Won’t convert anyone. It’s a sentiment I’ve written about, talked about and held openly since 9-11. The amount of pushback from the left only increases as the atrocities mount.

(rant to follow, feel free to skip)

I had a face to face with a nutter after I came back from Vegas, I stayed there an extra 5 days because the planes weren’t flying. They weren’t flying because of the horrible events on that September day.

So, there’s this idiot wanting names for his petition to resolve things peacefully. I called him out with a theme little different than what you see in the video, but the idea that the Taliban was reasonable had taken root. He didn’t understand. I was the only one to confront him, while people signed his petition.

Worked with a guy who was ahead of the curve for mainstream trutherism, posting crap from whatreallyhappened on the bulletin board. Not only was he not reprimanded, but the junk kept coming.

Online, I frequent a board that leans left ideologically (I’m the resident right winger) and I used to spend pages and pages explaining historical reasons for jihad, historcial examples of failure to act and historical examples of the damage pacificsm does during war. I would use current examples of media malfeasance, distortion and errors of omission.

The pushback was intense. I was, and still am, called every name in the book. These people believe that they do not have to pick sides. I have garnered some allies, and made some progress but a video? I appreciate the sentiment and it does a good job preaching to the choir, but it won’t make one single person vehemently opposed to basic western principles change their mind.

I realized something a couple of years ago. It was a tough thing to wrap my head around, but the notion had been there for some time. No matter what I think about the essential correctness of overthrowing totalitarian regeimes and the need for some kind of enlightenment redux in the Middle East, the current US administration doesn’t appear to agree.

If they do agree, they’ve done a spectacularly poor job in getting that message out. Why is some guy on the vast, anonymous internet putting out propaganda videos when that is, in my opinion, the job of the White House? Why am I, a Canadian and atheist to boot, carrying the water of the Bush Administration when it comes to explaining goals and the necessity of Iraq? (better yet, why the hell do I have to keep waiting for my visa, even though my dad is a US citizen?)

I can’t imagine any other president, save Carter, who would be so inept laying out the struggle of my generation. There is no Reagan, there is no Thatcher. There is only a group of like minded individuals, separated by time and space with no one to lead us. The man with the bully pulpit on all this opens the southern border and doesn’t veto a stupid passport law for Canadians.

This has been 6 years of watching the entire western world turn to ideological rubble in horrible slow motion.

On further reflection, I probably should have blogged this. Funny, how the writing bug hits you. What the heck, I might as well.

Krydor on May 23, 2007 at 12:02 PM

Professor Blather,

It is already too late. The window of opportunity passed, in retrospect, with the absolute failure to name the enemy in clear terms on 9-12.

For heaven’s sake, man, the hard left marches with the enemy in spirit and in reality. You think they’ll wake up, I think they’ll die in their sleep.

Krydor on May 23, 2007 at 1:09 PM