Your day really won't be complete if you don't spend a few moments reading Newt Gingrich's extraordinary comparison of the War on Terror and the Civil War. You have to appreciate the gumption it took to survey the mess of World War II metaphors, judge them insufficient to the magnitude of al Qaeda's threat, and reach back to the deadliest war in American history, fought entirely on American soil.
The first and greatest lesson of the last five years parallels what Lincoln came to understand. The dangers are greater, the enemy is more determined, and victory will be substantially harder than we had expected in the early days after the initial attack. Despite how painful it would prove to be, Lincoln chose the road to victory. President Bush today finds himself in precisely the same dilemma Lincoln faced 144 years ago. With American survival at stake, he also must choose.
"With American survival at stake." What do you even say to that? If every single American civilian stood in a line, defenseless and paralyzed, and waited for al Qaeda members to kill them, the terrorist organization would still fail. They'd run out of bullets, exhaust their bombs, tire their trigger fingers and arms. There is simply no sense in which al Qaeda poses a threat to America's future. On the other hand, they may spur so many hysterical commentators to grotesquely distort our past that none of us will ever have the stomach to mention American history again. But that's a different danger. Meanwhile, Tristero makes a good point:
it sure sounds to me like Newt Gingrich, former representative of Georgia, actually compared the Confederate Army to al Qaeda, the leaders of the Confederacy to Iran's mullahs, and Jefferson Davis to Saddam Hussein.
I suppose I should take this as good news, that white folks in the South, like Newt Gingrich, are finally coming to terms with the truth of the Civil War, that it really was about slavery and not "state's rights," and that the racist Confederacy was, in fact, a 19th century Axis of Evil comprised of people who hated American values and wished to destroy us. But for some reason, I don't think so: I think Newt never fully thought through the implications of his ridiculous analogy or is hoping no one notices he just insulted one of the most rock solid of the Republican bases.
So which is it, Newt? And how well do you think the Davis-Hussein comparison is going to go over in South Carolina?
