Tolerate this!

I recently received an email from a friend. Attached was an article she wanted me to read. It was written by a Mr. Doctorow. His credentials were cited as follows:

E.L. Doctorow is one of America's most accomplished and acclaimed living writers. Winner of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Humanities Medal, he is the author of nine novels that have explored the drama of American life from the late 19th century to the 21st.

So you get the idea. Because of his awards, whatever comes out of his mouth I should believe. WRONG!

So in response, I'll start with an absurd quote from "one of America's most accomplished and acclaimed living writers."

"But you study him(President Bush), you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it."

What hubris; obviously an educated man (Mr. Doctorow), still woefully ignorant. His credentials are nothing more than awards from liberal organizations founded and funded by liberals to promote guess what? ...liberals and their ideas. The universities and colleges, institutions of higher learning, have done much to promote the kind of mentality expressed by Mr. Doctorow.

I just received a book today written by Lee Harris who I'd heard interviewed a couple of weeks past. On the book jacket it notes, "We are all naturally reluctant to face a true enemy. Most of us cannot give up the myth that tolerance is the greatest of virtues and that we can somehow convert the enemy to our beliefs. Yet as a tour through the past of civilization demonstrates, from Sparta to the French Revolution to the present, civilization depends upon brute force wielded by a sovereign."

America has become fettered by overdeveloped sensibilities. Many in the media and the intellectual community who, combined have far too much sway in society, wring their hands over events in America's past such as the fire bombing of Dresden and Tokyo, and the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lucky for them, America had the insight and willingness to act forcefully. We are told thousands upon thousands of "innocent" civilians were needlessly killed by America. I could not disagree more and am thankful to those who acted. Those "innocent" civilians were supporting their country's leaders; leaders who were waging war on us.

Those bombings brought Germany and Japan to surrender. Sure, we may have eventually won without the bombings. At the cost of how many more American lives? If we had to kill 2, 3, whatever, hundred thousand of our enemy to save even a handful of Americans the ammunition was well spent. Many Americans don't get it or don't want to. Islamo-Facisim is a challenge unlike any we've faced before. I don't think we are acting forcefully enough. President Bush is held back in large part by a timidity that has been bred into America's population over many decades. It may be too late. I don't know. I hope not.

There were three Punic wars. That would be wars between Rome and Carthage (Punic). Who was right is of no consequence. Carthage is long gone and Rome, at least a vestige of it, exists to this day. Why was there not a fourth Punic war?

After beating the Carthaginians twice, Rome was still, in their opinion, being plagued by them. A third war ensued. This time the Romans annihilated Carthage. To annihilate means to make non-existent. Those Carthaginians who were not killed were dispersed and sold into slavery. Carthage itself was dismantled down to the last brick and the land given to its next-door neighbor. Problem solved.

Many Romans lost their lives in these battles. Many Roman wives lost husbands or sweethearts. Many Roman children lost fathers. Many parents lost sons and many grand parents lost grandchildren. This is to say nothing of the thousands of Romans who were not killed but left with the scars of war. War is not fun; it is mean, brutish and ugly. It is, however, sometimes necessary. Yes, I know there are those who say this is not a necessary war. They say President Bush lives in a fantasy world. On the contrary, it is they, not the President, who live in a fantasy world.

This war was instituted by Islamo-Facists. Islamo-Facists and their friends are not found in only Afghanistan. We are told that our presence in Iraq is causing Al Qaeda and supporters to cross the borders into Iraq and take up arms against the Coalition army. The implication being that this is a bad thing. Is it? Only if we fail to take advantage; better to fight them there than here. If we have the courage and willingness to act, as they collect in larger numbers attracted like a moth to the flame, we can kill more of them.

I don't know all the twists and turns this major challenge is going to take. No one does. Mistakes will be made. Many failures, appearing to be mistakes, will be due to our leaders being constrained to do no more than is politically possible. This contest will be won. The question is ...by whom?