I’ve just begun to read Geoffrey Perret’s new book Commander in Chief: How Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned a Presidential Power into a Threat to America’s Future. I’ve not gotten far enough into it to endorse the whole book, but I must say I loved the introduction. After encountering the genius who said “The Islamo Fascists have failed to bring on the quagmire” in Iraq yesterday, I feel compelled to quote a chunk of it.
Three wars – Korea, Vietnam, Iraq – all launched at moments of national crisis, all of them unwinnable.
They were unwinnable for many reasons, but the place to begin is this: in North Korea, North Vietnam, and Iraq, the enemy always held the strategic initiative. The most powerful country in the world found itself dancing to its enemy’s tune, not its own. At times it was possible to seize the tactical initiative – crossing the 38th parallel, launching an aerial blitz against North Vietnam, flattening Fallujah. But the loss of the strategic initiative rules out the path to victory implicit in the military paradigm; namely, that one country imposes its will on another. Instead, the country that has chosen to wage the war finds itself wrestling with an insoluble challenge: a political victory requires a military victory first, because there can be no effective government without security and stability. But a military victory requires a political victory first, in the form of a government strong enough to establish a state monopoly on violence.
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…they know precisely what they are doing. America is being systematically and methodically dismantled.
We had an opportunity to wean ourselves from the mainline of foreign oil. A $1/gallon tax would have gotten the job done. It would have gone a long way toward preserving a reasonable balance of payments, and enhanced our own national security. Instead, our leaders subsidized the purchase of mobile condos and three-ton SUVs. This, in turn, made what happens in the Middle East matter.
We had an opportunity to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. A 500% excise tax on compensation paid to illegals would stop the problem on the supply-side. But even Tom Tancredo won’t propose it, as he is more interested in Tom Tancredo and the ego boost he gets from being a candidate for President than he is in solving the problem. Our leaders want to destroy the middle-class, creating a new Gilded Age. If you want to know what America will like in twenty years, visit Mexico. That is, if you still have enough Ameros left to afford it.