Thought

in the early afternoon on Friday, the 4th of June 2004 by Chad

Reading Anne Coulter today and she hit upon a great point:

In January 2003 “ or three months after Sen. Tom Daschle voted for the Iraq war resolution hoping to fool the voters of South Dakota this November “ he was horrified that Bush seemed to be actually contemplating war with Iraq! According to Daschle, Bush should have waited for Iraq to grow into a problem of crisis proportions before deciding to do anything “ citing the Cuban missile crisis as a model to be emulated. “If we have proof of nuclear and biological weapons,” Daschle asked, “why doesn’t [Bush] show that proof to the world as President Kennedy did 40 years ago when he sent Adlai Stevenson to show the world U.S. photographs of offensive missiles in Cuba?”
The answer is and was: Because by the time Saddam had nuclear weapons, we wouldn’t be able to do anything. That’s why it’s known as the “Cuban missile crisis,” not the “Cuban missile triumph.”

That is the key point. The Cuban Missle Crisis, as celebrated as it was, accomplished nothing but the status quo. The Soviets just pulled back missles from where they were located. Didn’t even matter much. They had boomer submarines even closer.
But this is celebrated by the liberals as the great triumph of diplomacy. No, it was a giant game of chicken. No great strategy was involved. The Soviets just blinked first. Partially because they were terrified of what may happen.
Liberal thought has this as the pinnacle of power politics between nations. I always had the feeling of the crisis being somewhat wishy-washy. Terrifying in its time, but in the long run, relatively minor. Don’t tell me about the tensions and missles on alert and such. It wasn’t the only time we were that close to war or even closer…