Snake Oil

Your words go down smoothly like snake oil; your scope of curatorial knowledge is impressive, and hypnotizes - like the snake itself. You craft your arguments precisely to convey your meaning, conveniently leaving out facts that may run counter to what you hope to advance. You leave out 9/11 for instance - which was seen at the time as an attack on America on American soil not unlike Pearl Harbor. It demanded a response, a ’face saving’ if you wish. You ignore that the whole world, at the time, Democrats as well as Republicans, considered Iraq a rogue state, dangerous to the region as well as to itself. You discount the strategy of encircling Iran - Iraq on one side, Afghanistan on the other. You do not recognize our need to secure the continuing free flow of oil to protect our economic livelihood.

Instead, you seek to promote the notion that America is/was stupid at best or evil at worst. Eventually, our cynical, America-hating side, in conjunction with the desire of our global enemies, would prevail as all the legitimate reasons for attacking Iraq were swept under the rug and forgotten. Our enemies were elevated to be our equals (or better) by those who found a strategy which to exploit in our own parochial political wars.

You never offered alternative solutions save doing nothing. And even that would have been used against us in some way; for the struggle that would ensue was not against the people who attacked us but between factions of ourselves - one side seeking the wholesale destruction of the whole notion of America from within. They appear to have achieved their goal.

A minor point: Russell Kirk was right, of course. This is not arguable. However, dying, either before or after any given event, does not involve 'good sense’ (as you put it).

Also, immigration has never been a problem for America. The problem is 'illegal immigration'. It cheapens our rule of law which then leads to chaos. No country on earth condones illegal immigration. It violates the very concept of sovereignty. Legal immigration, on the other hand, provides the fresh blood needed for a nation such as ours to endure. This has always been the case. It's not a matter of foreign nationals taking our jobs because they are willing to work for less. It's a matter of our failed educational system (again, sabotaged by our internal enemies) that does not provide enough skilled workers to maintain our infrastructures. Why is it that even our universities outsource their editing work to India? Why is it that our legal system does the same? It's not that Indians will do it cheaper (though that might be true purely in terms of currency conversion factors). But the overall need for this kind of outsourcing has everything to do with the fact that Indians can do the work. The same is true of everything else that is being outsourced - programming, call centers, etc. ...and it has long been no great secret to Americans that Japan - not strangled by government interference and union rules - builds better cars.