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« Report: Hussein Used Same Money-Launderers as Osama Bin Ladin | Main | On "Chickenhawks" »
June 03, 2004

On Mike Wallace

Mike Wallace phoned O'Reilly last night to defend his partisan, anti-American remarks at the highly-inappropriate venue of a Memorial Day speech.

His main point was that WWII was a "good war," because it "united" us, whereas Iraq is a "bad war," because it divides us.

Put aside the point that liberals claim to have an absolute veto over American war-making. Apparently they don't think that we need a mere majority of Congressmen or voters in favor of war in order to go to war, but that we need a majority of the subset of liberals in favor of war in order to go to war.

What struck me was how important he thought it was that America had resisted entry into WWII until the Japanese sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor united the country, he reasoned.

Well, yes. Yes it did. Pearl Harbor united the country. And all it took to unite the country was the deaths of thousands of US servicemen and civilians and the sinking of half the Pacific fleet.

And that's all it took to get the everyone on board. That, and, of course, the fact that Uncle Joe wanted us to join the war in order to save the Soviet Union.

This is, right here, the crux of the disagreement. Implied in Mike Wallace's remarks is the idea that in WWII, we were wise and peaceful enough not to go to war until we had been grievously wounded by a sneak attack. Also implied is the idea that we would not have been justified in pre-emptively hitting Japan before they hit us; that would have been barbaric and warlike.

Even if we knew, as of course we know now, that Japan was planning its own pre-emptive attack.

Liberals have the idea that we should only be forced into war by direct attack. Even when we have strong suspicions or actual proof that another country is conspiring against us, or actively funding terrorists who attack us, we must never attack first. We must absorb the first blow in order to be peaceful and righteous and have the moral approbation of the world, by which they mean the French.

Even when such moral approbation of the French comes at the cost of thousands of American lives.

With all due respect: the moral and rhetorical value of allowing ourselves to be attacked first is simply not worth letting thousands of our fellow Americans die.

Liberals are forever claiming that conservatives are selfish, heartless, and cowardly for sending American boys off to die in foreign wars. The argument goes that anyone not serving in the military must never agitate for war, because doing so means you're sending someone to die for your beliefs.

Liberals never seem to grasp the implications of their own position, however. Liberals would gladly sacrifice thousands of American lives simply so that we can have the moral high ground of saying "We were attacked first."

It seems to me that they're willing to sacrifice a lot of lives in order to achieve a policy goal as well.

I'm not so willing, and I never will be. Sure, I'd like to have an inarguable moral high-ground for any war. But when that moral high-ground comes at the expense of a thousand people immolated in a holocaust of burning jet-fuel, I say it's too high a price.

Besides, there is actually no "inarguable" moral high ground. The Nazis and Japanese certainly didn't seem to think they were the bad guys in WWII. And the Islamofascists sure don't seem to have any pangs of conscience about 9-11.

The philosophical divide is clear. Conservatives say "Better them than us."

Liberals actually believe the opposite: "Better us than them." Better that we die, even if in large numbers, than we ever act pre-emptively to protect ourselves and kill would-be enemies.

I've always felt that liberals were viciously abstract in their thinking. One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic and all that. There sometimes seems no limit to the amount of real, concrete, tangible human suffering and misery they will countenance in order to achieve an abstract, philosophical, and utterly unreal goal.

Liberals love "the masses." They just don't seem to particularly like actual people.

The abstract rhetoric of "We were hit first" is all well and dandy, Mr. Wallace.

Care to explain to the families of the 9-11 victims why letting Al Qaeda hit us first was preferable to pre-emptively attacking Afghanistan?

How many dead Americans, precisely, is "We were attacked first?" worth? I want an actual number. I want to know exactly how many Americans we have to allow to be murdered in order to put liberals into the strange position of supporting their own country.

Tell me the exact number, and then we can all decide whether or not having the liberals for once "united" with us against an enemy is actually worth the bargain.


posted by Ace at 04:56 PM
Comments



"Liberals love "the masses." They just don't seem to particularly like actual people."

True.

One of my ex-friend's favorite statements was, "All life is sacred, so why is that $#@*&^ George Bush invading Iraq?"

When what she really meant was, "All bead-rattling savage and brutal dictator life is sacred, whereas those of innocent American (and other) civilians and American soldiers are not."

Posted by: Sailor Kenshin on June 3, 2004 05:06 PM

Corrolaries:

1) The vast majority of those who choose to serve in the all volunteer forces are conservatives. The Conservatives are the ones who send their sons, daughters, and other loved ones out to interpose their bodies between the United States and the enemies thereof. So the Liberals stake in this is what, besides their delicate sensibilites, exactly?

2) All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for men of good conscience to do nothing.

Da_Wiz

Posted by: Outlaw_Wizard on June 3, 2004 05:23 PM

Wallace's equivocating is even more repugnant in the context of his admission that, given the choice between saving soldiers' lives and getting the story of them being killed by the enemy, he'd roll tape and not feel the least but sorry for refusing to lift a finger. This from a man who had no problem lifting several fingers to shame dishonest auto mechanincs on '60 Minutes.' What an asshole.

Here's the link - I'd love to find the transcript in its entirety:

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20011010.asp#4

I really, really dislike Wallace.

Posted by: ccwbass on June 3, 2004 05:43 PM

It seems to me that self-righteousness and moral superiority is the holy grail of the left. Thinking well of yourself and being well thought of by others is more important than being right. It gives them that warm fuzzy feeling that they enjoy so much.

Posted by: Smack on June 3, 2004 11:33 PM

To paraphrase Fernando--

It's better to feel good than to do good.

Posted by: Raoul Ortega on June 3, 2004 11:49 PM

Another direct hit.

keep it coming....

Posted by: The Right Wing Conspirator on June 4, 2004 04:46 AM

"How many dead Americans, precisely, is 'We were attacked first?' worth? I want an actual number. I want to know exactly how many Americans we have to allow to be murdered in order to put liberals into the strange position of supporting their own country."

This is excellent.

I find myself asking the same type of question in debates about WMD. It goes something like this? How much WMD would satisfy you that Bush didn't LIE to you and that the threat is real? I want exact figures. Did you know that a soda can of weaponized anthrax released properly in, say, a shopping mall could kill thousands? Is one soda can enough for you? Is one sarin shell? If not, how much?

Posted by: Longshanks on June 4, 2004 08:18 AM

If written words could wound, they'd be scraping Mike Wallace up with a putty knife right now. Excellent work.

Posted by: physics geek on June 4, 2004 02:40 PM

Dammit - Sailor Kenshin beat me to it by a long shot, but since it's already copied to my clipboard, ready to paste here:

"Liberals love "the masses." They just don't seem to particularly like actual people."

Friggin' priceless, along with all the rest of it. But I need to stay current on my reading, the better to say "Amen, brutha!" before beaten to the punch.

However belatedly, Amen, brutha!

Posted by: Patton on June 4, 2004 07:29 PM


Well, let me say that that observation is not original with me. I'm pretty sure I lifted it from P.J. O'Rourke.

If not O'Rourke, then somebody else. I didn't make it up.

Pretty sure it was O'Rourke, though.

Posted by: ace on June 4, 2004 07:54 PM

I have lifted so much from PJ O'Rourke its ridiculous. He is just so darn good.

One of my favorites;

"Everybody wants to save the world but nobody wants to help Mom with the dishes."

Or something close to that.

Posted by: lauraw on June 6, 2004 10:19 PM
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