Posted 8:51 PM by steve

Michel Aoun, the former prime minister of Lebanon and commander of its armed forces, and currently a deputy in the Lebanese parliament, asks in today's WSJ, "will other Arab countries and leaders have the courage to acknowledge that Israeli life is equal to Arab life? Will Israel have the courage as well to acknowledge that Lebanese life is equal to Israeli life, and that all life is priceless?" and adds his view that "most Israeli and Arab citizens would answer in the affirmative".

Well, Mr Aoun, I would beg to differ. Most Israelis will not acknowledge that Lebanese lives are equal to Israeli lives and very few Egyptians, for example, will agree that Israeli lives are as equal or are as valuable as are Egyptian lives.

And that is as it should be. Citizens of a country ought to value more highly the lives of their fellow citizens than they value the lives of people living elsewhere. Citizens of a country are, to a degree, one's extended family, and, just as one will almost always value more highly the lives of fellow family members, one will - or at least ought to - value more highly the lives of their fellow countrymen.

It's okay to be concerned about the lives of those living elsewhere. One doesn't have to hope for those living elsewhere to die an excrutiating death. But when push comes to shove, a true patriot will pick - and put - his side first. Israeli soldiers aren't fighting to save the lives of the people Lebanese, they're fighting to save the lives of their fellow Israelis.

That is the way it is... that is the way it has been... and that is the way it ought to be. Family comes first. Everybody else comes later.


And that, by the way, is a big reason the Democrats have such trouble with voters in flyover country. The Democrats simply don't put America and Americans first.. at least not often enough. The bi-coastal liberals who control the Democratic party care more (and if not more, it seems at least as much) about some jerk living in Paris, France than they do about some American living in Paris, Texas. They are more concerned with how our troops treat the captives at Guantanamo Bay than they care about how the captives are treating our troops. They care more about living conditions in some sub-Saharan slum than they do about living conditions here at home. They would rather vacation in Italy than vacation at DisneyWorld. They prefer foreign cuisine to good old American hot dogs and hamburgers.

And flyover country, as they should, looks and wonders why they should trust the Democrats to lead this country when the Democrats just don't like America and Americans that much. So they vote Republican... as they should.

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