A special midweek post:

You were not born in 1939, no doubt, and neither was I, but yet this date has great resonance even today. It is the day when, in 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the day on which the Second World War began.

By the time it ended the world had changed substantially. The forces of hate had been defeated but at a terrible cost. Aside from the many millions who perished, at war and as civilians, the world which emerged, particularly in Europe, was a shell of the civilization which existed at the turn of the twentieth century and the era of scientific progress had shown its ugliest side.


Half of Europe emerged from the war as essentially captive states of a new Soviet empire. The United States, whose shores escaped the physical brunt of the war was not the leader of the rest of Europe: the free Europe. Our foresighted investment in the recovery of those devastated lands was part of an economic success story in our country that altered our approach to the economy in ways we have never seriously reconsidered.

That victory in the war that began on this day, sixty-one years ago, was unassailable, and the causes for which we fought unquestionable, at least to decent people, or those who understood who we are, and what our place was in an increasingly smaller world.

The tea-partiers of those day---they called themselves isolantionsists---threw down the same gauntlets they use today. American democracy itself, Senator Henry Cabot (Palin) Lodge told the Veterans of Foreign Wars the day before Hitler invaded Poland, could not "survive" any U.S. "participation" in "another world conflict." That stifling foolishness and sense of U.S. superiority required that the United States remain "neutral" for over two years, and after much of Europe was occupied by the Nazis or their sympathizers, before the United States joined the war.

Yesterday, as our President brilliantly announced the end of another military experience, one whose commencement and conclusion mirrored that in Vietnam far more than in World War II, the descendants of those fools from 1939 were out there braying again: wondering how President Obama could take "credit" for our "success" in Iraq.

Gloria Borger, CNN:

Republicans right now ... are saying this is a president who ought to credit George W. Bush.

Sen John McCain: ""What [President Obama] should have said: 'I opposed the surge. I was wrong. I made a mistake and George W. Bush deserves credit for doing something that was very unpopular at the time.' "

Success in Iraq? There is no government, save a "caretaker." Violence continues and is likely to increase. Nobody on the planet thought that a surge in troops would not present a temporary edge for our forces. The idea was not to see what American might could accomplish, but whether Iraq could become a democratic state in a region that has seen none, save Israel. The jury is, at best, still out on that question.

My favorite bit of nonsense was Chris Matthews reminding us of a column he wrote at the edge of the Iraq war suggesting it might be a bad idea. Bully for him. What most of us remember is his gushing over the President pretending to be a military pilot and announcing the successful end to major military activities in Iraq about seven years ago.

President Roosevelt knew what was right and what our country would need to do even before September 1 dawned in 1939, but he also knew what it would take to get a country which was as delusional then as it is today o understand its responsibility.

Today, we face new crisis and require the same degree of leadership. Our President made a start last night with an excellent explanation of how interconnected our world is and the consequences of foolish actions on our part. But he needs to stay on this theme and hammer it daily while ignoring the people who think we did something historic by invading Iraq.