Moral Courage and National Security

On 9/11 it is impossible to not stop and meditate on the images, both terrifying and heartrending, of people who woke up on a morning just like any other, trundled off to work convinced that their most crucial decision that day would be to either buy or sell, or perhaps where to have lunch, and wound up having to decide whether to die in flames or jump out of a window, or to decide whether to risk one's own life while rushing up a set of stairs in a blind hope of saving someone else, or to decide whether, and how, to rush the terrorists attempting to run an airplane into a target unknown.

John O'Sullivan recently wrote in National Review:

There are such creatures as heroes of prudence. In general, the prudential hero is someone in a position of power or authority. His courage consists of making the right decisions in difficult circumstances and sometimes against fierce opposition or in contrast to his interests and alliances. This is known as moral courage, and though it ought to be easier to summon up than physical courage, it has often been in very short supply. As Charles Peguy once said, "It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of looking insufficiently progressive."

Statists, socialists, progressives, liberals, or Democrats - whatever moniker you affix to them, they are all, in fact, the same (and add fascist to the list), are certainly not people of moral courage. In an eternal quest to expand power, they find the vulnerable underside of the opinion of the uneducated masses and simply appeal to it, telling them, as it may suit their purpose, that "all will be just fine if you trust me" or "things are really going to explode unless you trust me." Appealing to the irrational fears of the intellectual cripples that constitute their constituency, the statist alternately stokes those irrational fears or soothes them with a Marxist tonic guaranteed only to irritate the problem and lead to governmental expansion, once again, in the indefinite future.

Whether the statist is a feminist, pacifist, or communist (or some other -ist) - ultimately he cares nothing about truth or his own constituency. The feminist destroys women by convincing them that they are enslaved to their husbands, convinces her to destroy her own family, and then weds her in eternal slavery to a new husband: a Fascist government. The Communist, of course, tells us of a new world coming in which social distinctions caused by wealth will be erased, but fails to tell us that his juvenile understanding of economics cannot ensure widespread wealth, but rather that all will be equalized in poverty.

Nowhere is the populist snake oil salesman more dangerous than in the field of foreign policy, however. The pacifist convinces the cowards among us that hate-filled, violent demagogues motivated by warlike ideologies can be convinced, through "dialogue," to make peace with all nations. Outrageously encouraging his cowardly constituents to trust such warmongers as Hitler and a succession of Soviet leaders or to reason with such lunatics as Kim Jong Il or Sadaam Hussein, he defunds the military, promises to use the "peace dividend" to ensure a chicken in every pot, tells us that warlike actions are best handled in the criminal courts, and leaves those with even moderate levels of understanding to await the next Pearl Harbor or 9/11.

Barack Obama is a fool. Everyone in his administration is a fool. All of his supporters are fools. Nothing is more certain than that Barack Obama is in over his head. He promises that, if only we give him his desires, unemployment will not exceed 8%. It is currently tracking 10%, unless you believe those who assert that it is in excess of 20%. His court jester, Joe Biden, comes along with a heavily-salted crow and slightly grimaces before swallowing it whole and, beaming, telling us, "Oops! We guessed wrong!"

Guessed? The most powerful economy in the world and the grandest political experiment in human history is now at the mercy of those whose solution to solving massive, life-changing problems is to flip a coin? Dear foolish Obama supporter, if these paragons of buffoonery can muster no better solutions than a healthy guess about the issues that you, their supporters, actually care about - the economy - what makes you think that they have a better response planned for the issue that you ignored when you voted for him? You remember? National security?

This same team of empty suits will warble on about a "national day of service" today - giving the impression that all is well. It is fine to come out of your bunker now. There is no threat. After all, why would our primary focus be encouraging the marginal development of volunteerism if, in fact, there was still the danger of vicious attack by Islamofascists?

Barack Obama is an empty suit, an illusion (if a striking one) from beginning to end. Like all successful Democratic politicians, he is more effective running for office - a position that merely requires the painting of a picture, not the skill to actually fix a problem - than he is in actually governing. This is because the modern Democratic party is completely divorced from reality. The neurosis that causes Democrats to be able to paint such pretty castles in the air also impedes them from actually picking up necessary tools and using workable blueprints to build something stable on the ground. Their political philosophy has devolved from the various mental illnesses contrived during the 60s in America: either they are engaged in the eternal wishing of juveniles who are first beginning to notice the world around them and hope for a change in its imperfections, but who correspondingly lack the worldly wisdom to think concretely enough to actually solve the problems, or their minds really were blown by all those drugs and, in addition to seeing pink elephants walking on the wall, they really do think that disarming the nation is a certain way to attain peace and that crazed Islamofascists who have nothing to gain on earth and nothing to lose in Paradise can be convinced through simpering, pedantic "dialogue" to lay down their arms and be nice boys.

I was no fan of George W. Bush. As a domestic president, he was far too comfortable with the expansion of governmental power for someone whose libertarian stripe runs as deeply and as widely as mine. But every 9/11, I thank my blessed Lord that George W. Bush was the president when the United States of America came under attack by the politico-religious philosophy of Islamofascism. For all of his weaknesses in the domestic arena, his presence as the leader of this country was an act of divine mercy not to be overlooked. He was a man - something very much lacking in the Obama administration, the Democratic party, and the nation today. He was a man of moral courage, whose compass pointed constantly toward that great north star of preventing further attacks against innocent people on American soil. And because he was willing to refuse to compromise with the neurotic left, the United States has stayed safe, and avoided attacks on our own soil, for eight years.

Because Barack Obama is in over his head and is a coward, the same will not remain true through the entirety of his administration. Because Barack Obama is a fool, the United States is no longer safe. Because Barack Obama's administration has replaced the wise decision with the haphazard guess, Americans are in danger of terrorism on their own soil once again.

To all those who died on 9/11, 2001, I apologize on behalf of this country that your blood will not be the last, because so many of your countrymen are fools.