Needless to say, there’s been a lot of reaction in the blogosphere to President Bush’s Sunday speech on Iraq. Two leading conservatives, Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey, even live-blogged it.
Also needless to say, those on the Right loved the speech and took advantage of the opportunity to slam Democrats and other opponents of the war — indeed, to slam anyone and everyone who doesn’t toe the right’s ideological line. For example, Malkin, rarely one to put civility and openmindedness before partisan gamesmanship (although she did good work covering Katrina and Rita), referred to “the dire consequences and costs that the Democrats’ defeatism would impose not only on the Iraqi people, but on all Americans as well”.
It’s just that sort of political and ideological correctness that has taken over so much of American conservatism in recent years. The not-so-subtle message is that all criticism of the war, aside from the desire for more war, is defeatism — worse, it’s nothing short of anti-Americanism. You oppose the war… you even oppose the way the war is being conducted… you challenge the powers-that-be in any way… you’re un-American… and you’d impose “dire consequences and costs” on “all Americans”.
Do I even have to say this? Obviously, I do:
America is a nation born of dissent. To be American is to be able to dissent — to say no, to seek alternatives, to refuse to be told what to do and to think and to say. Is that not the American way? (Yes, and I say that as a Canadian!)
Those like Malkin and her ilk on the Right simply don’t know their history. And they certainly don’t know what it truly means to be an American.
More here.