Bob Dole passed away last weekend. I never voted for him but offer condolences to his family. He had a long life of over 98 years, 35 of which he spent in the U.S. Congress (8 years House Rep.; 27 years U.S. Senator).
He was also a WWII veteran who was seriously injured during the war, suffering permanent loss of the use of his right arm and lifelong numbness in his left.
His death has provided one more opportunity for the childish glorification of WWII. Today being the 80th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack will inspire more still.
Down the memory hole has gone the reality that FDR provoked Japan’s foolish attack with an oil embargo, ostensibly for Japan’s treatment of the Chinese. This just a few decades after FDR’s own cousin, the equally-as-awful Teddy Roosevelt, encouraged Japan to go into China in the first place.
In reality, Roosevelt was just looking for a reason to get into the war against Germany. Japan merely provided a convenient vehicle.
This wasn’t the first or the last time the D.C. Empire allied with an authoritarian regime only to turn on it later. That’s more like business as usual.
We hear a lot about political correctness and applaud people who refuse to be censored. Well, here is some real politically incorrect talk that will have most conservatives running for a safe room:
WWII was not a triumph of good over evil. It was a disaster from which Western Civilization has never recovered.
Too many people look fondly on “the good war” as if it represented the west at its best. That this is how Bill Kristol thinks should tell you there is something very wrong with this reasoning.
War is always and everywhere a disaster. It is government at its apex, meaning civilization is at its nadir. This one was no different.
Yes, the Nazis were defeated and that was a good thing. But at what cost? Why was handing half of Europe to the brutal Soviet Empire for 46 years better than handing it to the Nazis? The Soviets killed far more people, albeit over a longer time period. Why do communists always get a pass?
Woodrow Wilson had hoped WWI would result in his regimentation of the economy and American life becoming permanent. It didn’t. WWII did. The war resulted in the U.S. becoming a permanent garrison state while most of Western Europe descended into socialism, only pulling back from it slightly at the end of the century to avoid becoming failed socialist states themselves.
I disagree with Pat Buchanan about quite a bit, but not on foreign policy during the past 30 years. He convinced me WWII could have been avoided without allowing Hitler or Stalin to conquer vast amounts of territory.
That’s why I highly recommend Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World. I won’t spoil the book for you, but I will say it is exhaustively researched, packed with primary sources, and very well written.
Take my advice on this one; read Buchanan’s book. Disabuse yourself of the lie that there was anything good about the “good war.” It will help you wholeheartedly support what really needs to be done.
Tom Mullen is the author of It’s the Fed, Stupid and Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? And What Ever Happened to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?