I think the President has been leading us along, slowly and deliberately, throughout this whole effort. Educating us, if you will, bringing us slowly to a truth that we would have rejected had it been baldly stated as soon as he understood it.
I believe that not too long after 9/11, the President decided on the Big Strategy of reforming the entire freakin' Islamic world as the only possible alternative to impossible defense or nuclear retaliation. But he couldn't very well come right out and SAY that. People would freak, and they'd think he was crazy, even though this is the only humane path.
Two years ago, how many average citizens were convinced that this was a war against Islamofascism, not just "terrorism", por just Bin Laden? Heck, how many had even heard the term? Darn few. And how many today? A lot. Not a majority, maybe, but a whole lot.
How many were convinced that this was a fight to the death for all of Western Civilization? Almost none. Again, the very idea would be seen as risible. Osama bin Laden, take down Western Civilization? It is to laugh.
Today that's not a crazy idea at all, and thoughtful people all over the world are talking about how to stop it.
It's all been part of our education. As I've listened to the President's speeches since being "Den Beste'd", I've noted that a bit more is injected each time. New threats are brought forward, threats that were there all the time but left unmentioned. New countries and players are brought into the light of our attention. He has led the American people a long way down the road, so slowly and carefully that the vast majority of our professional pundits seem to be unaware the process is even taking place. But I've been watching both the campaign and its effects on my fellow citizens, and I think it's been effective and brilliant.
We see yet another example in the portion of the President's remarks last night that baldilocks highlights:
The violence we are seeing in Iraq is familiar. The terrorist who takes hostages, or plants a roadside bomb near Baghdad is serving the same ideology of murder that kills innocent people on trains in Madrid, and murders children on buses in Jerusalem, and blows up a nightclub in Bali, and cuts the throat of a young reporter for being a Jew.We've seen the same ideology of murder in the killing of 241 Marines in Beirut, the first attack on the World Trade Center, in the destruction of two embassies in Africa, in the attack on the USS Cole, and in the merciless horror inflicted upon thousands of innocent men and women and children on September the 11th, 2001.
None of these acts is the work of a religion; all are the work of a fanatical, political ideology. The servants of this ideology seek tyranny in the Middle East and beyond. They seek to oppress and persecute women. They seek the death of Jews and Christians, and every Muslim who desires peace over theocratic terror.
Then baldilocks adds:
This is what it’s all about. The rest of the dance with a hostile press was fun, but trivial.
Exactly. Clearly she gets it.
But how many of us were saying that two years ago? Specifically, how many of us were saying that Palestinian terrorism is part and parcel of the enemy that attacked us on 9/11? It wouldn't surprise me a bit if baldilocks was, but I don't think too many others were. I sure wasn't, and for SURE my co-workers weren't.
You could argue that there was nothing particularly new in this snippet, save perhaps the tighter link to Israel and the Jews. baldilocks even titled her post "Re-Cap". And it was. But each time the message is quietly repeated, each time it's emphasized, each time it's pointed out, each time it's worded a little different, some more people "get it". All good teachers repeat the lesson.
This time the particular emphasis was bringing forward the linkage to Israel and Palestinian terrorism. To say clearly that Palestinian terrorists are our enemy just as much as Bin Laden is.
There will be more lessons to come. More of our enemies will be confronted.
We've come to call Reagan "The Great Communicator". Will Bush come to be called "The Great Educator"?
I doubt it like heck, as who could ever admit to learning something from this "dumb Texan"? But I think he just might deserve it.
If he actually succeeds in getting the Islamic world to look at themselves more honestly and start towards reform, he'll really be The Great Educator.