An Overly Cordial Karl Rove

July 3, 2005

Many people, most notably those whom he spoke of, have been livid about the recent comments made by Karl Rove. Rove, speaking at a fund-raiser for the Conservative Party of New York State, is quoted as saying, “Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.”

I am at a loss to understand any logical reason for the outcry over these statements. I certainly understand the emotional aspect of it – Rove has made a candid and relatively tactless analysis of the American left wing, as it relates to our ongoing fight against terror, and this naturally upsets people to whom it applies. It makes sense that people who are offended would lash out. But that their hissy fits would garner the legitimacy of endorsements from sitting, left-wing members of congress is a sad appraisal of the state of the American left wing.

Rove was spot on in his analysis of the American left. That any congressman or activist is so brazen and holds such a cynical view of the American people as to think that he or she can be taken seriously in denying these allegations is troubling. Brent Bozell was among the first to come to Karl Rove’s defense and his support was not just of the morale variety. He did some research and injected some facts and maturity back into this issue. To quote Bozell:

“Six days after Sept. 11 on ABC, ‘comedian’ Bill Maher said the terrorists weren't cowards like we were, ‘lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away.’ Ten days after the attacks, an ABC special featured historian Richard Rhodes proclaiming that ‘These acts didn't come out of nowhere. People are suffering in the world, seeing their children die of preventable disease and of malnutrition.’ Within two weeks, ABC had banned its reporters from wearing of flag pins on television and ‘Nightline’ had already turned predictably to sending a reporter into a Berkeley classroom as the majority of the class agreed that violence only breeds more violence.”

GOPBloggers.org posted a list of examples of what liberals were writing within the eight days following the attacks. Among the titles were “Don’t Bomb Afghanistan” (written on September 19, 2001), “Peacemakers Offer Alternatives to War” (written on September 17, 2001), and “Understanding Osama Bin Laden” (written on September 12, 2001). Reading these pieces or the others on that list makes one wonder how these people can inhabit the same planet that you and I inhabit and still reach the conclusions that they reach.

After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, when detainment facilities at Guantanamo Bay started to become increasingly publicized, the left began to complain about living conditions, mistreatment, and legal protections. Definitions of these charges were stretched beyond any meaningful description, so that poor living conditions equated to cement cells, mistreatment equated to being handcuffed, and legal protections were assumed to be defined by the Geneva Conventions; a belief that was misguided at best. The mental gymnastics and exaggerations necessary to make these claims were the first clues that there was an ulterior motive to these outcries. The blame America first crowd was changing with the times. They switched gears from decrying the illusion of racial discrimination, social oppression, and elitist domination in America to decrying illusory claims of excessive American brutality against the foot soldiers of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Though the 19 hijackers from September 11 died in the conduct of their crimes, a man known by the common Saudi name of al-Qahtani, better known as the so-called 20^th hijacker, has found no greater allies than those of the American left. Housed in Guantanamo Bay and subject to interrogations that are laughable when compared to those of less altruistic nations, especially in light of his suspected affiliations and intentions, his plight was the topic of a recent Time Magazine cover story and is typical of what draws sympathy from the left.

iptv architecture, iptv Solutions by Netup.tv With the capture of John Walker Lindh, an American citizen who joined Al-Qaeda and fought against American forces in Afghanistan, legal issues surrounding the detainment of combatants not classified according to the Geneva Conventions became fresh bait for the lawyers and activists of the left to create another controversy. What was a unique legal scenario was assumed to be an unprecedented one and debate stirred regarding what legal rights Lindh did and did not have. This was an epiphany to the left and marked the turning point in their strategy to thwart American efforts in the war against radical Islamofascism. While Lindh has been largely forgotten, the controversy surrounding his legal issues was not lost on the left. Like in other cases where the left cannot win in the court of public opinion, they seek to fight in the court of law. Faced with the reality that their legal case is invalid, at best, they continue to press on with foolish allegations that prisoners are being mistreated, by erroneously citing the Geneva Conventions and exaggerating detainee conditions. The left has gone to great lengths to misrepresent the situations in our detainment facilities and to exploit those misrepresentations for political gain.

In its zeal to tear down American efforts in the war on Islamofascism for political gain, the left has made the jobs of our Soldiers more difficult and put them at greater risk. Alleged misconduct has been the dead horse that the left refuses to stop beating. Information regarding actual misconduct at Abu Ghraib was already under investigation by the military after a whistleblower informed his chain of command, but photos were leaked to the media with disastrous consequences. Arab reaction to this leak was electric and violence increased in Iraq, contributing to an increase in the rate at which Soldiers were killed or wounded. The real and alleged misconduct that the American left continually harps on has been a continuous propaganda windfall for our enemies, most notably the insurgency in Iraq. That so few Americans have even stood trial for such abuse, let alone been convicted, is a testament to the overexposure and irrational behavior of the people who refuse to let these largely fabricated issues die. While Senator Dick Durbin’s remarks were most certainly stupid and most certainly provided yet another propaganda windfall for the Arab media and Iraqi insurgency, he was just riding the political wave of the left and there was nothing especially repugnant about what he said, when viewed in the context of the rest of the American left wing. He was singled out for criticism because he is a member of the United States Senate and he should know better, but his rhetoric was characteristic of the rest of the American left.

If anything, Karl Rove was too kind in his appraisal of the American left. The continuous political pressure applied by the left regarding false claims of prisoner abuse have resulted in policies that complicate American efforts to process and interrogate prisoners. This has also made the jobs of our deployed Soldiers more difficult, as detaining prisoners now requires several pages of sworn statements and painstaking evidence collection and documentation. Most sickening of all, the left contributes to, and benefits from, increased violence against our Soldiers in harms way. Every piece of propaganda that the left hands to the Arab press puts our Soldiers in greater danger. And the greater the danger that our Soldiers are put in, the stronger the left grows, as it molds itself into the anti-war and anti-Bush party and decries the very danger to our Soldiers which it encourages through its irresponsible behavior.

It would be nice if I could say that Rove were off the mark with his comments. It would be nice if we could honestly say that the left has been nothing less than patriotic and united with the rest of America as we fight to make our nation safer. The sad truth is that Karl Rove was far too kind. The American left has been in a state of absolute chaos ever since the Republican party took control of the White House and congress. As the Democratic party flails about wildly, searching for an identity that will resonate with enough voters to regain its power, its members and their ideological peers have, in the absence of any sound leadership or guidance or example, somehow concluded that defining themselves as anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Republican, and several other “anti-” causes will somehow breath new life into their sagging movement. The American left has become so pessimistic, cynical, bitter, angry and resentful that it seems to have no limits for how low it will go in attempting to regain clout. It is encouraging to see that this perpetually negative movement does not resonate with a majority of Americans. Most of America supports its Soldiers, supports what they are fighting for, appreciates the freedoms that they secure, and is optimistic about the future of America and the rest of the ever-expanding free world. The American left supports whatever cause they think will allow them to regain power. This perverse worldview has led them to side with our enemies.

If Karl Rove is guilty of anything, it is that he was too cordial towards people who are deserving of nothing but contempt.

- TJM

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