The West lets two-bit dictators and fifth-world countries push it around. Such behavior has got to end. It will only end when Western countries once again believe in themselves and the unique combination of rights and freedoms they offer their citizens.
Tony Blinken made his way to Ramallah this week. When meeting with Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinians did not even bother to put an American flag across from the PLO flag behind the two men. Abbas also took the opportunity to look at his watch as if to say that he needed to get home to do something more important than meeting this American, like rearranging his sock drawer.
The belittlement of the West is nothing new. Barack Obama flew to China, and the hosts did not bother to bring stairs to the plane. Thank goodness that Air Force 1 has its own staircase from the lower level—a near lifesaver for our current wobbly president. Why didn’t President Obama simply tell his pilots to fly to a US base in the region or maybe to a regional ally like Japan? The simple reason is that Obama, like Blinken, believes that the US deserves the disrespect it gets. The Houthis understand this and project power over international commerce well beyond their ragtag existence. The West, to date, has been afraid to deal with them as they take over and attack international shipping in one of the most important waterways in the world.
Mark Steyn was wont to quote Margaret Thatcher, who said, “First you win the argument, and then you win the election.” This is sound political advice, but the problem for our generation is that many politicians and politically-active billionaires no longer buy into the American argument. They do not see America as special (Obama said as much), and as such, they are willing to either accept any disrespect shown to the US or denigrate their own country by calling it racist or worse. Joe Biden knew about the Chinese balloon flying over sensitive sites in America and even using the US internet to send data back to China. Still, he did nothing. Does he have no respect for the country he ostensibly leads and only shot down a threatening spy device after it had made its way out to the sea? Do you remember our sailors who were humiliated by Iran under President Obama? Or the Air Force plane that the Chinese forced to land in China?
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The humiliation of America and other Western countries is the product of decades of indoctrination claiming that these countries are ultimately evil for previous colonial activity, slavery, and any other offense that can be dredged up. Western leaders do not believe in the ethos of their countries anymore. Thus, Pakistani men could groom white girls in England, and the police and other authorities looked away (so as not to be considered racists). In Sweden and England, Muslims have set up no-go zones where police and non-Muslims do not enter. In Europe and now in the US, it is open season to threaten and attack Jews, with the police often doing nothing—or in Canada, giving out coffee and donuts to the genocidal pro-Hamas crowd. One can win the argument if he believes in facts and history that form the basis of the argument; when one does not believe in the greatness of Western countries and holds that they are better than their non-Western peers in rights, law, literature, science and culture, then our Western man has no argument to make. So when some tin-pot dictator like Abbas humiliates the secretary of state of the most powerful country in the world, our secretary takes the abuse because he believes deep down that he—and America--deserve it.
If Blinken actually believed that he represented the greatest country in history, his people would have told the Palestinians that if no US flag was forthcoming, the secretary would be going back to Israel to visit Benjamin Netanyahu. If Abbas feels that he can look at his watch—as Biden did so many times when those killed on his watch in Kabul returned to Dover AFB—then the US should remind Abu Mazen that he is in the nineteenth year of his four-year presidency.
Israel, in some ways, is no better. How on Earth does Israel let humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip without kidnapped Israelis moving in the other direction? Israel could have stated from the get-go: every day that you want trucks to bring you food and medicines, one Israeli must first leave the Gaza Strip for repatriation to Israel and his/her family. If Israel had made this rule and stuck to it, the world would have bought it, and Hamas would have had to play by Israel’s rule and not the other way around. But Israel—however much she really believes in her destiny—also shies away from the international argument that she is the colonial power; she is the genocidal player. Thus, they bellow: kill fewer Palestinian citizens! Give them more supplies! Make a ceasefire so that they can rearm themselves! Israel has held fast to the ceasefire demand—though it is being litigated today in the Hague—but it has allowed thousands of trucks of humanitarian aid to be delivered to those who wish to wipe the Jewish people off of the planet. Hamas members mostly take those supplies. The rest goes to Palestinian citizens, some of whom are holding Israeli hostages. Why should Israel give them anything?
If one looks at the muscle movies of the 1980s like Rambo or Delta Force, those movies—even if corny—reflected a kick-ass American worldview that paralleled the pro-America agenda of Ronald Reagan. President Trump's killing of arch-terrorist Qosem Sulameini was an act consistent with that way of thinking. The rock-bottom lack of belief in the Western way has countries apologizing for actions taken by predecessors long gone or planning to give trillions in reparations to people who personally suffered no harm or indignity. One can certainly say that slavery was wrong; the British did much to get rid of the institution, and the US had a major bloodletting over the matter. We do not need to be removing statues or giving out money because we have concluded that the US is a very bad country. Like all of its peers, the US is an imperfect country, but by virtually every measure, it is about as good as it gets. Why have millions come illegally to the US and not, say, China or Finland? The US has the most to offer, has wealth that dwarfs most other countries, and is one of the few countries where a person can actually go from rags to riches. But if you listen to our self-appointed elite, you would only hear how the US is a racist country with a racist past and is no better than any other country and probably worse.
Our leaders are like a lifetime Boston Red Sox fan being forced at gunpoint to sing the praises of the New York Yankees. They’ll find something to say, but it will be halfhearted and not very positive. Our leaders and their financial backers see the US in a negative light. It is for this reason that they seem to be intentionally destroying the country with open borders, the destruction of sexual norms for children, and anti-US behavior, from kneeling for the national anthem to a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff siding with the Chinese over his own commander-in-chief.
The next US president must believe in the US, its history, its promise, and its unique set of rights and freedoms. The next US president must be the country’s biggest booster. Having lived over half of my life outside of my native US, I can say how amazing the country is. One can win the election with a good argument, which must be based on love and respect for a country like no other.
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