Ace of Spades comments on President Bush's speech to the Joint Armed Forces Officers' Wives' group:
Appeasement, appeasement, appeasement. It's what the left offers. It's all it offers. If we would only make ourselves more amenable to those who would murder us, maybe they'll stop being so angry.
Do any lefty speakers at Vagina Day rallies ever suggest that a battered woman ought to just "try to be nicer" the man smacking him around, maybe put out a little more, maybe make dinner a little tastier, in order to defuse his wrath?
I don't think they do.
(note: I'm waiting for clarification if that should read "to the man smacking them around", but proceding on the assumption it should.)
My first thought was in agreement. Of course they don't! As I thought about it more I realized that there is considerable common ground in advice to battered women and the way that some would like to handle terrorists.
Remember how John Kerry's instinct of "Where's my gun" and "This is war" on September 11, 2001 devolved into "We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance" via controlling terrorism through law-enforcement techniques.
That is analogous to the restraining order method of reducing domestic violence. Maybe it can even be strained to comparing the takedown of BCCI to financial punishment of the abuser in a divorce court.
Re-reading Matt Bai's column today, I've got to think that had Kerry been able to turn "The war on terror is not a clash of civilizations. It is a clash of civilization against chaos, of the best hopes of humanity against dogmatic fears of progress and the future." into a plan, he would have won the election.
But I digress... back to domestic violence. After the restraining order, the battered wife is advised to withdraw. Run and hide. If she has an instinct to defend herself, it is quickly smothered. Especially if that instinct involves arming herself and fighting back.
The cognitive dissonance here is not with the pacifists. Where would a battered wife receive the advice that Ace mocks? The most likely source is her church.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the more "fundamental" a church is, the more likely this is the advice the woman will get. If her husband attends the same church, I think it's even more likely. Wives are to submit to the will of the husband.
Just how far apart are the far right and the far left? The left will not allow her to arm and defend herself, the right promotes the "Christian" value of submission, and the middle is... where? Is there any political ideology other than Libertarian which is willing to give to women, married or single, the full right to self-defense, including arming herself?
(Side note: Quell is a synonym for appease. That kind of appeasement would work.)
