There is a great scene in the 1963 movie “Zulu,” one of my favorite movies. In this movie, A British regiment of 140 men is surrounded by 4000 Zulu warriors, who want to destroy this last remnant of British rule in Southern Africa, after the disastrous British defeat at Isandlhwana. A missionary and his daughter has taken refuge with the British soldiers, and the missionary is a pacifist in the grand tradition of pacifism; as the British are preparing their positions, defining fire lanes, organizing for a siege, the minister is accosting the leader of the British force, asking why he is preparing to fight, and perhaps they should try and talk to the Zulus, instead. All through the preparations, and during the first fight with the Zulus, the missionary is inveighing the commander to call a truce and negotiate with the Zulus, if not suggesting outright surrender, rather than expend any more life in a futile defense. Why fight, when they can all live if they surrender?
There is always someone like that in any crowd, people who see nothing to be gained by confrontation, and would do anything they can to avoid the confrontation. Despite the long evidence of history, which shows that the only way to beat a bully is to stand up to the bully face to face. Bullies do not go away by talking to them, they go away if they are forced to acknowledge that they cannot win and, in fact, can be beaten. Sadly, though, few people remember this lesson of history.
We should keep this in mind when we see the Democrats attempting to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory in Iraq. The Democrat position is not a reasoned position; there are few, if any, people in the Democrat leadership who have had military training, or even an extensive training in history. They do not really understand the forces in motion in the world, and really do not want to understand. They are like teenagers with a car, or pre-teens with firecrackers; they do not need to know the dangers, they are invulnerable, and someone else will handle it if things go wrong. All they want is power, and they see the War against Islamofascism as a route to that power. Harry Reid’s concept of victory is gaining more seats in the next election on the backs of our soldiers in Iraq.
They are not evil, and they do not want us to lose. While I am hesitant to call them ignorant, I can say that they are unaware of the political dynamics of the world, today, and see themselves as being noble in trying to limit the dangers of those who they consider to be adventurous and dangerous. Last week, in my article titled “Virginia Tech Faces Evil”, I wrote about the fact that the students of Virginia Tech finally came face to face with true evil, on April 6, most of them for the first time, and probably did not recognize it when they saw it. That is true of Democrats, in general. They do not see evil in the world. They see forces that cause bad things to happen to people, whether it be Capitalism, Big Business, Republicans, gun owners…all these things are CAUSES of evil, and the evil would not exist if these causes did not exist. To the Democrats, people are, essentially, good. Evil is caused by outside forces. Remove the external forces, and people can live in harmony.
Thus, they can be very serious about the concept that George Bush is responsible for the War in Iraq. He is the cause, not the terrorists who threaten our lives, because he took action. If we remove the threat, George Bush and the American Army in Iraq, then the terrorists will not exist as a threat to us, and the world will be more peaceful. The terrorists would have no reason to hate us, if we were not there, in Iraq. It is the guns that kill people, not the people themselves.
One can see how seductive such a philosophy can be, for the historically naïve, and for young college students who do not see much of the rest of the world. It would seem very clear that the United States, the main Capitalist presence in the world, by the fact that it exists in so many areas of the world, is the main irritant for the world. It is our dominance in every aspect of industry, culture, science and technology that is the cause of terrorism and hatred. We impose our will on people simply because we are so strong and dominating. If we were not there, gobbling up the resources of people not as well off as us, and forcing our technology and culture on them, there would be no reason for people to form terrorist groups against us. In other words, it is the successful who make people angry and rebellious. Remove the successful people and nations from the world, and the world will be a better place.
Note that last. It is success which causes evil, not something inherent within the people. The shooter at Virginia Tech stated that one of his ‘reasons’ was the rich kids he saw around him. In fact, I seriously doubt if he needed a reason, but he had already been inculcated with the universal excuse for anger and failure, others’ successes.
This is the underlying thread of the Democrat’s need for us to fail in Iraq; if we were to be successful, according to the mind of those involved, it would simply create more envy, and more hatred. If we were to lose, everyone would like us again.
My vision, of course, is different. I see history as a continual rise of opportunity and success for everyone, one which is constantly threatened by those who envy the success. Not everyone can be successful, and those who do not make it to the top are often envious of those who do…and want to bring them down. Yes, they would like to have what those on top have, but if they cannot have it, they are happy to tear down the success of those who do.
This plays out on the national as well as the international scale. The Constituency of the Democratic Party is the poor and disenfranchised, and the Democrats stay in power by promises of government largesse and aid to overcome their problems. This opens them up to a wider constituency around the world of disenfranchised and unsuccessful people who also would like to take advantage of the wealth of the United States. We have programs such as the Kyoto treaty, and issues such as global warming, all of which are designed to redistribute the wealth of the manufacturing elite of the world to the rest of the world.
We cannot treat the Democrats as equal. We cannot really debate their points, because they do not have a point to debate. They are as much an implacable enemy of our future as the terrorists, because they seek to limit our growth and success; instead of seeing that growth as a positive benefit for everyone in the world, instead of seeing Democracy, and Capitalism as the only savior for the ignorance and poverty in the world, they see it as the problem which maintains ignorance and poverty in the world. The point of view of the American Left is not rational…and that is why it is evil.