Speaking yesterday at the one-worlder Council on Foreign Relations, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talked about the challenges involved in a transition from tyranny to a free and civil society.
He described the problems:
And, unlike the people of Iraq, we did not face the added challenge of recovering from the trauma of decades of denial and brutal rule by a dictator like Saddam Hussein.
Rumsfeld's point:
"[N]o nation in memory that has made the transition from tyranny to a free society has been immune to the difficulties and challenges of taking that path – not even our own. As Thomas Jefferson put it at the time: 'we are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.' "
Our left-wing, virulently anti-Bush media, however, not only want that transition to take place on a featherbed – they are demanding one, along with a box spring mattress and a fancy headboard.
We are a mere seven weeks since we crushed the regime of Saddam Hussein, and the media cannot understand why Iraq has not already begun to resemble the U.S. as a free, prosperous and peaceful democracy.
That this is not the case is obviously the fault of the hated George W. Bush, who has infuriated liberal Democrats and their media toadies by somehow managing to help his party control the White House and both sides of Capitol Hill. It appears that he does not understand that it is the Democrats' divine right to rule America.
The latest Socialist Democrat line echoed by the media is that conditions in Iraq are the result of poor planning by the administration. They should have known, we're told. They should have been prepared to deal with each and every eventuality the moment it developed.
The word patience – which they demanded when President Bush prepared to attack Iraq without the blessings of the United Nations – was overused before the war began.
Wait, be patient, allow the arms inspectors to complete their work, Mr. Bush was advised. What's the hurry? Let the U.N. control our actions.
But now, in the wake of a stupendous victory that ended sooner than anyone imagined, catching everyone off guard, the word patience is seen as an obscenity.
Said Rumsfeld, "Just as it took time and patience, trial and error, and years of hard work before our Founders got it right – so too will it take time and patience, trial and error, and hard work for the Iraqi people to overcome the challenges they face today."
Turning to the litany of impending disaster ominously chanted by the anti-war, anti-Bush crowd where the end of the world was all but forecast, Rumsfeld noted that, at least in part because of the speed and skill in the execution of the war plan,
Recall, if you will, that all of these catastrophes were predicted by the media, which told Americans to expect Armageddon. The fact that none of these things happened because of the skill of U.S. forces must disturb the doomsayers of the press no end.
So now they have a new disaster script to read from: Iraq is going to Hell in a handbasket and it's all President Bush's fault.
So every gunshot heard in Baghdad, every bomb that explodes, every neighborhood terrorized by members of Iraq's large criminal class and without running water and electricity, and every example of looting – all are joyfully reported by the media.
It has been said truthfully that the fondest hope of the members of the National Socialist Democrat party is that the U.S. will plunge into a deep depression before the 2004 elections so that they can blame Bush and take over the White House and resume their march toward a socialist America.
It can also be said that the fondest dream of the media is that chaos will reign supreme in Iraq, terrorism will dominate the streets of Baghdad, U.S. forces will be treated like hostile invaders, American forces will eventually be driven from Iraq, and all hope of a democratic Iraq will be crushed.
There are those among my fellow conservatives who honestly believed that the war was not justified and who feared that, for a number of reasons, the end result would be a disaster for the U.S. But the fact remains that we are there and have no choice but to finish the job we set out to do.
That this will be a difficult task is obvious, but it's a job that must be done, and nobody else can be trusted to do it right. We have to finish what we started and we simply can't try to fob it off on that feckless U.N. or any of those nations such as France that moved heaven and earth to keep us from going in to begin with.
"The transition to democracy will take time, and it will not always be a smooth road," Rumsfeld warned, adding that "In Central and Eastern Europe, the process has taken time, but it is succeeding. Trial and error and experimentation will be part of the process. The efforts will not be perfect. Course corrections will be needed and should be expected. This effort will require patience by all involved if it is to succeed. It has been seven weeks – in a nation that suffered a dictatorship for decades, that saw tens of thousands of criminals released from their prisons, and where many of the regime’s enforcers are still at large."
In other words, this is not going to be a picnic. We face enormous difficulties and problems, many of which are unlike any we've ever dealt with. It is going to be a long, hard, demanding effort.
But we are Americans, a breed that doesn't shrink from great challenges. During World War II there was a poster showing a muscular Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves and getting ready to go to work to win a global war.
The media and their socialist idols in the Democrat party may not have the sinews for the job, but the majority of Americans do. Let them whine, let them complain, let them cry havoc, and while they do, we'll roll up our sleeves, tackle the job in front of us, and get it done.
That's what Americans do.
Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers
He can be reached at
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