12.19
I’ve been an avid Rush Limbaugh listener forever, as I started listening to him when he was on television late at night back in the early 90′s. I’ve always taken the Camille Paglia stance on Rush. When it comes to “doing radio” the man is in a class by himself. No one else can touch him. Plus, he’s just hilarious and makes a long drive home mucho enjoyable. Does that mean that I agree with everything he says? No. I’d say at one time that I probably agreed with about 75% of what he said. Now it’s more like 40%. It’s not that I now think he’s some kind of wacko or anything. I still think he’s brilliant. It’s just that he seems to be missing the forest for the trees on a lot of issues. The problem I have with Rush now days is two-fold.
Firstly, he’s wrong about a lot of the economic stuff that I thought he was right about. He’s always been a Milton Friedman-ite. And, while that’s better than being a Keynesian, ol’ Milton has plenty of his own problems. The so-called monetarist school that he comes from is way too friendly with the Federal Reserve and big government monetary policy. Rush thinks that guys who call for a return to hard money, like Ron Paul, are kooks. He’s completely wrong about this. A return to the gold standard would solve a great many problems we face in this country right now. Like I said, he’s not a wacko, but he just isn’t seeing things correctly. He’s got his economics down and he isn’t willing to dig any deeper.
Secondly, and more importantly, his penchant for the military has gone over the top. Case in point is his latest opinion that we should bomb the living hell out of Iran:
Now, the Iranians are denying this story, but it’s in multiple sources here. “The deputy minister, Mohammed Haj Mahmoud, said Iranian troops seized oil well No. 4 Thursday night in the al-Fakkah…” gotta pronounce that carefully “…oil field, located about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. The oil field is one of Iraq’s largest.” However, as I say, the Iranians are denying this. Now, ladies and gentlemen, as far as Iran is concerned, let’s be blunt here. The only way to stop them is to destroy the Iranian regime, the mullahs, and that can only be accomplished through war. And by war I don’t mean ground troops, I mean massive bombing raids intended to destroy every one of the key targets. The question is whether we have the will to do this anymore. Danielle Pletka, from I think AEI, had a column on this in the Washington Post earlier this week basically stating our policy is one of containment and how erroneous and dangerous that is. It’s a leftover containment policy, mutually assured destruction that we had with the Soviets.
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So if we don’t pound Iran into submission at some point they are going to get the bomb, they’re bragging about it, they’ve told us, they’ve shunned the inspectors, and they laugh about it all. If Israel doesn’t attack ‘em the world will be forever a hostage to an Islamic regime that could fire midrange and eventually long-range nuclear missiles when it chooses. Now, we know that Obama will not take effective military steps to stop Iran so if Israel doesn’t it will in fact become a nuclear regime. Obama will not do it because he doesn’t like the concept of victory, he’s uncomfortable with it, and he’d rather send letters to North Korea and to Tehran and have all kinds of meaningful dialogue. Economic sanctions in Iran will not work since the mullahs and ayatollahs are unaffected by it, they don’t care what happens to their people.
I’m not going to go off pointing fingers and acting self-righteous because I used to be just as on board with all things military as he is. As recently as two years ago I would have said “Heck yeah man. Let’s bomb ‘em. Right on.” My recent studies have changed my mind though. And, I want to emphasize “my studies.” Not my feelings. Not my politics. Not my theology. It was my study of the historical facts about government and war that changed my mind on the military. I just can’t, in good conscience, support this stuff any more. It’s so obviously political. The whole Iran situation has been so hyped up that it’s nuts. Just like every other conflict we’ve been in or started. The facts never match the propaganda.
I want to ask one question. Why do we get to say what Iran does? Isn’t that Iran’s business. Don’t knee-jerk that question. Think about it seriously for a little while. What, exactly, is it that makes bombing Iran moral? Why do we get to make decisions on what they do on their own soil? Rush’s answer would be that if they complete the building of a nuclear bomb they will use it on us and/or Israel. Is that a fact? Is that an absolute fact with no reservations? Of course not. As a matter a fact, it’s probably the least likely scenario that there is. Why in the world would Iran launch a nuclear missle at us or Israel? As soon as they hit the freakin button there would be about 20 nukes in the air coming right back at them and they know that. They would have to not only be insane, but also suicidal. And, not just Amedhenijad. The whole upper cabinet of Iranian government would have to be suicidal maniacs, and I find that hard to believe.
But, that’s what happens when you take an attitude of pre-emptive war. It makes you see everyone as a bogeyman. Here’s a thought. Maybe the reason Iran wants a nuke is because Israel has had nukes for 40 years and they are tired of being at a disadvantage. I could absolutely be wrong about that and I’m willing to admit that. But, if I’m right and we go ahead and bomb Iran anyway then I’m afraid it’s going to be us who are the insane ones.
I think the real problem with Rush has to be that he’s just too isolated. I know that it’s always easy to play the “out of touch” card with someone who is so wealthy, but that’s not what I’m trying to say. I think he’s secluded himself from the public (with good reason by the way) so much that he’s lost the pulse of what’s going on under the surface. He knows that what’s coming out of big media is a bunch of hooey, but he’s missing what’s actually going on in the real world. This Republicans vs. Democrats thing is dead in the mind of many Americans. Many, many people see it all for what it is now. A big shell game where politicians pick their favorite big-media moral issue to whip up their constituency and then laugh about it over cocktails afterwords. Rush still actually believes that Republicans and Democrats are different. That’s his big mistake.
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