By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
January 7, 2004
It wasn´t considered worthy of front-page news in the local paper I was reading in Wisconsin, but then, neither was the first debate of election year 2004 among Democrat Presidential hopefuls, but I thought both reports interesting. A short report on Sunday´s Presidential debate was headlined "Rivals Target Dean in Debate" and the second report, on Afghanistan´s new constitution, was considered worthy only of inclusion as a "News Brief."
It appears to me that the treatment of these two stories by a newspaper that is obviously anti-George W. Bush tells us what we can expect in the 2004 Presidential Election year about the issues that the Democrats believe their supporters are concerned about. After reading the transcript of the debate among the Democrats on Sunday, they seem to all be campaigning on the issue they believe uppermost in the minds of their constituents: "What will you, as a candidate promise to give me personally from the treasury of the U.S. Government?"
Some are more blatantly campaigning on a "What´s in it for ME?" than others. For example, Dennis Kucinich, who leads the socialist "Progressive" caucus is out front and open about his socialism and union protecting agenda. He said, "My first act in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO." He also said: "We need to cancel the Bush tax cuts that go to people in the top bracket. And we also have to recognize the destructive quality which this war in Iraq has on our budget."
Kucinich referenced his October statement on Iraq in which he charged, "The war in Iraq is over and the occupation of Iraq has turned into a quagmire." He also believes, according to that October statement, that the United Nations, which raked in billions of dollars for the UN treasury during the period of time it was "managing" the Iraq "oil for food" program can be trusted to control Iraq´s oil supplies, but the US can´t. He wants to "get the UN in Iraq and the US out." He also said he would cut the defense budget by 15%, indicating that he doesn´t have much concern about the war on terror.
Frontrunner for the nomination, Howard Dean, on the other hand, defended his statement that the capture of Saddam Hussein did not make America safer. He said Saddam Hussein was "never an imminent threat to the United States." Somehow I thought, when my son was dodging Scud missiles fired at him in the Saudi Desert back in 1991 that Saddam Hussein WAS a bit of a threat. At least to my family. Well, of course, Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini also were never "imminent threats" to the United States nor did either of them ever attack the United States. As I recall from my youth, however, we finally decided that an attack from one of their friends in Asia came close enough to being a threat that we declared war on him anyway.
What struck me about the debate among Democratic Presidential Candidates was how far behind the times they all seemed to be. They seemed to, in varying proportions, to be almost totally oblivious to the threats facing the world in 2004. They also seemed oblivious of the fact that more than 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq who have been freed from the clutches of dictators who were as bad as Adolph and Benito. They also seem quite unappreciative of the fact that those millions were freed with one tenth of one percent of the casualties suffered in World War II. Over 400,000 of America´s 16 million men and women in the armed services during World War II did not come back alive. In the last two years, the American military have freed 50 million suffering fellow human beings with something like 400 deaths in our military.
To those of us who remember World War II, or even those who don´t remember it, but have studied it, what has occurred in the past two years is really remarkable. The Afghans just this past Sunday, approved their new Constitution, which, for the first time in Afghan history, created a government based on republican principles.
Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, the chairman of the 502 member grand council that approved the new Afghan Constitution after weeks of debate, was quoted by an Afghan news source as saying, with tears in his eyes, reciting an Afghan poem, "There is rain coming, and flowers are growing from my body."
The new nation we helped create is called "The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" and will have a popularly elected president and a two-chamber national congress. Elections for the new nation will be held in six months and an independent judiciary is also being organized. It will be Civil law but will not be "contrary to the beliefs and provisions of Islam."
Those who have been concerned about the banishment of the Ten Commandments from the courthouses of America might take a moment to rejoice that they apparently will NOT be banished in Afghanistan, since Islamic law is based primarily on Mosaic Law.
In congratulating the Afghan people in adopting the new Constitution, President Bush noted, "This document lays the foundation for democratic institutions and provides a framework for national elections in 2004. A democratic Afghanistan will serve the interests and just aspirations of all of the Afghan people and help ensure that terror finds no further refuge in that proud land. This new constitution marks a historic step forward, and we will continue to assist the Afghan people as they build a free and prosperous future."
As I recall when the war was over in 1945 and dictators were out of power or dead, everyone, even the greatly outnumbered Republicans in a solidly Democrat Congress, appreciated the Democrat president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who by then had died in office. Instead of thanks or appreciation, last Sunday all we heard were attacks on the President whose leadership and vision made it possible for the Afghans to have the taste of liberty.
If the Sunday debate among politicians of the same party is any indication of what we are in for in the year 2004, hold onto your seats, folks. It´s going to be a nasty campaign, and probably really boring, year ahead.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com