offer an alternative. To dismiss the War on Terror as a mere bumper sticker - a saccharine platitude without substance and to discard the concept of the War on Terror and the need to continue to prosecute that war is something else entirely.

It is a slap in the face to the 3,000 that died in the nightmare that was the World Trade Center. It is an affront to the memory and the sacrifice of over 3,000 that have given their lives for that bumper sticker’s slogan. It permanently assigns the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan to Third World status - how can we be bothered with their inconsequential bumper sticker problems? It demonstrates a breathtakingly uninformed grasp of what is at stake in his irrelevant, bumper sticker war in a bumper sticker part of the world that no one of real substance considers important. It is selfish in the extreme in its refusal to allow America to help Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world in ways they currently cannot help themselves until they are able to leave their pathetic bumper sticker existence and become real nations like us. It demonstrates that John Edwards does not have the vision to lead America in this troubled time. It reveals him as unworthy of being entrusted with the highest military office we have. For our Commander in Chief not to know where the fight is, or to know where it is but to dismiss it as nothing more than a bumper sticker is incompetence of the highest order.

It is all of that and it is one more thing. It is just plain ignorant. Intelligence doesn’t guard a man from ignorance. It can help him see his ignorance when pointed out to him if he’s willing to look, but it isn’t a vaccine. One popular radio talk show host routinely refers to John Edwards as ‘The Breck Girl’ for his narcissistic obsession with his appearance and image. But to do so is an insult to vapid blondes everywhere. I much prefer the name the blogger at ‘Crush Liberalism’ uses. He calls Edwards ‘Silky Pony’. I used to think it was for the same reason Rush calls him ‘The Breck Girl’. After his ‘bumper sticker’ comment I realized it was because Edwards bears a striking resemblance to that part of equestrian anatomy located beneath the pony’s silky tail.

Wishing the Left, for once, would really mean it when they say they support the troops …

Blue Collar Muse

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, Maggie’s Notebook, Webloggin, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Phastidio.net, Colloquium, , Conservative Cat, The HILL Chronicles, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Gone Hollywood, Trackposted to The Right Nation, third world county, A Blog For All, DeMediacratic Nation, , Pursuing Holiness, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Popularity: 45% [?]

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 5:40 am and is filed under 2008 election season, Blogroll, Politics, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.