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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama Was Right - David Brooks
yea, really
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/opinion/brooks-president-obama-was-right.html
Americans dont have a common ancestry. Therefore, we have to work hard to build national solidarity. We go in for more overt displays of patriotism than in most other countries: politicians wearing flag lapel pins, everybody singing the national anthem before games, saying the Pledge of Allegiance at big meetings, revering sacred creedal statements, like the Gettysburg Address.
We need to do this because national solidarity is essential to the health of the country. This feeling of solidarity means that we do pull together and not apart in times of crisis, like after the attacks on 9/11. Despite all our polarization, we do accept the election results, even when the other party wins. People in New York do uncomplainingly send tax dollars to help people in New Mexico. We are able to assimilate waves of immigration.
National solidarity is especially important for the national defense. Men and women serve in the armed forces for a variety of reasons, but one of them is the awareness that it is an extraordinary privilege to be an American, that it is a debt that needs to be repaid with service.
Soldiers in combat not only protect their buddies, they show amazing devotion to anyone in the uniform, without asking about state or ethnicity. This is the cohesion that makes armies effective.
snip
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)vets and military tradition. Those assholes are going to regret their plain as day hypocrisy and hate for the military unless they are dying on the battlefield.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)First Krauthammer
"Look, had the choice been mine, I would have made that same choice," Krauthammer said. "It's a difficult decision and I would not attack those who would have done otherwise."--
Krauthammer said that the United States, along with other Western countries, "always comes out on the short end" in hostage swaps. He included Israel in this, pointing to when the country gave up 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return for one sergeant.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/06/charles-krauthammer-supports-obamas
and now Brooks?!?!?!
Gates of hell must be freezing.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)negates his opening points about shows of patriotism and national solidarity. Standing with Bergdahl's parents for the announcement WAS a moment for national solidarity that Brooks says is important. It wasn't a parade or a medal presentation, it was two relieved parents and a relieved President (especially because the whole transfer was a risky and complicated thing to pull off).