Valuable Lessons Of Recent Events

A rush of recent international events has bewildered those Americans afflicted with historical myopia:

• We lost our Arabian friends for failing to stop the Israeli invasion of Lebanon,
• We incurred the wrath of Latin America for timidly supporting British resistance to the Argentine invasion,
• We encouraged evil by sending arms to the democratically elected government of El Salvador so it can stop terrorism,
• We abandoned the human rights crusade by denying food credit to a repressive Polish regime,
• We doomed the human race by refusing to give the Soviets a monopoly of nuclear weapons.  

All of this, of course, is balderdash.  If we will stop boo-hooing in our beer for a few minutes, we will discover some valuable guidelines for the future.  

Perhaps the most provocative development to come out of the Falklands war has not yet been noticed - there is no place for instant replay television on a battle field.  

It is generally conceded that a deciding factor in our Vietnam defeat was the nightly TV films of front line fighting.  

War is a dirty, frightening business even to trained soldiers.  To the folks back home in their comfy parlors it is intolerable.  If Armageddon ever comes, Americans will be huddled around their television sets waiting for God to come on with an announcement.  

The British avoided controversy by banning TV cameras entirely, modified by innate judgment of correspondents, kept the world informed by not inflamed.  

We may be sure that the contrast between America's Vietnam experience, and Britain's Falklands experience, has not gone unnoticed by generals everywhere.  It is now evident that battle field information is a vital weapon which will be managed hereafter for maximum military advantage just as carefully as tanks and ships.  

Of immediate benefit to the U.S. foreign policy is collapse of the myth that powerful ideological blocs will bedevil us if we don't play ball their way.  

It is noteworthy that Arabs sat on their haunches when Israel moved against the Palestine Liberation Organization.  The silence of Latin America during the Falklands fighting was deafening.  Where were the Soviets when their client, Syria, was being chopped up and called for help under a "mutual defense" treaty?

It is now clear that short range, national interests transcend sacrifices for global peace.  There is no such thing as a "third world," or a "Moslem card," or an "organization of Latin American states," or a "communist monolith."  

When the crunch came, the nations of the world acted rationally.  UN mini-states stood quietly on the sidelines.  Arab countries demonstrated that they did not, after all, approve of PLO terrorism.  The governments of South America clearly understood that Argentina was a repressive dictatorship that had no right to seize the Falklands.  The Soviets agreed that Syria should get out of Lebanon.  

A big eye-opener in recent events is that the Soviet Union is a paper tiger.  It wouldn't commit arms, much less troops, in Syria against a well-equipped and well-trained adversary.  Its planes, missiles and tanks were no match for U.S. equipment.  It cannot built a pipeline without western capital and technology.  It is unable to feed or pacify its captive iron-curtain people.  It cannot conquer primitive tribesmen or disillusioned workers who have the will to resist?

What, then, are some of the lessons to be drawn from all this?

Foremost is that the United States can, and should, act first in its own interests.  Criticism of American policies is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate us.  We will be damned if we do and damned if we don't.  Therefore, let us do.  

As we reject self-serving influence of others, we must accept the fact that we have little influence on them.  There is no reason for Uncle Sam to try and police the world.  Either the United Nations must become an effective instrument for peace, or mankind must struggle on until the time is right for mutual cooperation.  

Belligerent nations attack those that are perceived as weakly armed or weakly motivated.  Peace is ensured by strong armies, not pious words.  When diplomacy fails, military measures must be applied fast and hard.  

Our most effective weapon against Soviet expansionism is capitalism.  The socialist system of managed economy and managed liberty is no match for individual incentive and constitutional guarantees.  

Only western money and know-how has kept the Soviet Union afloat.  Once the Russians lose access to capitalist credit and can no longer steal industrial secrets, communism will "wither away" a fate Lenin predicted for capitalism.  

Most importantly we can take renewed confidence in the appeal of the American Bill of Rights as a positive force in the world.  

We have been psyched out by left-wing accusations in the past few years, but the yearning of the human spirit is too strong to smother.  It is of immense significance that thousands of Poles, Afghanis and Vietnamese have braved death to flee socialist tyranny.  Ambitious aliens daily test our borders.  

The flow of history is toward the free world, and the strong therein.

Home