Saturday, October 23, 2004
Bush's New Ad: Wolves
Bush's new ad makes one amazingly important point. Weakness emboldens our enemies. That is the historical record of the last 25+ years with dealing with Muslim extremism.
And I think this recognition is not a liberal/conservative thing. Liberals like Ed Koch and Joe Lieberman understand this.
People who have had a concern with Israel will recognize the pattern much more readily. The peace process of the 90s was dashed by those who saw Israel's willingness to make peace as an opportunity to ratchet up the violence.
Likewise, those who view Israel's unwillingness to commit suicide as the main problem in their dispute (by that I mean the land for peace process) also see America's problem with militant Islam as self-inflicted due to foreign policy, etc.
Overlooked is the history of how perceived weakness caused an escalation in terrorism. I would go as far as to say that making tactical mistakes in the war on terror is less damaging than appearing weak.
And appearing strong, by overthrowing the Taliban and not taking Saddam's thumbing his nose at the world community ad infinitum, is extremely important to the success on the war on terror.
Bush's new ad makes one amazingly important point. Weakness emboldens our enemies. That is the historical record of the last 25+ years with dealing with Muslim extremism.
And I think this recognition is not a liberal/conservative thing. Liberals like Ed Koch and Joe Lieberman understand this.
People who have had a concern with Israel will recognize the pattern much more readily. The peace process of the 90s was dashed by those who saw Israel's willingness to make peace as an opportunity to ratchet up the violence.
Likewise, those who view Israel's unwillingness to commit suicide as the main problem in their dispute (by that I mean the land for peace process) also see America's problem with militant Islam as self-inflicted due to foreign policy, etc.
Overlooked is the history of how perceived weakness caused an escalation in terrorism. I would go as far as to say that making tactical mistakes in the war on terror is less damaging than appearing weak.
And appearing strong, by overthrowing the Taliban and not taking Saddam's thumbing his nose at the world community ad infinitum, is extremely important to the success on the war on terror.
