08.31.06
Welcome to the party, Newt
Mr. Gingrich voices what most of us feel (or should).
Ex-U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that the thought of California Rep. Nancy Pelosi becoming the next leader of the House and being third in line to the presidency is frightening.
“The prospect of her bringing San Francisco values and a whole attitude on foreign policy that is, I think, an attitude of weakness and appeasement and surrender, I think, would be a disaster for the country,” the outspoken Republican said.
We all know that. This is the kind of ridiculous tripe I am really getting tired of.
To suggest that “any Democrat is for appeasement is ridiculous” and “shows how desperate the Republicans are,” Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said. “We know we have a dangerous world out there,” he said, but “fear-mongering is not helpful to the situation.”
Fear-mongering….. is there not a legitimate threat ? Democrats ARE for appeasement. Negotiate, ameliorate, abdicate… (Most) Democrats don’t care about security. They care about regaining power. Fear-mongering isn’t happening, unless you are talking about the nut-cases who are terrified the country is gonna fall to pieces if the NSA listens to 10 seconds of your phone call to Pakistan.
There is a real threat, and the Democrats don’t take it seriously. There are millions of people determined to kill me and other Americans. THAT IS REAL.
And we’re gonna hear hours and hours of Democratic blather about “politicizing the war : politicizing security”. Is there another issue more important ? Of course it’s politics.
All your WalMart unions and universal health care don’t mean dick if some nut from Saudi Arabia kills you and everyone around you.
Ockam’s Razor (many other spellings)- the simple answer is usually the best answer. They want to kill us. We don’t want to die. Rather that dance around for decades like we have been, how about we protect ourselves, and kill them first.
UPDATE: Just another note on this… I’m getting tired of hearing “our soldiers are getting killed”. Every loss of life is a tragedy, but this is a damn war, and these men and women didn’t sign up to sell cars, for the love of God. The military isn’t a college scholarship program. When men and women sign up for the military they realize (or should) that they are putting their lives on the line for their country. That is their entire purpose. I wish we never lost any in combat, but we do, and that is their job. If you want to go to college, vote Republican so we can fix the schools and you can get an academic scholarship. If you join the military thinking it’s a college scholarship program, you should go smack your teachers. That’s not how military service works.
KnightErrant said,
September 1, 2006 at 8:16 pm
“There are millions of people determined to kill me…”
Millions? Kill you? Ya sure?
There were 3,000 to 5,000 members of Al-Qaeda in August 2001 and, according to President Bush, substantially fewer now. By all accounts, the Iraq insurgencies are about fighting each other for control of the country, although they are united in their desire to drive out the U.S. occupation. But, none of them give a crap about you or me.
The Iranian leadership that might specifically want you dead is at most a few thousands, the Iranian people have no such bloodlust. At most there are a few hundred North Koreans, probably only a few dozen, who are well fed enough to be interested in killing anyone whatsoever.
That someone as intelligent as you believes that there are millions of folk out there trying to kill you is ipso facto proof of successful fear-mongering.
There are dangerous people in the world, there always have been and always will be. As always, caution and due dilligence is required. But, they are not out there in anywhere near the numbers that terrify you so. Perverting our democracy to defend against these Ghost Legions is a gift to Bin Ladin.
Like any boogieman, it is only our fear that makes pathetic little man big.
JEG said,
September 1, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Knight Errant - thanks for the intelligent, reasonable commentary. We like the debate and welcome the opinion.
Having said that…perverting our democracy? Just a bit of an overstatement, don’t you think? With all due respect, I didn’t see anything in JB’s post about perverting democracy.
Millions, thousands…whatever. Doesn’t matter. A mere 19 directly caused the death of about 3,000 here a few years ago. I doubt most of the victims families would accuse anyone of “fear-mongering.” Ipso facto proof that there is in fact a serious threat to this country. Not “Ghost legions” by any stretch of the imagination.
A pathetic little man, I agree. But “fear” of him didn’t kill 3,000 people. He and his minions did. Whether we like it or not, that makes him “big.”