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| Thomas Sowell: NYT - Is Patriotism Obsolete? |
| 2006-07-04 |
| Via the new and improved Townhall.com wesite! Check it out On the eve of a holiday that used to stir patriotic emotions -- the Fourth of July -- it has been painful to see examples of how little remains of that glue that holds a society together. Perhaps the worst of these signs of national disintegration was the New York Times' recent revealing to the whole world the covert methods by which the American government has been tracking the money that finances international terrorism. Americans may in fact be dying literally now because of what the terrorists have been told -- and ultimately because a jerk inherited the New York Times. As usual, the mainstream media circled the wagons around one of their own. The media spin is that the terrorists were already bound to know that we were monitoring their international transfers of money. The Times says terrorists had to "suspect" this. This is an all-or-nothing argument. There are vast numbers of terrorists around the world and not all of them are affiliated with the same organizations. Nor is there any reason to believe that they all have the same level of knowledge or sophistication. Whatever knowledge or suspicions some of the terrorist leaders may have had about American surveillance of the money transfers that finance their operations, that does not mean that all the terrorists knew about all the methods or about all the countries that were cooperating to track them down by their money trails. After all, so many of these terrorists would not have been captured or killed if they were infallible. The media may not publicize the casualties we inflict on the terrorists but they are vastly greater than the casualties that terrorists inflict on Americans, even though too many in the media focus almost exclusively on the latter. Not only do the terrorists now know how they are being tracked, some of the countries that have secretly helped in that tracking may now back off from helping, now that the New York Times' revelations can create internal political problems or fear of terrorist retaliation in those countries. The all-or-nothing idea that secrets are either secret from everybody or secret from nobody will not stand up under scrutiny. Back during World War II, the Chicago Tribune made the devastating revelation that the United States had broken the Japanese code and could read their military plans in advance. This was an enormously important secret, especially during the early days of the war, when Japan had overwhelming naval superiority in the Pacific and was seeking to destroy the remnants of the American Pacific fleet that had not already been destroyed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Fortunately for this country, the Japanese did not read the Chicago Tribune or did not believe it. In other words, the secret was out, but it was not out very far. There are degrees of secrecy, as with everything else. New York Times has spread the secret of American financial surveillance of terrorists around the world, undermining or destroying this method of tracking them, as well as undermining the cooperation that can be expected in the future from countries fearful of political or terrorist repercussions. Patriotism is not chic in the circles of those who assume the role of citizens of the world, whether they are discussing immigration or giving aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was as much due to the internal disintegration of the ties that bind a society together as to the assaults of the Romans' external enemies. The pride of being a Roman citizen was destroyed by cheapening that citizenship by giving it to too many other people. The sense of duty and loyalty eroded among both the elites and the masses. Without such things, there could be no Roman Empire. Ultimately, without such things, there can be no United States of America. In neither case have tangible wealth and power been enough to save a country or a civilization, for the tangibles do not work without the intangibles I do not subscribe to the idea that Americans (particularly the red states, but even most members of the blue) are unpatriotic. It's been an uphill battle against the leftist tranzis, and the victories on the side of right and America have made them increasingly isolated and unhinged. Never let your guard down. We will win |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #11 Left 4 years ago...by 1999 reminded me of LA on the 405... Good luck Frank. :) Santee's a nice area if you don't have to travel. |
| Posted by: Inspector Clueso 2006-07-04 21:40 |
| #10 Santee here - born in Chula Vista |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-04 18:28 |
| #9 Dixie Chicks move to Manhattten yet? ..18 years Vista, Carlsbad, Oceanside, LaCosta, and Franks right. :) |
| Posted by: Inspector Clueso 2006-07-04 18:24 |
| #8 If patriotism is obsolete anywhere, it is in the salons of the "elite" in Washington, Manhattan and so forth. Reg'lar folks never stopped and never will stop. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2006-07-04 17:15 |
| #7 Yep - worked - sorry. They must have had the DB offline for a little while, since all of the links I tried, both here and there, failed. Thanks! |
| Posted by: Hupeating Flins9708 2006-07-04 17:05 |
| #6 BTW - NS aren't you in CA too? You should know.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-04 17:02 |
| #5 just worked for me - maybe they're having newby issues.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-04 17:02 |
| #4 Frank - the link soured since you posted, I think. I get a not found error page... Even searching for Sowell, which retrieved 2 hits for today's date, got not found errors - and they provided the links! Looks like they are having trouble with their new site. I hope it's temporary. Thomas Sowell is pure class - Thanks for posting in full! |
| Posted by: Hupeating Flins9708 2006-07-04 16:38 |
| #3 I live in So. California, San Diego to be particular - along with Orange, Imperial, and San Bernardino counties, an island of red in a blue state. You will not find a more patriotic and pro-military (and ex-military) population in a red state, I'd wager. The central valley is much of the same, so yeah, I know |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-04 16:35 |
| #2 Go tell it on the mountail Frank G. We will win. The left is fractured by the war in Iraq, weakening and becoming bizzare and anti-American in general. People are starting to pick up on this and they don't like it. They don't want war, but they sure as hell don't want to lose a war. They want all the touchy feely social programs, but the last thing they want is to get their taxes raised. The economy is raging, but people still believe we are in a recession because they have to pay $2.75 a gallon for gas. |
| Posted by: Shereting Phaper6577 2006-07-04 16:29 |
| #1 I do not subscribe to the idea that Americans (particularly the red states, but even most members of the blue) are unpatriotic. Haven't spent much time in the blue states? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-04 16:23 |