It has become increasingly clear how the conflict that we are fighting is not truly one of guns, bombs, and supersonic jets, but one of human intellect, power, and ideologies – I suppose in that regard is not much different than any human conflict throughout history. The methods certainly change, and we find new and horrible ways to kill each other, but the motives seem to be perpetually the same. What has perhaps changed in that arena is the number of political leaders willing to put political agenda over commonsense. Neither side is completely innocent of being overly focused on their own ideology, but clearly one side is truly obsessed with not only their own beliefs, but also the sacrifice of American victory merely to prop up those beliefs. The political left continually fails to stand up and take a long-term perspective on both the war on terrorism and the role of our government here at home. The result has created a war of ideologies here at home, which if lost, will ruin all chances of winning the war abroad.
Of course, to understand the left’s obsession with propping up their political agenda, you merely have to look at the left’s handling of the war in Iraq. Setting aside the initial reasoning for going into the war, how can one justify pulling troops out of Iraq now? By all accounts, we must view the success of the new government in Iraq as critical in stabilizing the Middle East and preventing long-term consequences in terror attacks around the world, as well as here in the U.S. Should Iraq collapse following the removal of U.S. forces, it is a virtual certainty that the country would become a terrorist haven. Hence, the opposition to the war and the demand to pull troops out comes with a likely price tag of more terrorist attacks. To that end, the only reason to oppose the continued operation is either out of sheer spite or simply for political gain.
It is, I suppose, the nature of the beast that those involved in government should think themselves special enough to put ego over the common good. This applies both to the left and right, as well as Democrats, and Republicans equally – neither I nor you are immune to this attraction either. The wretched truth is that absolutely no one is immune to the lure of wealth, power, and popularity. Given that, it should be the goal of each American to evaluate our leaders in light of this reality. We should strive to be spiritually meek, even while the world aims to be strong. This meekness should not be confused with physical weakness. They are not one and the same. Instead, being meek-minded is to subjugate our own desires and wants and instead, focus on the needs others. More importantly, it is to do so with the realization that we ourselves are quite capable of making decisions that are to the detriment of society.
There is a certain sobriety that is needed to take on the affairs of the people. When this sober outlook is lacking, instead of fixing problems, we often create more complex problems. When evaluating our political leaders, it is clear that both sides are guilty of this charge. However, it is also clear that the guilt does not spread equally to both sides. It must be said that the political left is suffering from this lack of sobriety at epic proportions. You can see it in the way they have clung to defeat in Iraq even while progress is clearly being made. In fact, it takes only a modicum of intelligence combined with a fraction of due diligence to find out what the real story is in Iraq. And yet, to hear the left talk about it, you would think that Saddam was still running Iraq, that the Iraqi’s had not conducted free elections, and that the U.S. troops had somehow been turned back in their attempt to free the country. We all know that is not the case. Given the insistence by the left side of the political aisle on a false reality, perhaps Americans should think strongly about their ability to lead this country.
