The World Turned Upside Down

On a fall day in 1781, in a field in Yorktown, Va, a British Army Band played a tune titled "The World Turned Upside Down." The occasion was the surrender of Lord Cornwallis' army to the rebel Americans after the arrival of a French fleet in the York River. Lord Cornwallis recognized that his army had been defeated. As the defeated British stacked their arms and marched past the victorious Americans, the band struck up the tune that would forever be associated with the birth of our nation. To the British, for whom the reality and weight of their defeat was not lost, the world had truly turned upside down.

My question is this: Does anyone know how to play that tune?

It seems my world has turned upside down. According to liberal media, Americans have lost what made us great. We cower at the rantings of radical Islamic lunatics; we applaud Democrat Congressional leaders who argue for withdrawal from Iraq, the main front on the War on Terror; we want to "talk" with the Iranian leadership, with whom the US has been at war since 1979; we believe Lego toys may promote capitalism: we routinely apply Historical Revisionism and Moral Relativism to the challenges of our 21st century world; we argue for universal health care "free" to all; open borders; trade restrictions: the application of foreign law to the American Constitution, and a thousand other things, too numerous to list. What is this about?

Where are those who possess some remnant of the "World War II Generation?" Those who despite their personal feelings, recognized the danger presented by Japanese imperialism and Nazi ideology. Are we just gonna roll over, take the path of least resistance, and hope for the best? If one believes what they read in the major newspapers and hear in the mainstream media, that is exactly what is happening.

And make no mistake about it, our enemies are listening. Usama Bin Laden knows history. He is fully aware of the "Vietnam Syndrome" and the United States' struggle to balance strategic goals, domestic and international popular support and the basic struggle between the two major political ideologies of our nation.

Not to sweep all Democrats with a wide brush, but what is going on here? Does Bin Laden's "October Surprise," (his endorsement of Democrat policies the weekend before the 2004 Presidential election) carry that much weight with the electorate? Did anyone actually believe Bin Laden's proclamation that (I paraphrase) "states that vote Democrat will be at a cease fire with Al-Qaeda?"

If Hitler or Tojo urged Americans to vote against FDR in the 1944 Presidential election, would that have changed things? Would the Nazis and the Japanese have given back their territorial gains and returned to a peaceful co-existence with their neighbors? If you think yes is the correct answer, someone should revoke your "Intelligent Human" membership card.

If you think no is the correct answer, then please justify why we should believe Bin Laden and other radical Muslims.

They don't want to chat with us - they want to destroy us (US). They have said so, in public and on tape, thousands of times. On one day alone they killed 3000 Americans. What more proof does an intelligent soul need in order that one can draw the reasonable and demonstrable conclusion that Islamic radicals want to convert us our kill us?

Allow me to quote 19th century English economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill: "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

History would serve us well, should we bother to consult it.

In the 30's Sir Winston Churchill railed ad nauseam against the Nazi threat. He was the lone voice in the wilderness. For the most part his pleas fell on deaf ears. Ears that had heard the sounds of war and eyes that had seen the flower of British and French youth lying dead in the trenches and fields of Europe during World War I. To the Europeans of the 30's, nothing was worth a repeat of 1914-1918. Those that failed to listen to Churchill were wrong. The result of the failure to yield to Churchill's warnings were the deaths of tens of millions of people.

Remember, when Hitler ordered his troops into the Rhineland in 1936, France had the most powerful military on the continent. Adolf Hitler, for all his legendary megalomania, was circumspect enough to order to his commanders the admonition, should the French resist our crossing into the Rhineland, turn around and return to Germany. When the French saw the German Wehrmacht marching toward them, they turned and marched back to France.

And now the leaders on the Liberal side of the spectrum, along with their big money power brokers, are attempting to import to the US the European sensibility of Multi-Culturalism, of sacrificing our values and traditions so as not to offend those who hold other value systems.

So, what's it going to be? Are we going to adopt the European model and go along to get along?

Or will we remember the words of JFK on the occasion of his inauguration - "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to ensure the survival and success of liberty?"

Have we so quickly forgotten? The Democrat leadership seems to have forgotten; if the Left can forget the words of JFK, perhaps John Stuart Mill was talking about them.

Does anyone know where I can find a band who knows the tune "The World Turned Upside Down?"