Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Gas Tax Op Ed -- Fuel for Thought


Do we owe the French and other Europeans a second look when it comes to their willingness to exercise power in today’s world? Was it really fair for some to call the French and other Europeans “cheese-eating surrender monkeys?” Is it time to restore the French in “French fries” at the Congressional dining room, and stop calling them “Freedom Fries?” Why do I ask these profound questions?

Because we are once again having one of those big troop debates: Do we send more forces to Afghanistan, and are we ready to do what it takes to “win” there? This argument will be framed in many ways, but you can set your watch on these chest-thumpers: “toughness,” “grit,” “fortitude,” “willingness to do whatever it takes to realize big stakes” — all the qualities we tend to see in ourselves, with some justification, but not in Europeans.

But are we really that tough? If the metric is a willingness to send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and consider the use of force against Iran, the answer is yes. And we should be eternally grateful to the Americans willing to go off and fight those fights. But in another way — when it comes to doing things that would actually weaken the people we are sending our boys and girls to fight — we are total wimps. We are, in fact, the wimps of the world. We are, in fact, so wimpy our politicians are afraid to even talk about how wimpy we are.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gop Left Me im not trying to start a debate with anyone but we will never win the war in Afghanistan. I said 3 years ago we should end both wars.

Peglegged Picador said...

careful w/ this sort of thing,
i heard a deeds attack ad going at mcdonnell for supporting a gas tax just last week. i'd hate for you guys to actually have to think about who you're voting for.

Lowell Fulk said...

Do you disagree with the article Seth? Or just wanting to interject sarcasm?

Lowell