Keep America Free and Strong
Press Action
Friday, March 12, 2004
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/holmquist03122004/
By Micah Holmquist
America has been pushed around for way too long. First there was Vietnam. Next was Red Dawn. And then the one with Kris Kristofferson.
This might have been acceptable when the Cold War was going on. Back then the Soviet Union was all we had to worry about. But now, as we successfully struggle against the efforts to repress 9/11, we don’t have the luxury of taking that risk.
The terrorists feed on our weakness. “[A]nti-Americanism,” Barry Rubin wrote in an article that first appeared in the November/December 2002 issue of Foreign Affairs, “is most encouraged not by a belief that the United States is too tough but that it is weak, meek, and defeatable.”
Thankfully, Americans are waking up to the horrible situation. “Americans will never trust a Democratic president to protect them. We are smart enough to reject an all-talk, no-action approach to security threats in which we sit around endlessly yakking with intractable friends and implacable foes,” Paul Burich of Milpitas, California writes in a letter that appears in the current edition of Time. “There are 50 years of damage to undo from such policies, and it is nothing short of remarkable that in three years, the Bush doctrine has pinned back the ears of terrorist groups and their supporting states.”
It is indeed remarkable how much the Bush administration has done to protect each and everyone of us from horrors that could be even greater than those our nation valiantly stared down on September 11, but much more needs to be done.
“What more can be done without making more rhyme with war?” a woman wearing the uniform of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America recently asked me while I was performing an early draft of this piece on a soapbox.
After convincing this young lady to leave that notoriously feminist and pro-lesbian organization, I explained to her that there is much that we can do, and in fact must do in order to remain free and throw those who hate us because we are free into even more fits of rage.
The first thing I told her was that we need to start boycotting Hollywood. In this arena of the struggle we are fortunate to have Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood. This non-racist organization keeps a handy list of those from the world of make-believe who we need to boycott for such offenses as being an “Anti-War agitator” (Greg Germann) and having “Released anti-war song on website” (John Mellencamp). (Registration is required. Feel free to use “micah” as your username and “iheartjg” as the password.) If those traitors cannot see how Saddam could have come over here and killed each and every one of us with a weaponized umbrella that he got from The Penguin in Gotham City, there really is no hope for them.
It is of great importance that we boycott Hollywood because who knows what exactly Woody Harrelson spends his money on?
“We also need to restore Presidential privilege,” I told this former feminist. Why is Bush going to answer questions from a committee that involves John McCain? This is a man who had the nerve to run against President Bush in 2000, helped allow the commies to get us to retreat from Vietnam and who now may be trying to help install the treasonous John Kerry. Make no mistake about it. A Kerry Administration would mean that the terrorists would be welcomed into America to kill each and every one of us!
Yes, President Bush is the president and not the king of America, but he is the world’s king. President Bush should not be compelled to do anything he does not want to do!
“Finally,” I told this soon to be fully heterosexual woman, “we need innovative ideas on how to treat other countries.” As much as it pains me to say it, too many Americans, despite correctly not trusting the Democrats and their appeasing ways, have gone soft and are bothered by American causalities. While we are able to tell them that all Americans who die in the military will go to heaven, the sad truth is that it just isn’t feasible for us to be invading all of our enemies.
What then is the solution to the threat posed by countries like Iran? Why Sanctions of course!
Elio Bonazzi explains in a March 9 nationalreview.com story that sanctions and other diplomatic tactics could do a lot of good in Iran:
Simply declaring that the only U.S. policy towards Iran is regime change, and enforcing it at every level in the administration, would provoke shock waves in Tehran. A resolute and determined U.S. administration could release part of Iran’s frozen assets, seized during the hostage crisis of 1979, and use them to fund the Iranian opposition movement, inside and outside of the country. The Islamic regime has lost popular support, and survives only thanks to a very efficient repressive apparatus, exactly like the Communist regimes in eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Imposing sanctions and isolating the regime would provide the final blow needed to overthrow the mullahs.
Just think of what would have happened if we had isolated Iraq and placed sanctions on that country. Many thousands of Iraqis would have died prematurely. And almost certainly the country would have been softened up and forced to surrender. If not for America’s refusal to place sanctions on Iraq, which could have been augmented by regular bombings, there would have been no need to invade the country.
“One more thing,” I told my new acquaintance, “we should place sanctions on Syria. The Syrians may have the weapons of mass destruction that so far we have been unable to locate in Iraq. These weapons of mass destruction could still kill us all, even though that was not the reason for the invasion.”
Micah Holmquist, editor of Irregular Thoughts and Links, is a Cadillac, Mich.-based writer.