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January 03, 2006
It takes a teen . . .
To remind a glib lefty that some things are worth fighting and dying for.
Michelle Malkin posted a piece of agitprop from the pen of the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Mike Luckovich:
You can click on the image to see a bigger version.
Luckovich used the names of the dead GIs to make his point about what he believes to be the folly of Americans dying for nothing. How to respond?
Well, in the words of the teenage-artist herself:
The first time I saw Mike Luckovich’s drawing of the word “WHY?”, made up of the names of 2,000 troops killed in Iraq, was when my mother was putting it up on our refrigerator. It bothered me that no one did a response showing how others feel.
On Nov. 8, I got an updated list of the names of the war dead and started writing them, spelling out “FREEDOM.” Six days later, it was done. I only worked on it in my free time at school. It took me about 12 hours to get it done, so needless to say I devoted many of my classes to this, and stayed late after school to work on it. I didn’t take it home and show it to my mother until I had prints made.
She and I have different views of things. She said that, as a mother, she didn’t like it that so many people have been killed. She was not happy when I placed my work next to Luckovich’s “WHY?” on the fridge, but it hasn't been taken down. I may seem as if I am too young to have an opinion on matters like these. I am not saying that my opinion is right, for an opinion is just that — someone’s views on something. But, like a child’s voice, an opinion is often not heard.
To his credit, Luckovich posted her cartoon on his blog, along with the letter she wrote, both of which also appeared in the newspaper at the end of December.
The responses to the cartoon are interesting, with a large number of readers springing to the defense of the teen, greatly outnumbering the moonbats who default to the "no war for oil" meme.
Not bad for a kid.
James Lileks, the columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, penned a sharp rebuke to Luckovich, too, albeit in a less artistic fashion, shortly after the "Why?" cartoon ran.
Because we've been told by all the root-causers that the lack of freedom in Arab nations breeds desperate terrorists. Because it's better to leave a country with a democracy and a constitution than nuke it clean and walk away whistling. Because the United States has been at odds with Iraq since 1990, and the alternative was more oil-for-food corruption and porous sanctions until Saddam was free to romp about untrammeled.
Because upsetting the precious "stability" of the Middle East gave Libya a case of the yips, helped mobilize the occupied Lebanese and even made Egypt pretend to hold a good election. Because it gave the United States bases right next door to Iran, the leader of which has announced that Israel and the U.S. should be destroyed. With nukes.
Because after 9/11, leaving rogue states to their own devices and hoping Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac would talk down our enemies seemed a rather weak definition of defense.
He goes on to target those critics of the war who refuse to connect the dots, who persist in believing that Halliburton, caprice and venality are the true reasons for our attack. I think Lileks is right; read the whole thing and see for yourself.
Posted by Mike Lief at January 3, 2006 12:12 AM