By Gary Bauer – American Values
Published: 08-04-08
I’ve written before that the dirty little secret of the Left is that it really doesn’t object to high gas prices. While liberals rail against “Big Oil” for record profits Big Government is reaping “windfall tax revenues.” Meanwhile the radical environmentalist movement continues its oil embargo against your wallets and pocketbooks by refusing to acknowledge the need to increase oil production in order to boost supplies and lower the price.
But if our own resources are off limits America is left to the tender mercies of hostile regimes like Iran and Venezuela and is subject to events beyond our control in unstable Nigeria or a possible terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile demand continues to grow dramatically in nations like China and India.
It’s an amazing racket but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has brilliantly exposed it.
Yesterday Sen. McConnell brought a bill to the Senate floor that would allow increased oil exploration but his bill had a catch – a trigger that only allows additional domestic drilling if the price of gas reached $4.50 a gallon. Sen. McConnell was trying to find out just how much pain the anti-drilling radicals were willing to let you suffer at the pump before they would change their failed policies and vote to end their oil embargo against America.
Guess what happened? Senate liberals objected.
So Sen. McConnell tried again. What about $5.00 a gallon? Liberals objected.
$7.50 a gallon? “Objection!”
$10 a gallon? Again Senate liberals objected.
In short there is no amount of pain at the pump that would cause liberals to abandon the radical environmentalist agenda and end their oil embargo on America. And yet in a time of war and record energy prices Senate Democrats voted yesterday to take a month-long vacation!
It seems almost impossible to believe but thankfully the exchange was recorded and you can watch it here. Be certain to this with your friends and family members!
The Media’s Best-Kept Secret
America is now winning the war in Iraq. That’s right. You won’t hear about it on the nightly news but over the weekend the Associated Press let the cat out of the bag on the media’s best-kept secret.
I’ve waited a few days to see whether this report would get much coverage but since the media still insist on keeping this good news from you I’m going to share with you excerpts of the AP’s report from July 26th.
“The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace -- a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.
“Despite the occasional bursts of violence Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents who once controlled whole cities no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.”
Al Qaeda is so broken that General David Petreaus told Associated Press reporters that senior Al Qaeda leaders may be preparing to abandon the country.
The AP analysis also notes that violence in Iraq is at a four-year low; American casualties are at their lowest levels since the start of the war; and families are filling Baghdad’s parks a scene “unthinkable only a year ago.”
This turnaround is certainly welcome news. But we must not forget how we got here because we almost didn’t.
Wars are not merely ended. They are either won or lost by nations that either possess the resolve to win or lack the resolve to fight. After the United States military toppled Saddam Hussein in a brilliantly conducted campaign Osama bin Laden saw an opportunity to challenge our resolve. He believed America was weak and lacked the resolve to win a tough fight.
He had good reason to think so.
After our humiliation in Somalia in 1993 radical Islamists rallied to bin Laden’s call for jihad. Referring to America’s hasty retreat after the barbaric attack in Mogadishu bin Laden said “…our boys were shocked by the low morale of the American soldier and they realized that the American soldier was just a paper tiger. After a few blows they ran in defeat…”
In a video gloating about the 9/11 attacks he said “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse by nature they will like the strong horse.”
After Somalia after the bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania after the bombing of the Khobar Towers and after 9/11 the Islamofascists saw America as the “weak horse.” Bin Laden was convinced that “after a few blows” in Iraq America would again run like “a paper tiger.”
Sadly some in America did their best to prove bin Laden right.
Day after day the liberal media reported only our losses and setbacks. Certain politicians accused our troops of “cold-blooded murder” and declared the war “lost.”
Aided by the radical Left groups like MoveOn.org and Code Pink congressional liberals demanded America’s surrender. Thankfully patriots in Congress like Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman stood up and made the case for victory. Thankfully President Bush rejected the defeatism of the Left and ordered reinforcements to Iraq. He chose a new commander General David Petreaus who for his service to our country was smeared by the Left which ran disgusting ads calling him “General Betray Us.”
Thankfully America didn’t run.
We demonstrated the resolve to win and our commitment to be “the strong horse” changed hearts and minds in Iraq. Now the Associated Press says we are winning.
Who knows what horrors the Iraqi people and the world have been spared because President Bush refused to let Al Qaeda win this war and take control of Iraq.
Unbelievably some still argue that the surge was wrong. They refuse to acknowledge the importance of America not just ending the war but winning the war. They are wrong and they have failed to learn the most painful lesson of modern history: weakness and appeasement invite aggression.
Only our resolve to win to defeat the evil of Islamofascism will make us safer.
