Rush: "I think wars every 20 years are good."

Daniel B. Larison - 5/2/2004

Thank goodness Mr. Limbaugh has fully revealed his unfortunate view of the world in all its ugliness. Perhaps now real conservatives, if there are any left in his audience, will abandon this obnoxious man. The truth is that Mr. Limbaugh always had a confused understanding of American patriotism, the American interest and never placed much importance on morality in his brand of conservatism, but until I saw this I cannot recall his having openly embraced militarism as a general policy. He has always been a fan of any occasion when the military is sent to attack another country, justified or not, but the last two years have apparently so radicalised his views that he now accepts war as a good in itself and as a national morale-building exercise.

This is hardly the first time that Mr. Limbaugh has made ludicrous statements in his complete submission to the militaristic bluster that has passed for argument among war supporters these past two years. This is the same man who charged that all Germans were the "children of Hitler" when Gerhard Schroeder chose the popular and correct path of refusing to join Mr. Bush in starting a war--go figure! Having read the transcript of the exchange in which this remark occurred, I noticed that Mr. Limbaugh continues to recycle the mad concept that our invasion has brought stability to an unstable region.

In the end, Limbaugh's remark came in the midst of what struck me as rambling, incoherent hysteria, according to which a withdrawal from Iraq would be the end of the world. It came in response to Gen. Odom's recent statements about U.S. failure in Iraq, but at no time did Limbaugh seriously consider what Odom had said. Of course, if wars are good for reminding people "what's at stake" (he also doesn't explain why everything is at stake in Iraq), then I suppose rational considerations of progress or failure are no longer required. We'll keep fighting there until everyone becomes as morally blinkered and blindly chauvnistic as Mr. Limbaugh, having learned the lessons he wants us to learn--then we can withdraw!