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Tuesday, July 03, 2007
The Greatness of Unpopularity, the Unpopularity of Greatness
I remember the moment of clarity I experienced when I read an observation on polling by Peggy Noonan in her book What I Saw at the Revolution. To paraphrase:
If Abraham Lincoln had had a pollster he would have been told in September, 1862 that over 60 percent of Americans thought the war was lost and favored a negotiated settlement.
And if Abraham Lincoln had been Bill Clinton he would then have proceeded to negotiate that settlement and take credit for “saving the lives of tens of thousands of our brave men and women in the Armed Forces.” Of course, there would have been no United States, but that’s a minor detail when you’re pleasing the majority and saving lives, no?
This mini-rant is in response to this editorial I stumbled upon from the Los Angeles Times titled “Losing Muslim hearts and minds.” Let’s have a look at whatever “highlights” we might extract:
IT HAS BEEN a long and bloody spring in Iraq and Afghanistan, but on the battlefield of ideas, the news is even less encouraging. A survey released Tuesday by WorldPublic-Opinion.org suggests that the struggle for Muslim hearts and minds may already be lost.
Overwhelming majorities of those surveyed in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Indonesia say they believe that the U.S. seeks to “weaken and divide the Islamic world” and to “achieve political and military domination to control Middle East resources.” Most say they think that Al Qaeda defends the dignity of Muslims by standing up to the U.S., and most share the terrorist organization’s goal of evicting the U.S. military from the Mideast.
Okay, what’s your point, LAT?
To the extent that the U.S. presence in the Middle East increases support for Al Qaeda, as the poll suggests, will prolonging the American military mission be counterproductive to the broader struggle against radical Islamic fanaticism and terror?
And what do you think the odds are that the LAT editorial board is going to have the guts to say we should just abandon the Middle East and let Iran take over Iraq and Everyone go to war with Israel, resulting in a probable last-ditch nuclear counterattack? All so that we can increase public opinion poll approval of the United States in Egypt, Morocco and Pakistan?
Answer echoes hollowly.
So what is the big finish to the pronouncements of the Editorialistas of Los Angeles?
Many apparently rationalize their support for Al Qaeda by concluding that it wasn’t behind 9/11. Despite Bin Laden’s televised boasting, fewer than one in four surveyed — and just 2% of Pakistanis — say they think that Al Qaeda masterminded the attacks. This depressing landscape suggests a steep uphill climb for the United States. Yet persuading Muslims of the merits of democratic over theocratic rule remains Washington’s only viable long-term strategy to win the generational war against Islamic extremists.
So, reading between the lines we Americans are supposed to use Gentle Persuasion, logic and reason on people who will believe by a vast majority any self-serving fantasy conducive to protecting their precious pride as Muslims? In other words, the LAT has set up an utterly impossible task, and then told us that it’s “Washington’s only viable long-term strategy.”
I guess they don’t have much respect for the analytical skills of their readers.
Let me put forth my own analysis of these poll numbers. As long as the United States takes an active role in the world, fighting murderous tyrants and promoting liberty when and where we feel it is in our interest we will never, ever be very popular with the average Muslim on the Street in a number of countries. The only way we could be really popular with said Muslim and the government he lives under is to retreat within our own borders and wait to be surrounded on four sides by a hundred million warriors who demand submission, or death. And after that we’d have peace, peace at the price of everything else, our material prosperity, our self-respect, our honor and freedom and dignity and our nation itself.
That is the price of popularity in opinion polls. I like to think I know how Lincoln would have responded. I just pray that we never elect leaders who listen to the Los Angeles Times.
Comments
Wahrheit, you’re spot on about them hating the U.S. for fighting for liberty. And not only the Muslims, but also the extreme Left and any ideology intent upon the destruction of all that’s good. It’s a larger than life struggle against good and evil we’re in on this planet and we’d better make it clear which side we’re on or be carried along in the strongest current.
Posted by Aurora on 07/04/2007 at 08:28 AMThank you for the nice post. We have America-bashers all around. I’m especially ticked at the home-grown radicals in our midst, who use our freedoms to undermine the nation.
Peggy Noonan’s a national treasure, by the way.
Have a great Fourth of July!
Posted by Donald Douglas on 07/04/2007 at 11:26 AM
