Thirty-six years ago, Peter Arnett interviewed an anonymous US officer in Vietnam who provided the famous quote “we had to destroy the village in order to save it,” after an artillery barrage that laid waste to a tiny hamlet. That quote served as another illustration of just how misguided American policy had become in Southeast Asia.
Now — three years after Arnett was fired from his positions at NBC, MSNBC, and even National Geographic for daring to give his honest opinion about the nascent war — the same America that was once shocked by the words of that anonymous soldier, has adopted those words as the core of our foreign policy. We’ve accepted the idea that it’s perfectly fine to destroy a village, a city, a nation, or a region. We’ve institutionalized the concept that peace can only be achieved through absolute obliteration of those who oppose us.
When Bush says “stay the course,” what he really means is “let it burn.”
While we see the growing chaos in Iraq, and the daily destruction between Israel and Lebanon as a sign of a policy gone badly astray, they see it as a good sign. Things are happening. Power is shifting. The pot is boiling. So what if a few children are – accidentally, mind you – lost in the gears. You have have to break a few eggs to make an omlet. You have to take down a mountain if you want to find the gold. You have to be prepared to destroy the world if you want to save it.
When Condeleeza Rice says that
a cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo
she means we have to keep shooting till no one is shooting back. The United States acted to block any call for cease fire, because any “premature peace” is anathema to the ideology that now rules America. It’s like calling for the furnace to be cooled before all the dross has burned away. Let it burn, says Condi, we need to destroy Lebanon in order to save it.
When right wing pundit Charles Krauthammer says
Only two questions remain: Israel’s will and America’s wisdom. Does Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have the courage to do what is so obviously necessary? And will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s upcoming peace trip to the Middle East force a premature cease-fire…
He means will we have the guts to keep stoking that furnace night and day, and not be weakened by the sight of a little innocent blood. In Krauthammer’s words, Israel only took advantage of a “golden opportunity” to do what needed to be done. Europe is decadent. Only the strong dare take action, and to stop them would be a crime. Let it burn, says Charles, we need to destroy the Middle East in order to save it.
When Mona Cheren (who, by the way, says – without presenting any evidence — that Arnett made up that original quote in Vietnam) says
If a premature ceasefire were imposed, [Iran, Syria, and Islamic radicals] would be the clear winners. Only if Israel is able to punish Hizbollah severely will those aggressors be thwarted. A ceasefire stops the guns for a week. A victory can stop them for years.
She means that the only good Arab, is a dead Arab. Let it burn, says Mona, we need to destroy Lebanon, the Middle East, the free press, and anyone who gets in our way, in order to save them.
Do you think 6,000 deaths in Iraq is bothering those on the right? Do you think they’re concerned with what’s going on in Lebanon? They’re loving it. To them, this smells like victory.
And for all the efforts of the BBC, Reuters, Western academics, and the horde of appeasers and apologists that usually bail these terrorist killers out when their rhetoric finally outruns their muscle, this time they can’t. Instead, a disgusted world secretly wants these terrorists to get what they deserve. And who knows: This time they just might.
Nice that the NRO knows what we all “secretly want.” Burn, says the NRO, we have to destroy the world in order to save it.
