While America Slept

by Andrew Roberts - February 2010 (publication date) - The American Spectator

What we are witnessing today is nothing less than the fourth great assault on the primacy of the English-speaking peoples from aggressive totalitarian belief systems. The methods might be different each time, but the mindset hasn’t changed. Yet what I fear might have changed is a growing unwillingness of the elites of the English-speaking peoples to continue paying the price for their liberty. The sunset clause President Obama put on his latest surge at his West Point speech is the latest example of this unwillingness.

If the United States does not provide the kind of leadership in our risky world that was provided by Churchill, the two Roosevelts, Truman, JFK, Reagan, and Thatcher, and which one day—especially in the field of homeland security—will be accorded to President Bush and Tony Blair, then we must tremble for the future. For America to listen to the siren voices of isolationism and to withdraw into herself— perhaps citing Washington’s Farewell Address as she does so—would be utterly disastrous for our planet in the 21st century. Power abhors a vacuum, and America’s withdrawal would soon be followed by the emergence of another nation that would not exhibit a fraction of America’s decency, fairness, and veneration for the popular will.

Many Americans have lost confidence in our nation and its heritage because of attacks that are insincere and false. Three huge attacks are currently occuring.

For a hundred years socialists have constantly attacked America and its freedom based economic system of capitalism. This has accelerated dramatically with the total politicizing of our school systems under John Dewey and his disciples. Traditional America is constantly compared unfavorably with an idyllic utopia that has never existed. Quite the contrary, every attempt to inflict socialism on any nation under its various iterations has proved to be an economic and national disaster - Russia, Germany, Argentina, China, North Korea, Cambodia. In nation after nation socialism has led to murder of its own people and tyranny rarely matched in history since the mongols, and they inflicted it on other people, not their own.

We have also been attacked by the Hispanic dominated cultures of Central and South America due to their hatred and envy of American success. The ongoing corruption of their political systems have made repeated interference by America and its investor class a source of resentment. Especially for Mexico, the wealth of our nation is a source of embarrassment. Mexico is the richest land in the Americas. Their continued poverty when compared with America grates on all classes within their nation. Yet today they consider America corrupt and weak. A group called La Raza leads a culture war with certainty that they can destroy America and get their revenge for previous insults.

Another renewed source of external aggression aimed at our nation comes from the Islamic cultures now enriched by petroleum wealth. The dream of re-establishing their dominance is based on the brief history of Islam conquering from Northern Africa to India, including sections of Asia and extending into the Iberian peninsula. The constant internal squabbles and warfare that followed leading to a collapse of Islam's dominance are ignored by these modern day Muslims. The dream is to recreate the period when the first 4 Caliphates experienced unbroken expansion and victory. This dream drives their hatred for America and what they see as our nation's cultural corruption.

Much of our nation's own elite have chosen to accept this hatred as justified. These three aggressors are conceded to be right in their hatred for us. Our press is dominated by left wing believers in the evils of America. They believe in the redistribution of wealth that socialism preaches. They defend the idea that anyone should have the right to invade our nation and participate in our country's economic success, no matter how much that destroys the wealth of our own citizens. This includes immediately participating upon arrival in welfare that takes away from our own poor. They even accept that Islam is the future power of the world and preach a cowering acceptance of our ultimate destruction to mitigate the external attacks during the process of our demise.

America is looking for leadership that understands all these powerful forces arrayed against us... and which does not fear them. We are looking for someone who can re inspire our belief in our ability to win. That search does not denote a single individual though. I believe it starts with a demand that everyone who wants to regain the pride that used to course through our veins, become again the kind of individual who will follow the kind of leader we seek. Ultimately, no leader can lead if there are no willing followers who already accept the culture of warrior for the cause of freedom.