The State of the Union: Yesterday and Today
by Dennis Peacocke
Every year our nation's President issues his "State of the Union" address to Congress and the American people. Every year the routines are similar, and the rhetoric predictable. This year had few exceptions, but some. For the first time in our history, we had a presiding female Speaker of the House, and we also had what appears to be the first African-American who is a credible candidate for the nomination in his party's presidential slot. Sorry, Jesse, you never really had a chance, even though you preceded Obama.
We had a Democratic Party majority, which is not an uncommon occurrence in recent history, with a Republican president. We had the usual posturing and the usual post-speech interviews, which added little or nothing to our understanding of the President's actual words. What was unique was the grim possibility of our nation losing another war. This likelihood takes us back some forty years to the 1960's and the gut-wrenching days of that decade.
Then, it was South Vietnam and our support of another allied government fighting the Marxists. Then, it was a civil war spurred on by North Vietnam and backed by the Soviets. Today it is Iraq's civil war spurred on by Iran and backed by multitudes of various Islamic factions throughout the Middle East and beyond. There are other similarities, but there is one significant dissimilarity. This war has already taken U.S. lives on U.S. soil. More will surely follow.
During the Vietnam War, our country also was divided. Unlike today, it was two Democratic Party presidents who got us into it, Kennedy and Johnson. Then it was the disillusioned students of the universities who formed the core of the anti-war movement. Today, the college campuses have lost their power to drive anything because my generation has "been there, done that," and it therefore has lost whatever historical authenticity it once possessed. Uncoupled from the Civil Rights movement, it has no borrowed "moral fuel."
Then, Marxism was the West's external threat. Today it is either Islam or Militant Islam, depending on your understanding of Islam. Then, it was a global nuclear holocaust that faced us. Today it is a massive disruption of oil and the unknown consequences of having to conquer and stabilize the Middle East to get that oil flow back to normal, while also defeating the terrorists. Then, it was, "better dead than Red!" Today it is, "What will it cost the soul of America to stabilize and propagate Western Civilization's modern democracy and
technological society?"
In hindsight, our Vietnam experience and Russia's similar defeat in Afghanistan helped us all dodge a catastrophic bullet. I personally do not believe our future will be so "lucky" this time. What I do believe is that this time the Judeo-Christian West, coupled with Russia, Japan, and all those who have tasted the West's benefits and shortcomings, will truly have to decide what they are willing to pay to keep these benefits, and that is . . .
the bottom line.
