The Boston Herald’s Jules Crittenden, who was embedded in Iraq during the invasion, wrote a great article today titled, The Good War.
A ‘fisking’ in the blogosphere is described by Wikipedia, as “ruthlessly detailed point-by-point criticism that highlights errors, disputes the analysis of presented facts, or highlights other problems in a statement, article, or essay.” What is it called when you praise line after beautiful line, a McMahon, as in Ed McMahon?
The Good War by Jules Crittenden,
Some people just donâ??t get it…
The lack of U-boats attacking the shipping lanes has lulled some people into thinking this is not actually a war. Not a real war, certainly not a good war, not like World War II. They mock the very notion that it is a war, having fun with the name â??Global War on Terror.â? They put forward the notion that, like almost everything else in our American lives, this thing that has been called a war is a choice. A bad choice.
We saw this in spades last week. As expected, Maureen Dowd summed up the conventional wisdom of the left by cracking that the Miami 7 could not find a Sears let alone the Sears Tower.
George Bush, while announcing that we were at war five years ago, made a decision to encourage Americans to go about their business as usual. Rather than mobilizing the country for war, he decided he could fight this unconventional war by unconventional means, and with the forces already at hand. Normalcy had its uses as a weapon. It showed that our enemy could not hobble us.
It is pretty amazing to think about how normal our daily lives are. Remember after September 11 feeling like nothing would ever be the same again? Remember the trepidation at the first few big events, like the Madison Square concert for New York or the World Series? That is all ancient history now.
Ironically, Bush has been so effective with his approach, that there has not been an attack on the mainland United States since 9-11. That has allowed his opposition to maintain that all the unpleasant things Bush has had to do domestically and abroad are unnecessary, or the very least excessive. Theyâ??ve had the freedom to nitpick at the execution of the war, expressing indignation at every misstep, while ignoring major accomplishments, which they see after all as the accomplishments of an unnecessary war based on global intelligence failures that, in hindsight, they cast as lies.
Jules is much too kind to the domestic insurgents. The anti-war, anti-Bush left has been dishonest in their criticism and disgraceful in their conduct.
The New York Times editors are hiding behind the idea of freedom of the press. That has been slowly evolving in recent decades into a freedom without responsibility — the overarching new American value. It is the value that allows seemingly reasonable people to think we can wish away our problems. It is the value that allows seemingly reasonable people to see our elected president as the enemy.
Have truer words ever been written? For more on the
Times, check out Patterico
…the fabled Good War – belongs to another time. A simpler time. It is probably something that only exists in the rearview mirror anyway.
There are some people who will never get that. Their actions show that they are not worthy of the freedoms that American soldiers have died to give them. Those freedoms are theirs anyway, the birthright of even the most despicable self-centered coward who is born American. But there comes a point when you have to ask, which side are they on? There comes a point when even professional capriciousness and misguided idealism – to be charitable -have to be labelled for what they are: Giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Treason.
Bravo Jules Crittenden. Thank you for a great column.