AS AMERICA closes in on what may very well be another hotly contested presi- dential election, voters might want to ponder the following--and all too familiar--excerpt taken from a major American news publication:
"The troops returning home are worried. 'We've lost the peace,' men tell you. 'We can't make it stick.' A tour of the beaten-up cities in Iraq six months after victory is a mighty sobering experience for anyone. Iraqis, friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American. You try to explain to these Iraqis that they expected too much. They answer that they had a right to, that after the last war, America was the hope of the world. Never has American prestige in Iraq been lower. 'Have you no statesmen in America?' they ask. We have swept away Saddam, but a great many Iraqis feel that the cure is worse than the disease."
Sounds like what you've seen and heard in dozens of newspapers and TV shows, right? Well not exactly. The above quote comes from an article written by one of America's great novelists, John Dos Passos, and it appeared in Life magazine on Jan. 7, 1946.
And as the alert reader may have already suspected from the italicized words in the quote, I took the liberty of substituting Iraq for Europe, and Saddam for Hitler. Plus ca change, plus c'est la même chose!
Harry S. Truman was president when this issue of Life slipped into America's mailboxes, and the article reflected just a small dose of the battering criticism he was then receiving from his many critics who claimed he mishandled the peace.
But the worst was yet to come. Over the next few years, our erstwhile ally in war--the Soviet Union--conducted a communist jihad in Europe that led to the partitioning of Germany, the isolation of Berlin, and the Soviet colonization of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, plus an ugly and violent civil war in Greece, and then in Korea. Could the challenges confronting America get any worse?
Notwithstanding expert opinion of the day, historians now look back on that postwar era as one of America's finest hours, and meeting that heroic challenge ranks Truman among our great presidents.
Europe was stabilized, democracy flourished, and the American infantry performed a cultural sex change on a nasty European nation--Germany--that in the preceding hundred years had managed to distinguish itself largely through the repeated invasions of its hapless neighbors, and the horrific genocide conducted upon its citizenry. Sixty years and counting, Germany remains at peace with the world.
What carried President Truman through these dark days was a stubborn belief that America could make a difference, and that rogue countries could be brought to heel and dragged into the civilized world.
President Bush has shown the same steely determination, and the same stubbornness as Truman, in his belief that Afghanistan and Iraq might respond much as Germany did a half-century ago.
And maybe he's right! As Exhibit 1, who would have thought that de-Talibanized Afghanistan would have successfully, and non-violently, conducted its first-ever democratic election? But it happened, and it happened on Dubya's watch.
OK, so what about the economy? Much has been made of comparisons of this recovery to the last, or to the one before that, but judgments tied to benchmarks of the past miss the point and overlook the extraordinary progress made in sustaining an economy that continues to produce the highest standard of living in the world in the face of a global recession.
Over the past year, America's economy grew by an astounding 4.8 percent, compared to 2 percent for the countries of Europe. Among the advanced nations of the world our economy is far and away the healthiest, yet in the perverse logic of a political campaign, coming in first year after year becomes an indictment for failure. Go figure.
In the end, what's most surprising about this presidential race is the absence of a Democratic candidate from it. I became a Republican a long time ago when it was very much the minority party. I was drawn to its principles, and the contribution I believed they could make in creating a safe and prosperous civil society.
I was confident that in time these ideals would prevail, but I never suspected the victory would occur so soon, or be as complete as this campaign seems to suggest.
Once recognized as one of the nation's most liberal politicians, Sen. John Kerry has cobbled together a platform that promises as many as 40,000 more troops for Iraq, increased defense spending to support them, and better equipment for our armed forces; a balanced budget and more tax cuts for all but the very rich; greater financial support for Bush's No Child Left Behind program; stronger states' rights on social issues; and a health-care reform plan that largely relies on the private sector. Welcome to the party, Mr. Kerry.
If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then consider Kerry's platform a ringing endorsement of the president's principles and that of his party. Welcome aboard, folks, to the new era of conservative values, but steer clear of bootleg copies and novice practitioners.
Given a choice between a meaty porterhouse and a salisbury steak lathered in suspect gravy, I'll take the real deal in a heartbeat and pull the lever this Tuesday for President George W. Bush.