Comment on the Belmont Club: "The 20% Solution"

cfbleachers,
They then grab women and children…and we stop

It is easy to say that the United States needs to "man up" but how can we do that? If the mindset needed to fight and win a war with totalitarians is that exhibited by FDR and most of the American people dring WW-II then we need to walk back from here to there.

The main difference between the positions is that 70 to 75 years ago the pacifists were largely to the right and outside of the administration's party. The Republicans of the 1930s to '40s, even though they rejected the philo-teutonism of the Bundists and America Firsters, perhaps because they were to obviously foreign influenced, did not become true internationalists until the conversion on this issue of Arthur Vandenberg in 1945. Today, with the exception of a small group of Paleocons like Pat Buchanan, the America Last movement is firmly lodged in the Left and is now at the heart of the Democratic Party.

Roosevelt was ruthless in marshaling public opinion, ridiculing and demonizing his enemies. Opposing FDR could get you held up to public contempt, like "Martin, Barton and Fish." Herbert Hoover became a nonperson until Harry Truman graciously called upon his talents to again manage humanitarian relief efforts after the war. Charles Lindbergh's offer to volunteer for active duty was rejected. The last decision at least was probably correct. Under FDR's leadership, as I said yesterday, the United States did not "seek" to "prevail" over an "adversary" but "fought" for "victory" over its "enemies." The public collected scrap and hung black-out curtains while the cartoons urged them to "Slap the Jap" because that was what was needed to win and winning was worth it.

What I propose is a full court campaign to steel America that begins by honoring not just the fact of winning but the means by which we achieved victory in WW-II and the Cold War. We need a relentless public campaign across all media honoring the following efforts;
1. our submarine blockade of Japan,
2. strategic bombing by the 8th Air Force,
3. the use of flamethrowers to clean out bunkers,
4. the Strategic Air Command and Counter Value targeting.
I would also sponsor exhibits and symposia honoring the efforts of US Grant during the siege of Vicksburg.

These points needs to be driven home relentlessly to both domestic and foreign audiences;
1. that we know how to win a war,
2. that we know are willing and able to do it,
3. that we are still a better and more civilized people after doing it.

Doing so will marginalize the domestic pacifists and empower efforts to drive them from their tax payer funded sanctuaries. It will also demonstrate to our foreign enemies that they have "awakened a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve."

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anton,
My expectation is that Obama read Henry V, admired the oratory on a technical level, was pleased with himself for doing so, and probably fixated on evidence that the beastly English had prejudices about the Scots, Irish and Welsh.

cfbleachers,
what strategy and tactics might work best

Everything I said was in the expectation that we are in agreement on the big points here and extending each others remarks. My focus was merely on proposing one way to change the narrative so that we can use those strategies and tactics that work best. We see the problem that has paralyzed our ability to effectively fight our enemies. My idea is one way to change that by publicly remembering how we did it before and then explicitly identifying the enemy in the same terms today. Other suggestions to attain the same goals are welcome.

Habu,
You have been in good form this week. Let us hope that in the worst case there will be a bi-partisan consensus among senior members of Congress that will preserve constitutional government and forestall any rash actions like those in Seven Days in May. That would mean wiring things around Pelosi and probably Reid but if need be I still think that there are enough sane people in Washington to do it and carry us safe to the other side. If any of the current SCOTUS majority are replaced by Obama then things may get much worse.