Jewish World Review Jan. 6, 2005 / 11 Teves, 5764

Bernadette Malone

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New year, but the chattering class' ennui already kicking in


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Out with Homeland Security for 2004, in with Social Security, declared the liberal and silly Washington Post on the front page of its Style section on New Year's day.


That kind of elitist foolishness — the ennui the chattering class holds for the War on Terror and the cat-and-mouse games that never seem to produce Osama Bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, or terrorists on Air France flights — is exactly what typifies the Democratic Presidential field.


Enough diddling around in Tikriti spider holes, they complain. Eighty-seven billion dollars for what, they ask? Bush is embarrassing Americans abroad with all his saber rattling, they groan. On to more important things at home, Dean — and to a lesser extent, Kerry and Clark — sigh.


Domestic issues remain important, but would Washington, New York, and other American metropolises have escaped the holiday season without a terrorist attack if the War on Terror's biggest critic, Howard Dean, had been President this year?


Howard Dean, who sent a signal of naivete around the world the day after Christmas when he told the media he is resisting "pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found," by a trial on Osama Bin Laden? Dean, for whom September 11 seems to have become an academic question better left for the international legal community of pseudo-scholars?

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Can anyone voting for Dean actually believe he will do more for homeland security than George W. Bush, or are Dean's supporters those who are simply bored with homeland security's endless warnings and costs?


As the Bush Administration and its agencies bore down for the holiday, raising the terror alert level to Code Orange, stationing heavily armed police at bridge and tunnel entrances, erecting metal detectors at New York's Times Square, dispatching rocket-equipped helicopters over major cities and surface-to-air missile launchers around Washington, D.C., it became clear to urban dwellers: nothing bad was likely to happen, simply because security alone would dissuade terrorists from acting.


The nation was on high alert, forcing foreign airliners out of the sky, causing Mexican and French officials frustration with the U.S.: in other words, doing all the right things.


Bush does not tire of homeland security, even if Europe, Mexico, and the Washington Post tire of him.


When are terrorists bent on jihad, killing the greatest number of American civilians, and showcasing their might and evil genius to their militant financial backers most likely to strike? Certainly not when the U.S. is on high alert, committing resources and grit to capturing suspects and breaking open their networks.


It only makes sense that the next terrorist attack will come when the U.S. relaxes a bit and the terror alert is back to yellow, or even lower. Who is more likely to relax in the War on Terror? Bush or Dean?


Dean criticizes Bush for taking the War on Terror to Iraq, but in recent weeks the leaders of the remaining members of the Axis of Evil, along with Libya, have shown signs that they don't want to end up hiding in a hole in the ground. Iran and North Korea have agreed to allow nuclear sites to be inspected, and Libya has agreed to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction."


Had Dean been President in 2003, the only visible sign that he was fighting the War on Terror might have been barefoot old white ladies hobbling through airport metal detectors. And perhaps another attack.


The War on Terror will take as long as the Cold War, experts have said, and will require the same amount of determination to win.


Ronald Reagan was criticized by Democrats for spending so much money on defense during the 1980s and taking too hard a line with our enemies, but his policy broke the back of the Soviet Union.


George W. Bush now faces the same criticism Reagan did — from the same quarters of liberalism. It's a very good thing Howard Dean and the Washington Post weren't prosecuting the Cold War, and it would be a very bad thing if they were prosecuting this current war.



Comment on JWR contributor Bernadette Malone's column by clicking here.

Up

11/10/03: Time for "diversity" for GOPers?
11/03/03: Two cheers for loopy loudmouth Sharpton
10/20/03: And who can blame them?
10/07/03: Irony seems to have been lost on most in ‘leakgate’
09/30/03: Will the Dems finally produce an alpha male before it's time to name a nominee who can scare Bush?
09/23/03: ‘K Street’ will reinforce American cynicism
09/09/03: When real life starts to imitate virtual reality, it’s time to reboot

© 2003, Bernadette Malone