If the long Palestinian war against Israel and the current situation in Iraq with al Sadr and in Iran regarding their nuclear program have taught us nothing else, it is those we fight in the Middle East believe negotiation is a sign of weakness to be exploited and lies are, for them, an ethical and expected tactic in negotiation.
Though the lesson has been taught, it is also evident that many on the Left, including Senator Obama, have chosen to ignore that lesson. Senator Obama’s stated last week in North Carolina, “I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.”
History, something Senator Obama apparently ignores, tells us that FDR and Truman did not talk to our enemies, at least not while in a shooting war. Unconditional surrender was the order of the day in WWII. President Kennedy did talk to Khrushchev, but we were not in a shooting war with the USSR.
Talk didn’t stop Germany. Talk didn’t stop Japan. Talk didn’t stop North Korea. Talk doesn’t stop those who are determined to act. This willfully ignorant naiveté is what scares me most about the Left. While there is a time and place for talk, there is also a time and place where talk must turn to action, and the Left seems institutionally incapable of getting to that time and place.
This kind of talk from the Left’s standard bearers makes it easy for me to pull the lever for Senator McCain in November.
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