Our Values

[History]

It has become fashionable to condemn President Bush not only for violating "our values", but also for spawning anti-US terrorists. These thoughts only make sense if you ignore all US history through 2007.

What were "our values" before Bush? I assume we could infer such values from the actions of Democrat Presidents. Let's look at some.

• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the internment of over 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II, most of whom were US citizens, over half being women and children. These people lost their homes, property and liberty without due process - no trials, no tribunals.
• In 1942, six men who had lived in the US prior to the war were caught on US soil suspected of intending to bomb various US infrastructure sites. They had not done any actual bombing when they were caught. President Roosevelt ordered a special military tribunal consisting of seven generals (not a civilian trial). While none of the Germans was waterboarded, as far as we know, six of them were executed by electric chair.
• President Harry Truman decided to drop two nuclear bombs on Japanese cities - civilian population centers, not military complexes. The civilian death count at Hiroshima alone may have exceeded 200,000 . (The estimated Iraqi civilian death count is about 100,000 to date, none of which were targeted as civilians and almost all of which were due to the actions of other Iraqis or foreign jihadis.)
• In 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Castro regime. The US had not declared war on Cuba, nor had Congress passed any authorization of the use of force.
• In 1962, JFK increased the number US military advisors in Vietnam from 700 to 12,000. At that time there was neither a declaration of war nor a congressional authorization of the use of force.
• JFK's successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, asked for and received from Congress an authorization for the use of force in Vietnam. (The vote was unanimous in the House, and received only two No votes in the Senate, all under Democrat majorities.) By 1968 there were 540,000 US troops in Vietnam. (At the height of the "surge" in Iraq, there were 177,000 US troops in Iraq.)
• US fatalities peaked in 1968, with the cumulative total being 36,152 through 1968. In that year, America's anchorman, Walter Cronkite claimed, "It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." Yes, boys and girls, Vietnam went from 700 US military advisors and 9 US fatalities to 540,000 US troops, 36,152 US fatalities, and a "stalemate", all under Democrat Presidents and Congresses, before Richard Nixon ever took a seat in the Oval Office. (Total US military deaths in Iraq to date number 4,300.)

I recall this history not to condemn it, or to condemn Democrats of the past, but to condemn those today who twist that history beyond recognition to pursue their own agendas.

The post-WWII period is now known as the time the US enjoyed the most international support and influence. Funny, isn't it, that that occurred just after the US dropped two atomic bombs on cities full of civilians?

[More; "and Terrorist Incentives", Recommended > ]

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