8.08.2010

Back when R's were made of sterner stuff

The first paragraph of Teddy Roosevelt's book, The Rough Riders:

During the year preceding the outbreak of the Spanish War I was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. While my party was in opposition, I had preached, with all the fervor and zeal I possessed, our duty to intervene in Cuba, and to take this opportunity of driving the Spaniard from the Western World. Now that my party had come to power, I felt it incumbent on me, by word and deed, to do all I could to secure the carrying out of the policy in which I so heartily believed; and from the beginning I had determined that, if a war came, somehow or other, I was going to the front.

Whatever you may think about the Spanish-American war (and yes, there's plenty to think about one way or the other - and mostly the other), try to imagine one of our wimpjob neo-cons writing a paragraph like that at the outbreak of our recent adventure in Iraq. 

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