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From one of the funniest sites on the Net:
Kerry Fit to Defend U.S. Against Non-Threatening Foes
Kerry-Edwards Spend $50M to Prove They’re ‘Regular Folks’
Bin Laden ‘Saddened by Incivility’ of Republican Convention
Kerry Says U.S. Will Win ‘Court Battle on Terror’
Kerry Proposes Deciding Presidency by Chants
Kerry: Celebrities at Risk if Bush Reelected
A column in the LA TIMES by Irshad Manji, author of “The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith”, describes the warped pop culture of the Palestinians:
Palestinians Are Trapped by Their Own Culture
Tuesday’s simultaneous bus bombings in Israel, carried out at a time when the Sharon government insists on withdrawing from Gaza, raises a basic question: Why is peaceful coexistence taking so long in the Holy Land?
...Posters of shaheeds martyrs plaster the buildings of the West Bank and Gaza. Billboards proclaim their undying honor. Adolescents make up rap tunes to them while expressing hope that one day they will imitate the self-immolators. Even a soccer tournament on Palestinian Children’s Day is named for a suicide bomber.
I’m not implying that Israeli government policies are blameless. Far from it. For example, the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to arrest the criminals who set up illegal outposts in the West Bank. Such willful negligence will only feed extremism on both sides.
But let’s not lose sight of the larger reality. After the Aqaba peace summit in June 2003, both the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers encountered protests. Hard-line Israelis resorted to demonstrating and jeering. Hard-line Palestinians resorted to blowing up buses and the people in them. That’s a life-and-death difference in choices.
Manji shows that suicide bombers aren’t driven by economic hardship:
Many of my fellow liberals would argue that choices don’t exist for Palestinians they’re economically impoverished and desperate. Not according to Mohammed Hindi, the top Gaza leader of Islamic Jihad. His response was part of a longer interview I conducted with him in Gaza on camera and before the construction of Israel’s security barrier.
“What’s the difference,” I asked, “between ‘suicide’ and ‘martyrdom,’ as you folks now call it?”
“Suicide,” he replied, “is done out of despair. But most of our martyrs were very successful in their earthly lives.”
Hindi’s answer floored me. By his own admission, what drives so many of today’s suicide bombers isn’t that which the material world has failed to deliver to them, but something besides perhaps the Koran’s promises for the afterlife or, perhaps more precisely, Palestinian culture’s ideological exploitation of the Koran’s promise of paradise.
The Palestinians need leaders who want their children to live healthy and productive lives, not blow themselves up.
Bush gave a barn-burner of a speech tonight. When early on he got into the refrain of “And nothing will hold us back,” I was concerned at first. It reminded me of Kerry’s refrain from his acceptance speech, “America can do better, and help is on the way.” But I think the parallel was intentional. Bush’s line compares very well with Kerry’s. Bush’s line is powerful, optimistic, and meaningful. Kerry’s line is depressing and vague; and it indicates that Americans need rescuing. Kerry carried that refrain on throughout his entire speech. After a few repetitions, Bush had finished with his.
Bush devoted a great deal of time to domestic issues. This will guard against one of the things that got Bush Sr. voted out of office, namely, a perception that he lacked interest in domestic affairs. I liked the domestic initiatives:
Many of our most fundamental systems – the tax code, health coverage, pension plans, worker training – were created for the world of yesterday, not tomorrow. We will transform these systems so that all citizens are equipped, prepared, and thus truly free to make your own choices and pursue your own dreams.
This parallels the recent redeployment by the Bush administration of American troops, which was also viewed as an overhaul of an outdated policy. This suggests to me that Bush is serious about updating these systems, which cry out for adjustment to changes in the world.
As I have travelled our country, I have met too many good doctors, especially OB-GYNS, who are being forced out of practice because of the high cost of lawsuits. To make healthcare more affordable and accessible, we must pass medical liability reform now.
This is very important, and it’s not something we’re likely to hear from John Kerry and his trial-lawyer running mate.
Bush’s delivery was persuasive but not passionate until he got to talking about his actions to protect us from terrorist attacks. This was brilliant:
Not long ago, seven Iraqi men came to see me in the Oval Office. They had Xs branded into their foreheads, and their right hands had been cut off by Saddam Hussein’s secret police, the sadistic punishment for imaginary crimes. During our emotional visit, one of the Iraqi men used his new prosthetic hand to slowly write out, in Arabic, a prayer for God to bless America. I am proud that our country remains the hope of the oppressed, and the greatest force for good on this earth.
That eloquently shows admiration for the Muslim religion and a mutual feeling of religious coexistence between Muslims and those of Judeo-Christian heritage.
...freedom is not America’s gift to the world, it is the Almighty God’s gift to every man and woman in this world.
That took courage. The Left is trying to slam Bush for his religious feelings. Bush responded by showing pride in those feelings.
The parallel he drew of today’s Mideast with post-World-War-II Europe was also very notable:
America has done this kind of work before, and there have always been doubters. In 1946, 18 months after the fall of Berlin to allied forces, a journalist wrote in the New York Times: “Germany is a land in an acute stage of economic, political and moral crisis. [European] capitals are frightened. In every [military] headquarters, one meets alarmed officials doing their utmost to deal with the consequences of the occupation policy that they admit has failed.” End quote.
Maybe that same person’s still around, writing editorials. Fortunately, we had a resolute president named Truman who, with the American people, persevered, knowing that a new democracy at the centre of Europe would lead to stability and peace. And because that generation of Americans held firm in the cause of liberty, we live in a better and safer world today.
...We were honored to aid the rise of democracy in Germany and Japan and Nicaragua and Central Europe and the Baltics, and that noble story goes on.
He’s right. Europe once seemed an unlikely place for Democracy to flourish, just as the Mideast does today. But due in large part to our efforts, Democracy has flourished in Europe.
This convention has seen some of the greatest speeches in recent memory, from McCain, to Giuliani, to Schwarzenegger, to Miller and Cheney. Bush closed it out with a bang.
