The Rise Of The Fantasists

by Caroline Glick - August 25th, 2007 - Townhall.com

As the cliché goes, "A conservative is a liberal whose been mugged by reality." Like most clichés, this one exposes a larger truth. Namely, people often base their views on their fantasies of how the world should be, rather than on the reality of how the world actually is.

Great opening for this article. I haven't read much of Ms. Glick before. I will pay more attention in the future as she has certainly compiled some important observations in this article. She accurately notes that though the war by the Islamofascists has been going on since 1979, Americans pretty much discounted the idea that they could become a power worth our attention, until 9/11. That was a mistake based on ignoring reality.

Since that beginning over 40 years ago anti-American forces have continuously berated the idea that this Islamofascist movement is actually intent on ruling the world for religious reasons. Anti-America socialists insist we brought this on ourselves by the excesses of free enterpirse and this movement is simply resisting our abuse of the world. They don't believe it is communism and socialism as political and economic systems that failed in the Soviet union. They think America has caused all of the world's problems. If someone in Afgahnistan doesn't have food, it is America's fault. The problem with their view? It is primarily the rich from Islamic countries that support this Islmofascism movement. This reality is just an annoyance the anti-American socialists ignore.

Their view is simply a fantasy and Caroline calls its proponents "Fantasists". Interesting insight. She goes on . . .

These voices were relegated to the margins of public debate until the lead up to the 2004 presidential elections. Ahead of those elections, backed by George Soros's financial muscle, the fantasists had an enormous impact of the debate in the Democratic Party. Politicians who until then had supported the war generally, and in Iraq particularly, clamored to decry it.

This week, two leftist institutions - the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy Magazine - published a survey of conservative, moderate and liberal foreign policy experts. The results of the survey show clearly that while still a minority, the fantasists are far from marginal today.

In her summation of the results of this poll, the most saddening results are the following percentages of people who claim to be conservatives who support these fantasist beliefs:

38% believe that the US should recognize Hamas.
29% believe that the US should recognize Hizbullah.
25% believe Iran will behave more responsibly if they get nuclear weapons.
Only 24% think it likely that Iran would transfer nuclear devices to terrorists.

These are conservatives! The ideas above have considerably strengthened the number of people who are willing to abandon Israel to the Islamofascists under the fatasist view that our support for Israel hurts us with the Islmofascists. Amazingly the vast majortiy of jews in America vote for the party that supports these fantasist views. These fantasist views are going to lead to the destruction of Israel. Why would any jew back a party so misguided in its views of a democratic state like Israel?

When they get nuclear weapons Iran is going to provide them to Islamofascists to bomb Tel Aviv. All the major leaders of Iran say they will. Why are so many of the fantasists sure that the Islamofascists don't mean what they say? The Democrat Party is trying to turn Iraq over to Iran by precipitously pulling out our troops. That will empower Iran like nothing since Jimmy Carter's pitiful attempts to appease the kidnappers of American diplomats back in 1979.

It is likely that they will follow that by providing Al Qaeda with the 7 nukes they need for their dream attack of nuclear bombs going off in 7 American cities all at once. Caroline concludes her article with a pretty accurate summation; "Fantasies are alluring. Peddling them can even get you elected. But the majority of Americans who reject fantasy as a basis for making real world decisions should take heed of Israel's example. That example shows that despite the fantasists' fervent efforts to smother it, reality never goes away. Sooner or later, it mugs you."

This is true.