Ryan and Blair: One is Right; the Other is Wrong.

Ryan and Blair: One is Right; the Other is Wrong.  Two men featured prominently in this week’s news are Paul Ryan and Tony Blair; Ryan for his upcoming run at House Speakership and Blair for his Iraq War apology.  Both stories are significant on their face, but represent much larger stories beneath the surface.

It has been fascinating to watch the mainstream media go on and on about the disarray in the Republican Party due to their lively debate about a new House Speaker.  All the while, there has been hardly a mention of the seismic split that exists between Debbie W/S, Hillary’s minions, and the rest of the Democratic Party.  While the Republicans engage in an open and transparent debate about who and what a House Speaker should be, the Democratic Party leadership is stifling any debate that might possibly impede a Hillary coronation as nominee.  You tell me…which process seems more democratic to you?  The Freedom caucus in the House had better wake up and smell the coffee; Paul Ryan can possibly be the best thing to happen to the Republican Party in a very long time.  His record demonstrates that he is a rock-solid fiscal conservative with innovative and courageous ideas and policy initiatives that can begin to get this nation back on its fiscal rails.  And because he does not toe the line on many very conservative social positions, he should be thrown overboard?  First off, his social conservative positions line up much better with most Americans than do those of the Freedom caucus.  Secondly, Ryan represents that rare mix of boldness with a healthy dose of pragmatism.  He understands that one can refuse to compromise on principle, while being willing to compromise on practice.  He sees and understands the political realities of the deep, partisan divisions in our nation and has the best chance of anyone standing to help bridge this divide.  And for our government to move back towards the position of proper function, that divide must be bridged.  The image, demeanor, and clear common sense of Paul Ryan as the face of the Republican Party would be a blessing from above for that Party and anyone who votes otherwise in the House needs to re-examine their understanding of political reality.

This week Tony Blair apologized for his role in the Iraq War; becoming the most recent public figure to push George W. Bush further under the bus that has been repeatedly mangling him for the last decade.  Like many before him who have done the same thing for the same reason, this exposes Blair as a spineless coward.  One of the biggest travesties in history has been the saddling of George W. Bush as the sole perpetrator of the Iraq War.  To hear Blair and all those who preceded him in this lame apology business, W hijacked a plane and dropped a nuke on Iraq…in the dead of night…without anyone else knowing.  Where to begin with this bunch of jellyfish that bend their collective conscience to flow with the daily winds?  One of the biggest epiphanies that one realizes as they advance through their education is that horrible atrocities have been perpetrated by leaders on their people throughout history, most times with the knowledge and acquiescence of by-standing nations and their leaders.  On those occasions when the world mustered up the courage and will to defeat these monsters, history stands up and cheers for them.  That practice stopped with George W. Bush.  Saddam Hussein was committing genocide on his own people.  His administration used rape, murder, and chemical weaponry as tools to maintain control and power over Iraq.  He was clearly a menace to his people, a menace to his neighboring countries, and an ever-increasing menace to the world.  These facts are not in dispute.  The disputable part is two-fold: Did he have weapons of mass destruction and if so, should we engage in separating him from these weapons.  On a nearly unanimous basis, the free world and its respective intelligence agreed that Saddam had chemical weapons, was actively using them against his own people and neighbors, and was in the process of manufacturing and stockpiling more for the future.  The United Nations passed resolution after resolution to try and deal with this issue; all with no effect.  Meanwhile, the suffering of the Iraqi people at the hands of this despot marched on; all while the free world fiddled.  When Bush finally made the decision to physically remove Saddam from power, there were many who were reluctant.  This is as it should be.  War is a terrible choice whenever it is made and every single alternative must be pursued prior to its moment.  It is obvious from the United Nations and Congressional resolutions that that moment had come and the only person on this planet that could implement that realization was George W. Bush.  He did it.  He did it deliberately, openly, with the full backing of the United Nations and the U.S. Congress.  It was a quagmire.  Many innocent lives were lost, destroyed, or damaged in the conflict; as is the case with all wars.  Mistakes in execution were made; but those mistakes were ultimately corrected.  A military victory was finally realized and handed over to incoming President Obama.  He proceeded to cast aside all the precious blood and investment that had gone into the apparent outcome and frittered it away through his failure to stand up the new Iraqi government with an effective SOF agreement.  He could not wait to get out of Iraq and his haste and idealism resulted in a vacuum that we continue to deal with today.  Since that moment when U.S. troops, along with tens of allied nation’s troops, marched into Iraq and dethroned a monster, many of the people who were there cheering, jeering, or were standing silent have been finding their voices and have been increasingly bold in their condemnation of the war effort.  They find refuge and cover in a media that never liked Bush in the first place and eagerly jump on every opportunity to tarnish his legacy.  They count on short memories to cover over the fact that they were for the war before they were against the war.   They find comfort in the popular revisionism of history that swells the number of war critics while pasting over the realities that led to the invasion.  These spineless characters; these sunshine soldiers who go with the herd wherever it roams; these public figures with no sense of shame or personal acceptance of consequence; one by one they have ventured out and condemned George W. Bush as a reckless, cowboy President who defied all those wise people surrounding him and single-handedly led this nation into a painful and costly middle east conflict.  Hindsight is not an option for Presidents; it should not be accepted as an option for critics.  Hindsight is a tool for learning; for implementing changes that might improve our actions in future episodes.  George W. Bush, with the backing of Congress, the backing of the United Nations, and with the full and harsh realization of the bloody and precious costs involved, led this nation into the Iraq War.  He did so because a monstrous leader was terrorizing his own people and threatening to spread his madness to the free world.  Credit those who stood at that moment and said “Stop, this is a mistake”.  They might have been right or wrong, but at least they stood up when it counted.  For all those who did not stand up then…keep your damn mouths shut, suck it up, and understand that actions and inactions have consequences.