put innocent civilians in internment camps for the good of the country
It is funny you mention this. I haven't really put that together with the WOT. You are absolutely correct. People were much more realistic about what it took to win in our grandfather's time. One advantage they had is that they were not being brainwashed by what amounts to enemy propaganda from the media. For the most part, the American media supported the troops and administration under Roosevelt. Even the Communist party supported the war (well, after Hitler broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact).
These days, people are so consumed with this or that "sky-is-falling" interpretation of what pathetic attempts our government has made to protect us, that they can't see that the sky is actually falling.
I remember my father telling me about being in the Air force back in the 50's. He remembers being terrified that the government was actually telling the truth when it claimed it wasn't spying on its citizens, spying on Russia, etc. He said he was relieved when it was revealed that Eisenhower was lying after Gary Powers got shot down.
You are also correct when you point out that none of these efforts would have been considered objectionable in the past. We are spoiled.
We are about to enter the most dangerous period in history of the world. After Stalin, the USSR was basically under the control of bureaucrats, and unlikely to start a nuclear war. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both sides blinked and stepped back. Now, we are faced with an enemy that is not afraid of us. They KNOW we are weak. They want war. Will we "get them back?" Probably. But what comfort will that be to the millions of dead?
We should not be stepping back from our efforts in Iraq, we should be expanding them. Iran MUST be delt with before it becomes nuclear. Clinton already made a major mistake in allowing Pakistan to develop a bomb (don't get me wrong, the blame goes back to Nixon).
Honestly, I believe the American people have been brainwashed by a partisan media to believe that the war can't be won. Let us look at this objectively:
1. We can't lose without simply surrendering. This is not a truism. Iraqi militants haven't the capacity to do anything to us other than annoy us. That they are doing in spades. How can a nation that has the capacity to reduce the other to individual molecules be beaten by what amounts to a large group of street thugs? There is only one way: for us to give up.
2. We haven't lost many troops. That American troops are dying at an alarming rate is one of the biggest myths of this war. I am sorry, but the casualties from this "war" would be a noteworthy training accident in WWII. In Vietnam, we lost 58,000 troops (dead). We are at about 2850 in Iraq after nearly 4 years. It will take us nearly 60 years to catch up at this rate.
In World War II, the last war the politicians had the balls to fight, we lost 400,000 men. You guessed it, it would take more than 400 years, the time it has been since Shakespeare's King Lear debuted to catch up.
I am not making light of the casualties. I am just pointing out that the rate of combat deaths is absurdly minor for people to be claiming "we can't win."
3. Vietnam could have been won. Our politicians simply lacked the will to do so. Because of their ineptitude and selfish concern about their political future, and the same unpatriotic, America-hating media's convincing of our populace that we could not win, we suffered a humiliating and ignominious defeat. It took decades for our military to recover. If we surrender now, the damage done by Vietnam will pale by comparison. Why? Because our defeat by a pathetically over-matched enemy will prove what Vietnam led Osama and his ilk to believe: that we are a paper tiger. We will encourage our enemies and will suffer the consequences.
Machiavelli's insight into the nature of man is more true today than ever: it is better to be feared than loved.
If Iraq and Iran must burn to prove to the world that we cannot be trifled with, let them burn. Kill every living soul and salt the earth if that is what it takes.
