Rat Spleen writes on his blog: This has routinely baffled me from various quarters. The Doves I understand, disagree with, but understand. The Hawks I understand. But folks like Vox… well I didn’t quite put it together until today. They are Doves. Unless you happen to be a competing religion; then, and only then, is it time to pull the stops out.
I don’t mind Rat’s critiques at all. I’m not particularly comfortable with my position on the war either, as I’m pulled two different ways. I can, however, defend myself from this particular charge. We are already in a religious war because a religious war has been declared against us by a religious force that has identified its enemy. War does not require two parties. This is not about Christianity v. the world, it is about the revival of long-dormant expansionist Islam against what it sees as Christendom, but we see as secular atheist Europe, quasi-secular Christian Red America and secular humanist Blue America.
My best guess, and at this point that’s all it is, is that we are being forced into fighting this clash of civilizations war even though none of the three parties that make up what was once Christendom wants it. So, we have the situation of the leadership of the Two Americas playing at a nonexistent Wilsonian war while halfheartedly and haphazardly fighting the real one under cover of the fake one. Add to this my suspicion that the statist cancer cells of our society are using the situation to encroach on American liberties, and you have a complicated situation indeed.
But I’m neither a Dove nor an Onward Christian Soldier sort. I’m just doing my humble best to sort out truth from fiction. I don’t pretend even to myself that I have a clear picture of what is going on, and I really don’t believe that anyone else does either. In any case, I would vastly prefer our leadership to be honest and open with the American people, even if I don’t seriously expect that to happen. And if our leadership is lying, as they increasingly appear to be doing, then I expect that their efforts will fail and fail miserably regardless of where they are directed.