Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Legitimize.....Delegitimize

First, let me preface my following commentary with a cut and paste definition of the word "legitimize":


legitimize
verb
legalize, legalise, decriminalize, decriminalise, legitimize, legitimise, legitimate, legitimatize, legitimatise

And of the word "delegitimize":

de·le·git·i·mize (dl-jt-mz)
tr.v. de·le·git·i·mized, de·le·git·i·miz·ing, de·le·git·i·miz·es
To revoke the legal or legitimate status of.


Yesterday I listened to an interview that the Vice-President, Dick Cheney gave to Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto. Cavuto invited a former U.S. senator from the loyal opposition to comment on the Vice-President's remarks. This former senator continually refered to the jihadist thugs in Iraq who are killing our sons and daughters, and murdering Iraqi citizenry with horrific impunity as "insurgents". The rhetorical drift of his wordplay was to delegitimize our rationale for being in Iraq.....which is to fight terrorists and Terrorism. What he neatly glossed over is the fact that Iraq is a sovereign nation with a duly elected government....a government, however flawed and imperfectly evolving, that has asked us not to leave quite yet.

What this former politician has also managed to do, in delegitmizing our presence, is to legitimize the status of our enemies from terrorists to insurgents. Although an insurgent isn't quite up to the legal pedigree of a lawful belligerent, it is a sight better than a mere terrorist. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's deft propogandist excelled at this sort of slight of hand.......Final Solution is ever more palatable than Holocaust. The fact that the Islamic terrorists in Iraq, as elsewhere, are doing any and all manner of heinous depravities on a minute by minute basis apparently pales in comparrison to the politically expedient need to grant them an upgrade in status by delicately decriminalizing their tactics and methods. The strategic victory and ongoing tactical incentives the loyal party of opposition is handing the enemy is incalcuable.

Vice-President Cheney voiced the opinion that the upsurge in US and Iraqi deaths in the run-up to the mid-term election is a calculated effort on the part of the enemy to influence voting here in America. The Dems may not see themselves as the ultimate manifestation of broken American will and resolve, but the enemy most assuredly does. Net result.....GIs and Iraqis die, even as CNN and politicians attempt to capitalize on the very garbage they are being spoonfed by a savy enemy.

As if that weren't enough......another U.S. senator yesterday publicly delegitimizes our GIs serving in Iraq with the following statement:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Our courageous sons and daughters, volunteers and legal belligerents all, are now lowered to some dreg-like mercenary status; not quite criminal, but certainly well on the way. Hey little Billy, stay in school do your homework and you won't grow up to be a .................... (you fill in the blank).

So there you have it; terrorists legitimized into insurgents, and our citizen soldiers, sailors and Marines delegitimized from dedicated patriots into losers and slacker miscreants straight out of The Dirty Dozen. (I would like to extend the benefit of the doubt to the two senators alluded to in this rant, but I can't; both attended Yale and both are law school graduates. They are cut from the same bolt of cloth and have made words, with all their ramifications and power, their life's work.) Well, at least the rest of you can do your homework, study hard, wash behind your ears and make an effort to vote well next Tuesday. Me? As the salutorian of the 1971 graduating class of Salisbury High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania I can't wait to get back to Iraq and away from pesky ole Mom and my homework.

(Speaking of Iraq......Sergeant Battles has posted more drawings.....man is he good!)

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post... It's Cavuto not Caputo.

Anonymous said...

I'm beside myself.
I heard this before I read your post. You are reacting more sanely than I.
So you were salutatorian, one of my sons was valedictorian and the other was in the top 10, you all chose to serve, but you're all relegated to "loser" status by members of our own government. WHILE the psychopathic fiends who are intent on dragging the rest of the world kicking and screaming back to the Dark Ages, are elevated to the status of legitimate freedom fighters.
What is wrong with these people, and why must they inflict their own neurosis on the rest of us?!?
Why do we keep electing them?!?
I'm sick of it. We here in America have something worth believing in. Why are we forced to feel ashamed of it?

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'm calmed down and laughing now. They've been playing the senator's remarks about education and his subsequent remarks about the remarks and the reactions to them, over and over, and I believe him - he really was trying to make a clever joke about the stupidity of the pres. Thing is, it backfired, and guess who wasn't bright enough to figure out how his words would come out sounding? Like you said Mike, he's made words his life. He deserves what he's getting here! I wish he'd give it up and go home. But I can laugh now. :)

Anonymous said...

Great evaluation of the situation.

Bernard Lewis said
"If Churchill had faced the opposition that President Bush faces today, Hilter might well have won."

Walid Phares said that the insurgents are making things as bloody as possible to influence our elections, and fears they might be having some success at it.

No matter how many times I spin my head around, I can't get any joke or any reference to the President out of Kerry's remarks. It was condescending - the only thing he is really good at. Besides, Bush had better grades at Yale than Kerry did.

It is an outrage to denigrate anyone putting their lives in harm's way - I am disgusted. But, I lived through the Winter Soldier years, so I am not surprised.

Anonymous said...

Well said. Today the second senator delegitimzed the opinions millions of everyday Americans by calling us "right wing nut jobs". It will get your blood pressure up, but go read the full statement at http://www.johnkerry.com/news/releases/release.html?id=33

mdfay said...

I listened to the apology....does this guy think we're stupid? Oh yeah I forgot.....he does.

Kristopher Battles said...

Hey, didn't Kerry serve in the military? He "ended up in Vietnam," right?

Oh, I almost forgot, that's when he served with rapists and murderers.

(Sorry for my condescending remarks; I guess I've stooped to his level now.)

Anonymous said...

Another excellent post. Concerning one of those, Matt at B5 said it well. "I just checked....he's still an asshat." Pretty much covers it I think:)

Anonymous said...

I don't know how John McCain can stand to be in same room with him.

mdfay said...

The "people join the military because they have nothing else going for them" is standard lefty fare, and the good senator from Taxachusettes was pandering to a college crowd in California. The groaning in the crowd which accompanied the minor guffaws at his statement showed he miscalculated even out there on the Left Coast. His words didn't originate in a vacuum...his words depended on falling on ears well versed in the liberal gestalt. Kids on college campuses are by and large disconnected from the war and military service, and only the rudimentary of pre-digested stereotypical cud is palatable to them.

I was once a special education teacher for emotionally disturbed adolescents. The two standard responses for them when getting caught red handed was to either say "I was just joking", or to become combative. The good senator somehow managed to combine both.

Bag Blog said...

Proverbs 26:18 Like a madman who throws Firebrands, arrows and death, So is the man who deceives his neighbor, and says, "Was I not joking?" And 29:20 Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Anonymous said...

Just got off the phone with son in Afghanistan. He spent a year in Iraq previously. I'm no longer laughing; hearing his anger was sobering. One good thing: this seems to be energizing rather than demoralizing, for now. I hope it stays that way.
Any chance the voters of Mass. might actually recognize the emotional disturbance next time they go to the polls?

Kristopher Battles said...

Yep, Countrygirl.

I just spoke to my hubby and he and the guys with him weren't too thrilled, either. They did, however, enjoy the spin Fox News was putting on the situation!

Kristopher Battles said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Good post, Sir. I'm hoping all the guff that Kerry spouted will energize the people who had decided to sit this election out and get them to the polls! We really, really don't need people in power who think we're so stupid we need someone like them to do our thinking for us. God Bless our military men and women and their families, and thanks!

Herb said...

I think most Americans can see through the senator. Most of us appreciate you guys and thank you.