Sep 02 2006
Failure Is Now An Option
Recall when Gene Krantz, head of Mission Operations at the Johnson Space Flight Center, dictated to his engineers and operators in response to the near fatal catastrophe on Apollo 13 that “Failure is not an option!”? Now play that scene again in your mind but now with Pelosi, Ried, Lamont and other lefties saying “There is no hope, we must give up!”. Weird, eh?
The dems are playing to their angry, wobbly-kneed liberal base. They need money and votes. And that liberal base has decided that America’s dedication, commitment and “can do” image needs an overhaul. We should now be the country that ‘couldn’t’. But just because the dems have to toss the sacrifices in blood and treasure we have made in Iraq into the garbage heap doesn’t mean American voters will. In fact I seriously doubt we will. This war has been tough, but not as tough as the one we fought against the Nazis – at least not yet. We have been fortunate that our enemy jumped too early, before they had the arms to really stand up to us. 9-11 would have been much more confounding had Bin Laden waited for Libya and Iran to obtain their nuclear weapons. But we have so far stymied the Islamo Fascists.
But the false sense of security brought on by our secret successes has made the far left cocky and over confident. So over confident they think we, as a nation, have a new motto:”Failure Is Now An Option”. Well, for some ‘failure’ is an unavoidable fate. Ask Ned Lamont after this year’s elections are over.
Failure WAS an option with the Vietnam War.
Any leftwing posts regarding the Iraqi war and post-war seem to have come from Mars.
One would not glean from reading much on this site from
owner or fans of his that for a long while 50% or more self-identifying
conservatives have thrown in the towel on the Iraq war, including
Republican rank and file. The Republican (and Democratic)
political elites lag behind the mainstream.
And regarding those who elaborated on my comparison of Iraq to Vietnam, it seems those who are still fighting the Jane Fonda wars
and blaming the Left for the defeat are missing the greater point:
the domino theory turned out to be a hoax.
The “Islamo-fascist” threat is a worse hoax and I say that as a
Pat Buchanan conservative nationalist.
So sorry Ken – no one is willing to play in your little fantasy world.
Ken:
The left threw in the towel as soon as it started. Buchanan [oblivious to what century we are in] figured anyone who hated Jews could not be all bad. Great combination.The sad thing is Saddam was such a monster and people like you support him. The fact that he tried to kill a president and can be tied to the first attack on the World Trade Center is not important.
So far the American people have not supported just leaving Iraq an letting hundreds of thousands of innocent people suffer and die .It is said to see that you do.
It says a lot about certain people in the anti war movement that when having to choose between a man like Saddam and the president of the United States, they suck up to the Butcher of Baghdad . It is even sadder that they apparently hate Bush so much they want to see America fail and the Iraqi people live under a tyrant just to get even with Bush.
According to Bill Clinton Osama is and was the greatest threat facing the US, is this not true? Was Bill lying? And the attacks all over the world… are they hoaxes? Ah yes, you are too smart for that it is all part of a plan by the evil neocons and the terrorists if they exist at all are an anomaly.
I can remember back when it was apparent that communists had killed more than a hundred million people the world over, had deprived hundreds of millions more of their liberty the left was saying that was all a hoax too. Has Pat’s fan club started to like communists too?
I tell you what, run on that. Say to the American people that the election in Iraq was crap, we don’t care what happens to those people we are running away, because we are Americans and that is what we do. Tell them that there is no terrorist threat. Those nice people at Hezbellah and AlQaida are just messing around when they say things like death to America and kill people and if we just kiss their butts and beg for mercy and change our ways and do as we are told all will be well. Go ahead.
I think that the American people want to see an end to the Iraq war because they want the suffering to stop and because they want to see the left crawl back under their rock. They are hoping that if the war ends, the Moores and Sheehans and Buchanans will go back to where ever they came from.
To hear that you are Buchaninite does not surprise me. I have seen extremes meet in politics before.
DailyKOS “Tinfoil Hat ONâ€
One comment in your post struck me:
Could bin Laden have thought that the blustering Hussein already had nuclear weapons? Might he have been pushing the Islamic world into his conflict – a conflict he could have tactically won if the west would not fight.
DailyKOS “Tinfoil Hat OFFâ€
DailyKOS “Tinfoil Hat ONâ€
One comment in your post struck me:
“This war has been tough, but not as tough as the one we fought against the Nazis – at least not yet. We have been fortunate that our enemy jumped too early, before they had the arms to really stand up to us. 9-11 would have been much more confounding had Bin Laden waited for Libya and Iran to obtain their nuclear weapons.”
Could bin Laden have thought that the blustering Hussein already had nuclear weapons? Might he have been pushing the Islamic world into his conflict – a conflict he could have tactically won if the west would not fight.
DailyKOS “Tinfoil Hat OFFâ€
Ken
I respect you choice of opinion , but I disagree with you world view.
We on the right did not fight the Fonda wars, it was supported and lauded by the left more than we fought it.
I wish I had the words to convince you to look at the wider picture of how the world is evolving around us in a political spectrum, but I know my limitations.
I am not a wordsmith or a provacative mind changer.
Perhaps in time and with the progress of world events you may come to a similar conclusion to those who frequent this site.
We are not here to get validation for our views, we are here to get a good commentary on the daily world as we see it.
If you read the site enough, you will see we have a civil debate and back and forth that is very productive.
In short we are not fixed in stone people, we respond to intelligent debate. In my view this is a good thing.
Feel free to join in if you wish to have honest debate, but if that is not your aim, your welcome mat will be a very small piece of realestate.
If I may correct a few errors. Terrye, Buchanan starts
with the Monroe Doctrine assumption that the proper
US sphere of influence in domination is our own
hemisphere., not any anti-Jewish sentiment. he understand
a major driving force for intervention in the Mideast,
a violation of staying in our hemisphere, is “the Lobby” depictred by
right wing realists, Measheimer and Walt.
Saddam tried to kill Bush after Bush killed 400 innocents in
that fallout shelter early in the Persian Gulf War,assuming
on, once again, faulty intelligence, Hussein was there. And I assume,
Terrye, you condemned the tacit alliance with evil Saddam the
US had against Iran?
Merlin misinterpreted my Fonda Wars reference. My broad points are, there was no monolithic international communist bloc
prepared to spread a monolithic ideology,as the domino theory
claimed.\ as the Reds turned on each other post-Vietnam.And if I’m not mistaken, Mr. Strata, a few non-Leftist US war leaders , eg Kissinger, confided they were aware that victory was not possible with the tactics being utilized years before they allowed a withdrawal–delayed to “save face” for the Empire….Anger should be directed
at these as much as the Left for the tens of thousands of additional
losses in that time frame.
Ken:
I know all I need to know about Buchanan. Enough said.
Ken
In Vietnam, we showed that we could fight a war far from our shores and bring to it the force level and rules of engagement of our choosing not dictated by what the other side wished it could be. We took much higher losses than necessary to fight a PC war methodology. A stain we still carry thru to today.
As to your domino failure theory, perhaps you should consider that maybe it did exist, but showed which of the opposing sides was the real “paper tiger”.
Regan called their bluff and achieved a major victory just by showing how hollow they were. JFK did a similar effort in Cuba.
Even in Iraq and Afgahnistan, we still have pulled our punches.
Wars aren’t fought on the battlefield any more they are fought in the NGO’s and the press.
Heck webcasting the Crusades would have not been pretty!
If you look at recent engagements like Iraq and Lebanon you see that the adult side of the fight is always bombarded by a shock and awe attack of you gotta be perfect and PC in all you do. We somehow have to develop mail in ordanance that can submit targets to lie detector tests before they explode. But somehow the other side gets a pass.
Maybe I missed the civics class that taught that the NYT is supposed to dictate our war conduct rather than the DOD.
Historically wars are won when you kill people and break things enough to eliminate the threat. Paintball games seldom achieve the same result.
Where I live we have drinking establishements classified as knife and gun clubs.
You need a knife to get in and a gun to get out.
PS I don’t live in California.
“””” And regarding those who elaborated on my comparison of Iraq to Vietnam, it seems those who are still fighting the Jane Fonda wars
and blaming the Left for the defeat are missing the greater point:
the domino theory turned out to be a hoax.””””””””
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13121
The above article is Col Bui Tin-the North Vietnamese who accepted South Vietnam’s surrender, thoughts on issues concerning leftist Americans and their role in defeating America in the Vietnam War.
“”””Question: How did Hanoi intend to defeat the Americans?
Answer: By fighting a long war which would break their will to help South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh said,
“We don’t need to win military victories, we only need to hit them until they give up and get out.”
“”””Q: Was the American antiwar movement important to Hanoi’s victory?
A: It was essential to our strategy. Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle along with us.”””
No question who defeated America in Vietnam.It was the
American Left.
No question who wants to defeat America in Iraq.
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/kerry-to-introduce-cut-and-run-billJohn Kerry wants to give the terrorist hope after the death of Zarqawi. “Just hang on a little longer, comrades!”