Fighting the Good Fight

Prof. Schweikart explains that our military strength comes from our tradition of the voluntary citizen soldiers, a military policy of delegating decision-making down the ranks, an embrace of technology, cooperative inter-service camaraderie, and a determination to avoid the repeat of fatal mistakes. The last is missing in Arab culture where “it is a shame to make an error, but a double shame to admit it.”

He is right, of course. However, while we can’t lose a war over there, we can lose it at home. Prof. Rummel reminds us of the greater danger within:

“For people my age, we have the Vietnam War to which we can compare the liberal media's treatment of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of my bitter memories is of the 1968 Tet offensive by the North Vietnamese controlled Vietcong that failed. South Vietnamese and American forces not only held, but in many parts of the country they so badly mauled the Vietcong that their ability to launch another offensive was set back many years. Yet, the Media played up the Vietcong's momentary successes in Saigon and Hue, and subsequently treated the offensive as a Vietcong victory. This began to sour American public opinion on the war and especially the intellectual class, which turned against it.

The liberal media are trying to do the same thing about American efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. This can be seen in their treatment of the latest Taliban offensive, which if you read or listen to the major media, appears to be a Taliban victory. But, today, with multiple sources of information, especially over the Internet, the usual liberal sources of such propaganda cannot get traction.”

The War Within

Perhaps I’ve focused too much on the nature of the external enemy, Islam. However, when I started this blog there were too few venues explaining the Islamic threat and many people I respect didn’t understand the full danger of this supremacist religious ideology. Feedback from many readers, including many academics, showed that there was a need to focus on the Islamic threat as well as our inability to face that threat.

Now, however, many are writing on the topic and often in greater depth. For daily news and comments Jihad Watch and Islamic Evil can keep you reading for hours. Additional items appear on Little Green Football and Front Page Magazine. Group blogs like Sixth Column and Infidel Blogger’s Alliance have insightful essays and comments. Other individuals worth reading, too numerous to list, write for these websites. In the future, most of my comments on Islam will be relegated to the Infidel Blogger’s Alliance.

On Liberty and Culture, I had intended to focus on the trends in our culture that undermine our resolve to celebrate, sustain, and fight for the values that made our nation great. But in times of war, the strength or weakness of a culture becomes apparent. While the corruption and decay in our universities is growing, we still have a strong tradition that is capable of resisting this insidious influence, but not without a vigorous fight. How do we stop the decay? What are our core values and how do we fight for them effectively?

The first step is always education. The internet gives us a tool to counter the influence of the MSM and universities just as the printing press gave people the power to bypass the Church. The power of a vibrant community of writers engaged in debate should not be underestimated. As we talk with our fellow citizens across our great land, and with sympathetic individuals through out the world, we can forge a renewed awareness of the values that made America, and our sister nations of the Anglo-sphere, civilization’s bulwark against tyranny and barbarism over the last 200 years.