ShrinkWrapped

How to Lose World War IV

Yesterday I wrote that the key divide in this country is between those who do not believe we are at war, or if they credit our enemies with waging war on us, do not believe that it is a war we can lose, versus those of us who do, indeed, think we are at war and have a non-trivial risk of losing.  I thought it might be useful to suggest a possible future-history scenario in which we lose WWIV.

Before describing the scenario, however, it is necessary to define what it would mean to lose this war.  I would define losing WWIV as the world turning away from open inquiry and individual freedoms, toward totalitarianism, with attendant stagnation of technological development, and the reversal of the trends toward liberal democracy and market economies.  Included would be a diminution of the world's wealth and increases in impoverishment and all the other ills that mankind is heir to.  With America removed from the role as world's policeman, more and more of the world will come to resemble the dysfunctional states of the Muslim world; failed states will become the rule rather than the exception, with large parts of the world returning to a Hobbesian condition, with brutal war lords and totalitarian Islamic fascists dividing the spoils.  The chaotic resiliency of the West and the forward movement of history will reverse, as the West slides into decadence or worse.  That is what losing this war means, even beyond the individual deaths from emboldened tyrants.

First, in the interest of clarity, I am not a proponent of multi-culturism; I believe that some cultures are better than others. 

The War on Terror Paradoxes

We are nearing the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks which woke most Americans up to the fact that radical Islam has been at war with us since 1979, and to some ways of thinking, has been at war with the West for over a thousand years.  Since 9/11, there have been several successful terror attacks, in Spain and London, especially, but America has not been hit again.  And therein lies the paradox of this war: 

The more successful we are in protecting ourselves, the less support our efforts receive.

Only some of this can be attributed to our failures to mount an effective information war, especially at home, where mobilizing the home front is always crucial in any war.  Every day that passes without a direct attack on America, the support for the overt manifestations of the war (Afghanistan and Iraq) seeps away.  I doubt that there is anything that can be done to stem the erosion of support and our Islamic enemies and their witting and unwitting allies in the anti-war media, political parties, and academia are quite skillful at using events of opportunity (a truck accident in Kabul, for example) to advance their cause.

Anti-war Americans, by and large, are not unpatriotic or anti-American (although there clearly are those in the Chomsky camp who are exactly that) but because of our great success in prosecuting the war, they evaluate our danger much differently than those of us who believe that it is 1938 all over again.

Memorial Day II

I had not planned on posting today but was lucky enough to see President Bush offer his Remarks in Commemoration of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery.  If you can read his remarks with a dry eye, you should give serious consideration to what it is you find of value:

Thank you all. Laura and I are honored to join you today. Thank you for coming. Mr. Secretary, thank you for your kind words. Members of my Cabinet, General Pace, Members of Congress, members of the United States military, veterans, honored guests and the loved ones of the fallen: A few moments ago, I placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. I was honored to do so on behalf of the American people, as a sign of our solemn gratitude and our deep respect. The names of those buried there are known only to God, yet their souls have entered into the spirit of America, and they will never be forgotten by our nation. (Applause.)

In this place where valor sleeps, we acknowledge our responsibility as Americans to preserve the memory of the fallen. On this Memorial Day, we look out on quiet hills, and rows of white headstones -- and we know that we are in the presence of greatness. (Applause.) The markers here record the names of more than 296,000 men and women. Each of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines buried here answered the call to serve, and stepped forward to protect the nation they loved.

All who are buried here understood their duty. They saw a dark shadow on the horizon, and went to meet it. They understood that tyranny must be met with resolve, and that liberty is always the achievement of courage. (Applause.) Here, in the presence of veterans they fought with and loved ones whose pictures they carried, the fallen give silent witness to the price of our liberty -- and our nation honors them, this day and every day. (Applause.)

In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war. We have seen those costs in the war on terror we fight today. These grounds are the final resting place for more than 270 men and women who have given their lives in freedom's cause since the attacks of September the 11th, 2001. With us here are veterans who fought alongside them -- and who have come today to pay their respects. They are joined by veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and other conflicts across the globe, whose friends and comrades also lie in this sacred ground. As we pray for their fallen friends, we also remember those who went to war and are still missing, and we are determined to account for them all. (Applause.)

In this place where valor sleeps, we find strength in knowing that those serving freedom's cause have acted with principle and steadfast faith. Second Lieutenant Jack Lundberg was killed two weeks after D-Day, at the end of World War II. He wrote his Mom and Dad a letter to be opened in the event he did not come home. He wrote, "I am sorry to add to your grief ... but we of the United States have something to fight for -- never more fully have I realized that. The United States of America is worth the sacrifice."

That same feeling moves those who are now fighting the war on terror. First Lieutenant Mark Dooley was killed by a terrorist bomb last September in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Before he left for his tour, he gave his parents a last letter, just in case. He wrote: "Remember that my leaving was in the service of something that we loved, and be proud. The best way to pay respect is to value why a sacrifice was made." (Applause.)

Last week, the family of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Fenty, Junior, gathered here at Arlington to pay their last respects to the husband, son, and father they loved. Colonel Fenty was killed with nine of his fellow soldiers in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan earlier this month. Hours before that crash, he had spoken to his wife Kristen about their newborn daughter he was waiting to meet. Some day she will learn about her dad from the men with whom she served -- he served. And one of them said this about her father: "We all wanted to be more like Joe Fenty. We were all in awe of him." I am in awe of the men and women who sacrifice for the freedom of the United States of America. (Applause.)

Our nation is free because of brave Americans like these, who volunteer to confront our adversaries abroad so we do not have to face them here at home. Our nation mourns the loss of our men and women in uniform; we will honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives -- by defeating the terrorists, by advancing the cause of liberty, and by laying the foundation of peace for a generation of young Americans. (Applause.) Today we pray that those who lie here have found peace with their Creator, and we resolve that their sacrifice will always be remembered by a grateful nation.

May God Bless the Untied States of America. (Applause.)

I am in awe of the men and women who sacrifice for the freedom of the United States of America.

Memorial Day

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day which was all too often merely another day for sales at the mall, barbecues with friends, and the official start of the summer season.  Perhaps if there is any silver lining to the horrific events of 9/11, it was the reminder that our way of life, our freedoms and great wealth as a Nation, are not accidents, or simple luck and the good fortune to be born in the greatest country ever in existence; our great good fortune is the residue of the sacrifices of so many of our finest men and women.

Tomorrow I plan to thank  one of the veterans who risked so much so that I might be here to freely blog about whatever comes to mind.  My father flew 51 missions as the tail gunner on the aptly named B-24 Liberator and was shot down over Italy; through the skill of his pilot, most of the crew walked away that day.  Ultimately, of the 391 young men who shipped out with him to Northern Africa in 1943, only 7 returned home.  Last October, I wrote an homage to a group of airmen without whom it is likely even those 7 would not have come home. 

I will also spend some time perusing the recollections that many other worthy bloggers have posted on their blogs.  I recommend you read about Tibor Rubin, learn who Gerard Van der Leun was, spend some time with LaShawn Barbara's Memorial Day Reflections, savor Austin Bay's words (from last Memorial Day, but some things never grow stale), and follow some of the links Lori Byrd is collecting.

Finally, courtesy of Atlas Shrugs, we have these words of thanks:

– On this Memorial Day, we again pause to remember and to honor those who dedicated their lives to the service of others.

From the first citizen-soldiers who stood fast to defend their homes at Lexington and Concord, to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines securing our liberty and our way of life today, our country has been truly blessed by those who stepped forward to say, "Send me."

Theirs is a noble calling that founded a nation, drove back the forces of fascism, communism and terrorism, and made historic advances in the cause of human freedom.

Their service strengthens our will to persevere through every challenge. They remind us of what it means to be an American.

So to all of those serving our country today, know that we are deeply grateful to you and to your families. May God bless you. And may God bless our wonderful country.

-Donald H. Rumsfeld

The Council Has Spoken!

This week the winning Council post was by birthday girl Dymphna, at The Gates of Vienna, who  proffered a welcoming invitation to our European friends who may be in need of a safe harbor in the stormy times ahead; Let Us Make Them All Welcome is poignantly welcoming.  Second place went to the Glittering Eye for Assessing the threat at our southern border, in which he does exactly that.

Among the non-Council posts, The Anchoress brings some balance and reality testing to the often battered image of George W. Bush; in her work, the humanity of both of them shines through in The Essential President Bush.  In second place is a world-class rant courtesy of Sigmund, Carl & Alfred; an SC&A Vent deserves admiration.

All the nominees can be found at The Watcher of Weasels and all will reward the time and effort of reading them.

I Declare the War is Over

In the early 1970s, I saw Phil Ochs in concert.  He was a member in good standing of The Folk Song Army and I thoroughly enjoyed his music.   Phil Ochs was an important member of the anti-Vietnam war protest generation and sang about his opposition in such classics as Draft Dodger Rag:

Sarge, I'm only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
  And I always carry a purse
I got eyes like a bat, my feet are flat, and my asthma's
  getting worse
O think of my career, my sweetheart dear, and my poor old
  invalid aunt
Besides, I ain't no fool, I'm a goin' to school, and I'm
  working in a defense plant

I've got a dislocated disc and a racked up back
  I'm allergic to flowers and bugs
And when the bombshell hits, I get epileptic fits
  And I'm addicted to a thousand drugs
I got the weakness woes, and I can't touch my toes
  I can hardly reach my knees
And if the enemy came close to me
  I'd probably start to sneeze

I hate Chou En Lai, and I hope he dies,
  but one thing you gotta see
That someone's gotta go over there
  and that someone isn't me
So I wish you well, Sarge, give 'em Hell
  Yeah, Kill me a thousand or so
And if you ever get a war without blood and gore
  Well I'll be the first to go

The signs of the Narcissistic egocentricity so much a part of the Baby Boomer generation were unmistakable in his music, but at the time we were relatively unaware of our provincialism, safe in our anti-War moral superiority and unconcerned about the fate of our brown brothers in Vietnam who we were all sure would be much happier with us gone and the country under the peace loving and justice committed Communists of the North. 

All that aside, I do recall some disappointment at the concert as it was marred by his extreme and obvious intoxication with alcohol that cause him to slur his words and fail to remember  the lyrics to one of his signature songs, Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends, his disquisition on the death of Kitty Genovese.  Later on, Phil Ochs had a few minor hits and faded from the scene as the 1970s progressed and as his alcohol abuse and possible Bipolar Disorder worsened; he hung himself in 1976. 

I was reminded of Phil Ochs by the performance of Anthony Weiner, Democratic Congressman from Brooklyn and Queens, on the O'Reilly factor, where he appeared alongside Peter King (R-NY) to offer learned commentary on the Bush-Blair press conference last night.

Earth in the Balance?

Global Warming is heating up again  (I apologize for any pain caused by the obvious and unavoidable pun) and it raises a number of questions. 

Wikipedia has a fairly decent summary of the Global Warming issue.    A few salient highlights:

The scientific opinion on climate change is that the average global temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 °C over the 20th century, and that it is very likely that "Most of the warming observed over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities". The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing and agriculture, and other human activities, are the primary sources of the human-induced component of warming.

Observational sensitivity studies and climate models referenced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that global temperatures may increase by between 1.4 and 5.8 °C between 1990 and 2100. The range of uncertainty is primarily the result of the difficulty of predicting the volume of future carbon dioxide emissions, but there is also some uncertainty about the climate sensitivity.

A number of points in the argument are not quite as settled as many assume, but even if you fully accept all the premises of the Global Warming advocates, there are two major parts of the debate that have been simply ignored.

Live Flying Reindeer

On almost every front in our culture wars, there is an underlying thread that distorts our understanding of the issues involved and makes compromise and resolution significantly more difficult than in the past. 

Pinch Sulzberger,  publisher of the "paper of record" and the guardian of liberal orthodoxy, gave the Commencement address at SUNY at New Paltz this past weekend and apologized to the graduates for the failures of our generation:

It wasn't an apology for anything Sulzberger, who first joined the Times in 1978 as a Washington correspondent, specifically did. It was, for the most part, offered as an apology from a member of a generation that had vowed to beat back world ills, such as the Vietnam War and government corruption, and never let them happen again.

....

"It wasn't supposed to be this way," Sulzberger said. "You weren't supposed to be graduating in an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, be it the rights of immigrants to start a new life, the right of gays to marry or the rights of women to choose."

Thomas Lifson distills the essence of Sulzberger's comments:

From the horse’s mouth, we have it that Pinch believes in the perfectability of man, all within his lifetime. It is nice to understand the mentality guiding the NYT.

In all of the major issues of the day, the liberal and/or left seem to imagine that there is a perfect solution and a perfect answer to every problem.  It is not just that man is perfectible, but that life should be a risk-free, easy endeavor.  (Note who the Trial Lawyers give their money to.)  Furthermore, the direct implication is that a few powerful men and women in Washington, DC (and Tel Aviv), with their allies in the military-industrial complex are primarily, perhaps solely, responsible for all the imperfections of the world. 

In the turmoil of the 60s, Eldridge Cleaver made the quintessential 1960s political statement, which has been endlessly repeated, that "you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem."  This was meant to indicate the moral and ethical superiority of the person who was opposing Racism, the Vietnam War, and the corruption called American Capitalism.  In fact, the comment is meaningless and non-sensical, and suggests the vapidity of the speaker rather than a sophisticated nuanced view of how difficult it can be to change the world.

The corollary to this bit of received wisdom is that one can simply oppose everything that those in power do and maintain the fiction that you are now part of the solution.

The Despair of Abundance

At Harvard University, the repository of the future elite, the most popular course is called Psychology 1504, or "Positive Psychology".  Here is the course description:

The course focuses on the psychological aspects of a fulfilling and flourishing life. Topics include happiness, self-esteem, empathy, friendship, love, achievement, creativity, music, spirituality, and humor.

According to the account of the course in the Boston Globe on-line, Harvard's crowded course to happiness, the course seems to attempt to combine some scholarly research (although there are no links to any peer reviewed research articles and a cursory search dd not bring any such articles through Google) and personal exploration by the students.  One student is quoted as saying:

''Positive Psych may be the one class at Harvard that every student needs to take," said Nancy Cheng, a junior majoring in biology. ''In this fast-paced, competitive environment, it is especially crucial that people take time to stop and breathe. A self-help class? Maybe. . . . But from what I've seen and experienced at Harvard, I think we could all use a little self-help like this."

In the same article, a Professor at the University of Kansas adds:

In the last several years, positive psychology classes have cropped up on more than 100 campuses around the country, said Shane Lopez, an associate professor at the University of Kansas, who recently co-wrote a positive psychology textbook. But with such an enormous course enrollment, Tal D. Ben-Shahar, the lecturer who teaches Harvard's course, ''is the leader of the pack right now," Lopez said.

The courses can change how you see yourself and your life, Lopez says. ''A lot of people are just not accustomed to asking, 'What do I have going for me?' and 'What did I do right today?' "

NPR recently did a story about Professor Ben-Shahar and included his 6 point list of Tips to Happiness:

1. Give yourself permission to be human.
2. Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning.
3. Keep in mind that happiness is mostly dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our bank account.
4. Simplify!
5. Remember the mind-body connection.
6. Express gratitude, whenever possible.

Citizens of the World

[Update at the end]

Condoleezza Rice is giving the Commencement Address at Boston College today and her selection as speaker, as well as her receiving an Honorary Degree, have stirred up some controversy among the World of the Academic Left.   Theology Department Chair Kenneth Himes and theology professor David Hollenbach wrote a letter protesting the choice of Dr. Rice, and the reasons for their objection are worth quoting:

Condoleezza Rice Does Not Deserve a Boston College Honorary Degree

We, the undersigned members of the faculty at Boston College, strongly disagree with the decision of the university's leadership to grant Condoleezza Rice an honorary Doctor of Laws degree and to invite her to address the 2006 commencement. On the levels of both moral principle and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice's approach to international affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College's commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the humanistic values that inspire the university's work.

As a matter of moral principle, Rice maintains that U.S. foreign policy should be based on U.S. national interest and not on what she calls the interests of an "illusory international community." This stands in disturbing contrast with the Catholic and humanistic conviction that all people are linked together in a single human family and that all nations in our interdependent world have a duty to protect "the common good of the entire human family." [Emphasis mine-SW]

There is a bit more to the letter and you should read the whole thing.  Anil Adyanthaya, in Condi's Boston College Coup, does an excellent job of pointing out some of the more foolish aspects of the letter: