It's My Teenage Years All Over AgainI've talked about this before many times, but I was a teenage leftist. Back then the Vietnam War was the big topic and I was of the opinion that not only were fighting on the wrong side but that communism was the wave of the future. I was thrilled as a Republican President ran against an antiwar candidate, and stunned when the American public repudiated the latter in one of the three landslides of my lifetime. But eventually the Democrats tore that president down and turned South Vietnam over to the communists. And I cheered.
But then a funny thing happened. While I had been sure like former Lieutenant (jg) Kerry that only a few people would have to be relocated, in fact a million or more fled kindly Uncle Ho, with about half of those perishing at sea. And those seemed to be the lucky ones, compared to those who had to face Uncle Pol.
Something was terribly wrong. I remember watching The Killing Fields a few years later and coming out completely shaken. This was evil on a massive scale, from leaders that I had been assured by older leftists only had the best interests of their people at heart. Worse still I recognized the horrific logic of the Khmer Rouge in appointing young children as judges and juries. It was the kind of crap I had believed.
And so by the time Ronald Reagan was up for reelection, I was a Republican. I no longer believed in the benevolent bear; it was an enemy to be defeated, and thank god, we saw it happen less than a decade later.
Now we are fighting a different enemy. It is unimaginably evil. For a change, the left is not rooting for the enemy to defeat us; but they are still claiming that there is no real enemy, that it's all a figment of our imagination.
Say they'd blown up 8 airplanes yesterday. How many lives would be shattered in that instant? Not just the people on board, but those left behind. Although all of America experienced 9-11, nobody experienced it like those in NY, Boston, DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco. But coming back from England on planes yesterday? There would have been many funerals in every state.
So, you know, we have to win. Not just Republicans, not just Democrats like Joe Lieberman. We have to win. There is no Silver Medal for coming in second to Al Qaeda; there is only a granite marker.
