Laura, The Sneetches, and Building a World of Fear Laura Ingraham, writes of the "dangerous" world knowing that horror movies attract those most gravely frightened. And she makes a point of distinguishing between those invited to the party, and those not, when she writes:

The American people know it. American liberals don't.

Ergo, American liberals are not American people. Possibly liberals are people imported from Transylvania; or American, but perhaps somehow not people, not equal..

You only could play if your bellies had stars,
And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.

Yes, if one acknowledges another as a human, with a differing point of view, one might be called upon to consider another view of the world. If one were to risk allowing a little light in, who knows where that might end.

Laura tells us we should be scared of the world. Indeed, after reading her article, I am a bit scared:

America is not the world's problem--America is the world's solution. [...] The United States is the only great nation in the world whose people are willing to make real sacrifices of blood and treasure for world peace. If we don't do it, no one will. President Bush knows this. The American people know it. American liberals don't.

America is the world's solution? "Calling Dr. Freud, calling Dr. Freud! Please report to Laura Ingraham's room immediately!"

Sacrifices? Sure, Bush's war has killed the American economy - so it's been a lousy last couple years here, but any American's career problems are probably not as severe as for the (once) professors at the University of Baghdad.

Real scarifices of blood? Well, accurate numbers are difficult to come by, but approximately the same number of innocent Iraqi children have been killed by America's guns and bombs as American soldiers have fallen. We willingly gave our volunteer soldiers, they lost their young children's lives without a choice in the matter.

Is the world a dangerous place? It is never a constant. Ther world is much more dangerous now than during the years under Clinton, and this is much thanks to the leadership of George Bush and his team of armchair generals, and the war they have put in people's hearts worldwide.

Can even Laura truly believe that the violence we (America) have started in Iraq has made the world more peaceful? If all the surviving friends and relatives of the innocent Iraquis we've killed held a grudge (like the Hatfields and the McCoys) we'd be in a heap of trouble, more than we could handle.

But mostly, they want to live their lives, away from violence; mostly they dream of an opportunity for peace and happiness. Still, our massive influence hits them - bullets, bombs and death - and we cannot think this makes any people gentler or kinder.

An "axis of evil"! Bush told Laura, you, and I.

If we build it, they will come.


  ¶ 1:11 AM