Or, well, er….maybe not. Nevermind, Mr. Rangel, et al. Wrong again.

I can be very long winded; everyone knows it, too. I’ll try to keep the lid on.

My support for the Reagan strategy was political and personal. I was a part of the military for most of the eighties. During the years since I have participated in many a debate and sometimes outright argument on issues.

My political support for Reagan, and conservative leaning governance in general, is not about winning. I just figured that out after reading your post. Free people – citizens – should always remember that it’s not about getting your way.

It’s finding the best solution.

Your post crystalized the feeling that I have been trying to tie down all day long. I want a nation that works best for the greatest number of people. I believe that our founding principles and documents are not perfect but are the best tools available, bar none, of all the different flavors, styles, and colors tried by people thus far. It has turned out that this leader of ours has committed to making a WORLD that works best for the greatest number… and may just turn out to be right.

I think the Lebanese might just understand why we are bleeding for Iraq, and for Afghanistan.

They get it. Two hundred thousand (nominal – I’ve only got two blogs that may have same- sourced the number) Arabs – Shiite, Sunni, Druse, Orthodox Christian, even some Palestinians – are standing downtown and demanding to be heard. No bombs, no guns, no burning American flags.

Not in anger. Not enough anger to drown out the hope, at any rate.

They GET it. Elections in the spring in Lebanon. Spring is now. I looked at the faces of the (I assume) Lebanese troops that were mixed in among the edges of the crowd. THEY get it.

I bet the Syrians do, too.

Our best and brightest (the self appointed contingent) DON’T. They have the world at their fingertips even quicker than any of us here do but they refuse to see what doesn’t fit in their version of that world. It is about winning for them. That’s just (expletive)ing sad, too. We are an amazingly wealthy, blessed, fortunate, and robust democracy. Enough so that even our most powerful political fads or hacks cannot (has not – knock on wood) derail the true power that makes us all work as well as we have and continue to do.

It’s not about ME being right. Nor winning any prize. Not even close. It’s about finding a way in the real world of real people to make things work. I could give a rat’s rear end about winning. Please just let freedom work for these folks. Even if they have judged “not ready” by the Elaine’s crowd.

Keith_Indy -

“The real tipping point in the Middle East is going to be Iran. What happens there in the next 6-8 months is going to be what determines the near future of the region. And it could go either way, deeper into authorianism, or closer to democracy.”

If this is in fact 1989 redux, I don’t think that Iran has six or eight months. Read the MEMRI translations of journals from the mideast, especially the Emirates and Gulf States.

I feel like I did the night I watched Germans tearing apart the Berlin Wall with screwdrivers and carpenters’ hammers. Or when that man in Peking stood in front of the tank column on its way to Tiananmen Square.

And I haven’t won a thing. There is no triumph here in Utah. Just a lot more unforseen hope than I am able to process right at the moment.

What a beautiful day this has been.

As if Hitler or any other European needed Americans to give them lessons in killing people.

I understand that the word bezerk is derived from a the Vikings.

Besides most of the natives of the hemisphere were either dead or enslaved or assimilated by the time there was a United States. Europeans forget who we are. All the white people who crossed the ocean and pillaged and plundered the hemisphere for centuries became Americans the second they set foot on the continent as far as they are concerned.

Watch for the “the seminal inspiration for Hitler’s mad ideas was the American slaughter of the Indians” meme.

Because, you know, nothing contributes more to world peace than sending the Marines into a foreign country to yank up the women’s skirts…

That was a bit tongue-in-cheek. We’ve had the “the US (aka Bush) is a hypocrite for not going 100% all our for against every regime anyone doesn’t like” meme going on here at Roger’s Place from a few commenters recently. IIRC Hong Kong and Singapore were on some folks “if you aren’t trying to fix this then you’re just a scumbag hypocrite” lists.

The art of the possible, the art of the possible. As Kieth_Indy said above…

If the Middle East becomes more stable, in less time, and with difinitive results then ever before, President Bush deserves the lions share of credit. For pushing, and pushing, that cause along.

Indeed! And the naysaying MSM and leftist moroonic moonbats will deserve all the scorn we can heap upon them for throwing no end of bricks on the load.

Even with all this hopefull news, it wouldn’t take much to go back a few steps in any area of the Middle East. A few too many suicide bombers in Israel. Syria stamping down on the current protests. Or a pretext made so Syria would stay in Lebanon “for the sake of the Lebanese people.”

Through luck or good planning, the US is in a position to make all of these things much less likely.

“A few too many suicide bombers in Israel”: Syria is under all kinds of pressure – Syria supports the Palestinian terrorists, Israel is blaming Syria for suicide bombers, and the US is on the border, blaming Syria for contributing to the terrorists in Iraq. The net – Syria is likely to put a lot of pressure on its Pali terrorist friends to cool it.

“Syria stamping down on the current protests”: Unlikely, because Bush has publicly committed the US to furthering democratic reform, and the US military is on Syria’s doorstep. And, again, the US has made plenty of “make my day” comments regarding Syria. Is Assad going to take drastic action against the protesters? Only if Assad thinks Bush is bluffing. So, is Assad going to take drastic action against the protesters? I think not.

“a pretext made so Syria would stay in Lebanon ‘for the sake of the Lebanese people.’”: The people who need to buy this line won’t buy. The Lebanese are not going to stay quiet, expecting aid, and no one is inclined to take the Syrian’s word over anyone else’s.

All the US needs to do is make it clear at the first sign of any such actions that it will not be tolerated – move troops in the general direction of the Syrian border, for example, and Assad will cave. He’ll cave if he knows what’s good for him, anyway.

Even really strenuous government critics only get economically ruined; in Chicago or other “machine” cities in the US, not so long ago, you got your legs broken. With luck.