Hawks, Doves and Delusions
Instapundit http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/64652/ and NRO http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/29/triangulating-scarlett-johansson/ have both posted again about their hopes for a war winning Obama Administration. Despite the best that Caroline Glick http://marlettsmith.com/blog/index.php/2008/12/12/glick-on-obama-israel-and-the-endgame/ and Melanie Phillips http://marlettsmith.com/blog/index.php/2008/12/01/throwing-water-on-conservative-quixotes/ have done to try and bring war supporters back to reality, the delusion continues that Obama is now a hawk. What all the Obama Quixote seem to miss is that it doesn’t matter whether Obama wants to win or cut and run, he is fundamentally incapable of leading this country in war time.
The last Democrat to win a war was Harry Truman in 1945. Democrats have gotten us into more wars since then, but none has won a war. Clinton managed to grind down Milosevic from the safety of 10,000 feet. But a real war in which American soldiers slug it out on the ground has proved beyond a Democrat’s capacity for the last 63 years. And if Truman couldn’t do it in Korea no way Obama can in the Middle East. America’s enemy in war time has been timidity, our unwillingness to completely obliterate our enemies. Call it mercy, call it foolishness we have shown an unwillingness to win at any cost. As Reagen was finishing off the Cold War the cries of warmonger and tax waster were so loud and thick no one noticed the Soviet Union was collapsing till it was dead.
Mark Steyn has said so many times I can’t link to all of them our enemy is ourselves; our unwillingness to stand up for our values, beliefs and say we are the greatest nation on earth. President Bush, who loves this country, has shown an unwillingness to take a firm stand for Western Civilization. The early days of the Iraq War were disastrous because President Bush showed all the timidity of a Democrat in the face of a ruthless opponent. The War was turned around by throwing off restraint and committing absolutely to victory.
How much more unwilling must President Obama be. By his own words his life story has been a constant sense of alienation from the country that raised him to its highest office. He has spent his life studying law and liberalism’s world view. Has he ever read a single book of Military History? Does he know the strategies that worked for Patton, Eisenhower, Macarthur, Grant, Lee or Washington? He chose as a young man to follow the professors who were most likely to hate America and blame us for the world’s evils. President Obama is steeped to his eyebrows in liberalism’s staunch passivity abroad and hyperactivity at home. Glen Reynolds may be right and Obama may now want to win. But all his experience, education and beliefs make it impossible for him to do so.
President Bush has failed when he has acted as a dovish hawk. How much worse now that we have a hawkish dove?
