FGF E-Package
From Under The Rubble
June 25, 2014
Frivolity and Fantasy
by Christopher Manion
fitzgerald griffin foundation
Don’t blame you, don’t blame me
Blame that guy behind the tree
FRONT ROYAL, VA — The Red-Team, Blue-Team cacophony has reached a crescendo, and its intensity rises in direct correlation to its frivolity.
Now it’s “Who lost Iraq?”
Red blames Blue: “Bush warned that this would happen,” proclaims a former Bush staffer. “Obama squandered Bush’s victory,” grouses another.
In 2003, Pope John Paul II warned President Bush that his “Preemptive War” on Iraq would throw the Middle East into chaos. It did.
Blue blames Red: the “Bush Hangover” hampers Obama’s masterful skills; Obama has done his best to “clean up the mess that Bush left him.”
Behind this predictable dungheap of drivel there hides an infection that increasingly debilitates our republic.
Our country has become immersed in a vat of bipartisan, pompous frivolity.
Consider Bush’s callow, meandering hymn of hubris: “We’ll rid the world of evil.” “Saddam was a Madman!” “Heckuva Job Brownie!” “History will vindicate us!”
Ah, but Obama will not be upstaged: “You can keep your doctor!” Let’s fund ISIS in Syria – hey, now let’s fight ISIS in Iraq!” “Lois Lerner’s computer really crashed!” “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
And did I mention hubris? Here’s a headline that will undoubtedly heal the chaotic Middle East in a fortnight:
“Obama Pushes Iraqis to Mend Sectarian Rifts.”Well, Pope Francis calls on sinners to mend their ways, too. And, while we’re on the subject of His Holiness, Bush and Obama, two idols of vapidity, do share one common accomplishment:
They both defied the pope.In 2003, Pope John Paul II warned President Bush that his “Preemptive War” on Iraq would throw the Middle East into chaos.
It did.
Ten years later, Obama was pounding the prompter for a war on Syria. While the American Israel Public Affairs Committee stormed Congress advocating war, Pope Francis had other plans.
Ten years ago Kristol wanted to invade Syria, now that Iraq had been “conquered.” No wonder he baptized Obama as “A born-again Neocon”!
Millions of Catholics and others of good will worldwide joined the pope in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in the cause of peace.
Two days later, last September 9, the most anti-Catholic administration in history was cornered by, of all things, a peace overture from Vladimir Putin, who rubbed it in, taunting Obama for supporting terrorist forces – like ISIS – in Syria.
Obama’s planned war flopped. But his flaccid frivolity brings to mind Orwell’s Doublethink: we are at war with Eastasia. Eurasia is our ally.
Oh wait – the Ministry of Truth says that it’s the other way around!
Meanwhile, cagey Bush old-timers adroitly distance themselves from their bellicose past, reading from the same script. Iraq War architect Paul Wolfowitz moans, “don’t blame me,” and then adds, “look forward, not backward.” Richer Perle (richer every day) blames Bremer. Tony Blair chimes in. “Don’t blame me,” he bristles – and, by the way, we now “have to act” to save Iraq.
Kid Kristol, always smirking, always wrong, seconds Tony’s notion. He wants to fight the war again, apparently expecting a different result this time around.
Ten years ago Kristol wanted to invade Syria, now that Iraq had been “conquered.” No wonder he baptized Obama as “A born-again Neocon”!
The Clash Of Ideologies
The truth will make you free, but falsehood
always brings violence in its wake
--Alexandr SolzhenitsynIs this charade of adolescence terminal?
Some years back, Samuel Huntington wrote of the “Clash of Civilizations.” Today America is suffering the fetid fruits of a “Clash of Ideologies” –both of which oppose Western Civilization and threaten to do what Communism couldn’t: bury it.
The leadership of both major parties abandoned rationality long ago.
...the Red Team — Blue Team farce distracts us from the obvious: both Obamanites and Neocons have abandoned any sense of responsibility. They always cause chaos, and they always blame somebody else.
Behind both facades, Red and Blue, lurks Marxism’s toxic aroma, barely visible, very potent: Blue Obamanites defy the law to pursue socialism in one country, imposed by force, intentionally producing chaos.
Neoconservatives, opportunistically Red these days, defy the Constitution to pursue democracy worldwide, imposed by force, inevitably producing chaos.
Normal folks – the “virtuous people” of the Founders – stare in disbelief as the Red Team – Blue Team farce distracts us from the obvious: both Obamanites and Neocons have abandoned any sense of responsibility. They always cause chaos, and they always blame somebody else.
Both teams are obdurate: they never admit mistakes.
And apologize? Fuggedaboutit!
The “game” is rigged: neither of these ideological cadres could have come to power without cooperation from the other.
Both parties voted to invade Iraq.
Both parties evaded a formal Declaration of War and went to the United Nations for “legitimacy” instead.
Both parties embraced steep spending hikes.
Both parties applauded the rise of NSA’s Thought Police.
Both party establishments stuffed gobs of history down the Memory Hole. Mission Accomplished! Hope and Change!
Arrayed against this Beltway Frankenstein stand the stalwart champions of Free America – families, churches, neighborhoods, private associations, truly independent members of the private sector (excluding those prospering by government fiat and funding) – all embodying what Robert Nisbet calls true “community” and the vital “authority” that resides outside the limits of government power.
Today both parties flout those limits, oiled by cash from the bipartisan Cronies who seek to plunder and rule.
Nostalgia nudges us to cling to our party loyalty like the old days.
But those days are over.
Better to revive the truths that make us free. That will give us a fighting chance.
From Under the Rubble archives
From Under the Rubble is copyright © 2014 by Christopher Manion. All rights reserved.
Christopher Manion served as a staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for many years. He has taught in the departments of politics, religion, and international relations at Boston University, the Catholic University of America, and Christendom College.
See a complete biographical sketch.
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