To the progressives, victory is “stopping the violence”. Thus, each new car bombing only confirms at we are “failing” in Iraq, and that it is a “quagmire”. I saw a woman on CSPAN desperately crying “We must end it! We must end it!” It was clear she just couldn’t bear it! This Progressive secularist attitude is understandable. If you a moral relativist and don’t believe in a “hereafter”, and if your only vision for the future is just to live a comfortable life, a couple of things follow:
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1- There is no such thing as good or evil. (And this is why President Bush talking about the “axis of evil” sticks in the progressive craw!)
2- Absolutely NOTHING is worth dying for! Therefore the only worthy strategy in dealing with any threat is appeasement: to try to buy time so any dire predictions “won’t happen in my lifetime!” Thus going after terrorists is disturbing and upsetting the “peace”!
Another feature of the progressive point of view is the preface that “we are the most powerful country in the world”. As far as America’s position is concerned, the progressives are locked in a 1945 time warp. They have forgotten the maxims that “Freedom is only a generation from being lost” and that “Each generation has the obligation to secure freedom and pass it to the next generation”. They prefer to ride on the coattails of “The Greatest Generation” 60 years ago and turn away from today’s difficult responsibilities! Defending freedom would interfere with living the good life: the Lexus, the season tickets to the plays, vacations in Europe. They prefer to sort wine bottles for recycling and go to Global Warming symposia.
To the patriots who wish to defend democracy and Western civilization, victory is simply preventing medieval radical Islam from taking over Iraq. The violence may last 50 years! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to think through the disaster were we to lose our will and hand victory to Al Qaeda and their sponsors. But the Progressives refuse to see the danger in Radical Islam as did the British elite in the late 1930’s who refused to see the danger in Hitler.
The German invasion of Poland in 1939 thoroughly discredited the British elite and brought Churchill to power. But the attack on 9-11, which should have had a similar effect here, hasn’t. The strong denial and the unwillingness to face reality have transformed 9-11 into some one time natural disaster like hurricane Katrina in the minds of most Progressives. The “evil” as far as the Progressives are concerned is President Bush “persecuting innocent Muslims!” Quite an Alice in Wonderland view! One can only speculate how the Progressives will persist in explaining away the continuing Islamist violence which only grows in ferocity, frequency and ever closer.