With
that one little phrase, President George W. Bush has set
liberals clucking their tongues like they haven’t clucked
since Ronald Reagan called the former Soviet Union an evil
empire.
Was this really an appropriate remark for
the leader of the free world? Didn’t this amount to a taunt
of America’s enemies to attack our troops? One Democrat
presidential candidate even said that it sounded more like
a comment from a gang leader than the President of the United
States.
Of course, the term “cowboy” is
again being heard across the land. Well, cowboys are quintessentially
American, and like most Americans, I love it when my president
talks like that. It gives me confidence that he is not playing
games with those who would do harm to my country. We know
exactly where he stands, and so do our enemies, just as
they did with Reagan. Also, like most Americans, I have
not forgotten Sept. 11 of two years ago.
Let us consider the full text of the president’s
remarks. Facing an increasingly hostile media, all wanting
to know why our personnel are still being killed in Iraq,
Bush said:
“Anybody who wants to harm American
troops will be found and brought to justice,” Bush
said. “There are some who feel like that if they attack
us, that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't
understand what they’re talking about, if that’s the case.
My answer is, ‘Bring ‘em on.’ We’ve got the force necessary
to deal with the security situation.”
That sounds reasonable to me. But to the
erudite snobs of the privileged left, who sip their cocktails
at their east and west coast parties and lament the loss
of civility toward America’s enemies, I’m just a Midwestern
male with more testosterone than brains. They, of course,
long for the appeasement of Bill Clinton and the malaise
of Jimmy Carter, so I leave it to you, the reader, to decide
whose thinking is more rational.
There is a scene in the 1970s film, “Billy
Jack,” where the hero, a martial arts expert, tells one
of the bad guys, “I’m going to take my right foot and
I’m going to hit you on the left side of your head, and
there isn’t a thing you can do about it.”
That is how men like Reagan and Bush have
always addressed tyrants. Reagan took Nikita Khrushchev’s
“we will bury you” threat and turned it upside
down. The Gipper made no secret of his desire to see the
Soviet Union out of business. And then he made it happen.
Can you imagine that would have happened under Jimmy Carter,
Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis?
Similarly, Bush has never wavered in his
determination to stamp out the forces of terrorism in the
world. He even called three nations an “axis of evil.”
What liberals can’t seem to comprehend, just as they didn’t
with Reagan, is that George Bush means it.
Throughout history, when the Neville Chamberlains,
Jimmy Carters and Howard Deans of the world have tried in
vain, just one more time, to compromise with evil, it is
men of courage like Churchill, Reagan and Bush who finally
had to step forward and say, “enough!”
If the United States of America does not
stamp out terrorism around the world, which nation is going
to do it? France? Germany? Russia? China? Hardly. Even Great
Britain is turning on their courageous prime minister, Tony
Blair.
When the history of the early 21st Century
is written, it will be clear that when it came time to fight
global terrorism, George W. Bush assumed the mantle of leadership
as head of the last remaining superpower, and as such, also
assumed the awesome responsibility for preserving liberty
on planet earth.
Bring it on, Mr. President!
Doug Pattonis a freelance
columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and
public policy advisor at the federal, state and local levels.
His weekly columns can be read in newspapers across the
country, and on www.GOPUSA.com,
where he serves as the Nebraska Editor.
With
that one little phrase, President George W. Bush has set
liberals clucking their tongues like they haven’t clucked
since Ronald Reagan called the former Soviet Union an evil
empire.
