“Is Anybody There? Does Anybody Care?”

Every Fourth of July, I try to find time to re-watch 1776, a movie that demonstrates how to be patriotic without being either vainglorious or insipid. Its last big number is titled, “Is Anybody There?” John Adams sings it at a point where his cause, American independence, looks hopeless, both in Philadelphia, where his staunchest allies have lost heart, and in the field, where General Washington is losing battles.

They want me to quit,
They say, “John, give up the fight!”
Still to England I say:
“Good night forever, good night!”

For I have crossed the Rubicon,
Let the bridge be burned behind me!
Come what may, come what may. . .
Commitment!

The croakers all say
We’ll rue the day,
There’ll be hell to pay in
Fiery Purgatory!

Through all the gloom,
Through all the gloom, I can
See the rays of ravishing light and
Glory!

Is anybody there?!
Does anybody care?!
Does anybody see
What I see?!

President Bush must have similar feelings as he strives to rally our countrymen against our real enemies, the mufsidun who murder women and children, in the hope of terrifying the world into bowing down to an Islamofascist caliph. Half or more of our political class isn’t much concerned with that enemy. In its eyes, the real enemy is George W. Bush. Thus we see a prominent law professor respond to the commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence by declaring that Mr. Libby was part of “the cabal to turn the presidency (and vice-presidency) into ‘regal,’ if not out-and-out dictatorial, authorities totally independent from any scrutiny or accountability”. His paranoia and revolutionary fervor (“mendacity and corruption [lie] at the heart of the Bush Administration (and, therefore, of the present American system of government” [emphasis added]) are scarcely unique. In fact, they are so commonplace that we tend to ignore the direction in which they point. If one genuinely believes that the country is moving toward dictatorship and that “mendacity and corruption” are core characteristics “of the present American system of government”, what course of action logically follows?

This morning the President addressed the West Virginia Air National Guard. He, at least, knows how hard the fight for liberty is and hasn’t abandoned it in the face of foreign or domestic foes:

Our first Independence Day celebration took place in a midst of a war – a bloody and difficult struggle that would not end for six more years before America finally secured her freedom. More than two [centuries] later, it is hard to imagine the Revolutionary War coming out any other way – but at the time, America’s victory was far from certain. . . .

We were a small band of freedom-loving patriots taking on the most powerful empire in the world. . . . You’re the successors of those brave men. Those who wear the uniform are the successors of those who dropped their pitchforks and picked up their muskets to fight for liberty. Like those early patriots, you’re fighting a new and unprecedented war – pledging your lives and honor to defend our freedom and way of life. In this war, the weapons have changed, and so have our enemies, but one thing remains the same: The men and women of the Guard stand ready to put on the uniform and fight for America. . . .

Oh, I know the passage of time has convinced some . . . that danger doesn’t exist. But that’s not how I see it, and that’s not how many of you see it. These people want to strike us again. We learned on September the 11th that in the age of terror, the best way to do our duty, which is to protect the American people, is to go on the offense and stay on the offense. And that's exactly what we’ve been doing against these radicals and extremists.

It is best that we take the fight to where the enemy lives, so we don’t have to face them where we live. And so since 9/11, that’s precisely the strategy we have followed. In Afghanistan . . . we removed a regime that gave sanctuary and support to al Qaeda as they planned the 9/11 attacks. . . .

Today, because we acted, the terrorist camps in Afghanistan have been shut down, 25 million people have been liberated, and the Afghan people have elected a government that is fighting terrorists, instead of harboring terrorists. This enemy of ours – they have got an ideology. They believe in something. In other words, the attacks are just a tactic to enable them to spread their dark vision of the world. Perhaps one way to differentiate between our thoughts is just think about religion. In the great country of the United States, we believe that you should be able to worship any way you see fit; that you’re equally American, regardless of your religious beliefs. They believe that if you don’t worship the way they see it, then they’re going to bring you harm. . . .

There’s more than one front in this war against these radicals and extremists. And, obviously, the toughest threat of all is in Iraq. In that country, we removed a cruel dictator who harbored terrorists, paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, invaded his neighbors, defied the United Nations Security Council, pursued and used weapons of mass destruction. The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power. And today, U.S. and coalition troops are standing with the Iraqi troops and the nearly 12 million Iraqis who voted for a future of peace. We’re opposing ruthless enemies who want to bring down Iraq’s democracy and turn that nation into a terrorist safe haven. . . .

It’s a tough fight, but I wouldn’t have asked those troops to go into harm’s way if the fight was not essential to the security of the United States of America. Many of the spectacular car bombings and killings you see are as a result of al Qaeda – the very same folks that attacked us on September the 11th. A major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States on that fateful day.

Al Qaeda hasn’t given up its objectives inside Iraq. And that is to cause enough chaos and confusion so America would leave, and they would be able to establish their safe haven from which to do two things: to further spread their ideology; and to plan and plot attacks against the United States. If we were to quit Iraq before the job is done, the terrorists we are fighting would not declare victory and lay down their arms – they would follow us here, home. If we were to allow them to gain control of Iraq, they would have control of a nation with massive oil reserves – which they could use to fund new attacks and exhort economic blackmail on those who didn’t kowtow to their wishes. However difficult the fight is in Iraq, we must win it – we must succeed for our own sake; for the security of our citizens, we must support our troops, we must support the Iraqi government, and we must defeat al Qaeda in Iraq.

Those who, like the professor quoted above, would rather defeat the Bush Administration than al-Qa’eda will discover that, in this case, the enemies of their enemies are not their friends. A liberal President or a leftist junto will have to deal with terrorism, too. The difference is that the terrorists will have the moral impetus of having driven the Great Satan from Iraq, while an America that fights the way that the Left demands – with the most acute sensitivity to our enemies’ easily injured feelings and the most tender respect for the broadest possible reading of their liberties – will have no hope of victory.

The great irony is that the ostensible opponents of war advocate policies that will guarantee war in perpetuity, or until our liberties vanish beneath an Islamofascist tide.

Further reading: Michael Medved, “Independence Day Messages from John Adams”
NRO Symposium, “Why We Fight”
James Lileks, “I Expect a Good Fourth”