The Discerning Texan

Obviously, Kirk and Spock wanted no part of this, and when the two planets were faced with the prospect of REAL war, the messy kind where things get broken and whole cities get wiped out, only then were they willing to look at the madness of what they were doing.

Today things are a bit different, but for the “soft, kind-hearted” West—we might as well be in such a war: we are so afraid of collateral damage causing us bad press that we hesitate to fight a REAL war—like we did in the Civil War and World Wars I and II—I am speaking once again of a mindset where we are willing to do whatever is necessary to win, understanding that sometimes there have to be sacrifices of innocents in War made for a greater good (in this case so we don’t go up in a mushroom cloud or else be forced to live in a 9th Century Caliphate under Sharia law…). There is only one problem, only one side is fighting the war this way—and it isn’t us. We have become so used to the antiseptic “smart” bomb taking out only the intended military target, that when our cowardly enemies hide amongst civilian populations the World cries foul if there is collateral damage—that is unless the casualties are American or Israeli…

The reason I bring this up is that we have been here before—in Vietnam. I alluded to this in my link to Marc Sheppard's fine work yesterday. Vietnam was the perfect example of a war that America was winning, yet we caved because our press were collectively howling like hyenas that we weren’t--and the flower children of the '60's bought that load of garbage hook, line, and sinker. History has shown that, in fact, the Tet offensive—which set icons like Walter Cronkite to calling Vietnam a “quagmire” that "couldn’t be won"—in fact was a catastrophic military loss for the NVA. But it didn’t matter—all that mattered was that CBS and Uncle Walter were shaping public perceptions at home, and even though those perceptions of how the war was going was 100% wrong--to the point of being almost intentionally so--we turned tail and ran anyway. After which another holocaust was ushered in: the minute the US left the NVA and Khmer Rouge slaughtered millions of nameless South Vietnamese and Cambodians who were not lucky enough to escape to the West. Estimates are that between 2-4 million died in the Killing Fields of Vietnam and Cambodia. And why? Becuause America lost the will to do the right thing for these people. Which of course is what our media is asking us to do to the Iraqis and Israelis today.

Only this time, the stakes are MUCH higher. Nuclear weapons in the hands of jihadists who care only about killing as many of us as they possibly can is not my idea of how to win this war for the survival of our civilization. And so I started thinking last night about my blogging—not just for fun--but to make a real difference. As in Vietnam, the winner of this war will be shaped more by public opinion at home than it will by boots on the ground: I have no question in my mind whatsoever that the United States military can win any battle it sets out to win. We just have to have the willpower to let them do their thing here at home. So the more hearts and minds I can reach in this War for ideas and bandwidth, the more people will have exposure to some of the best minds writing on the Web today.

And this is where a slight adjustment in course may be helpful: The facts are, my blog was not getting the number of hits that other similar blogs have been getting. Certainly not as many as I would like considering I have been at this for two years now. I know--not that all of us can be Glenn Reynolds or Hugh Hewitt—but something is telling me that to really make a difference in this War for hearts and minds, maybe I need to change something if I am to reach a wider audience.

As I have pondered these things, I count myself as fortunate that I have been contacted over the last several months by bloggers and syndicated writers I respect enormously; men like James Taranto and Rick Moran, to name a couple. And some of the feedback I’ve gotten included (for some) that they would be more comfortable if I only posted a few key paragraphs rather than their entire articles. Guilty as charged: my mission statement has always been about just getting the information out there so the masses can see the best political writing on the web—but I can respect that some people actually would like you to visit their site (after all I want more visitors too…). And so I think I am going to try and paste a bit less material from other blogs and linking a lot more. This will hopefully achieve several aims:

1. It will allow me more time to read and find the great writing already out there, and much less time editing.
2. I may get to link to more material each day and also increase the hit counts of those whom I frequently use as sources.
3. It will hopefully mitigate things a bit wherever any offense might have been taken in the past. (Along with my heartfelt apologies to any who have been inconvenienced because of the sheer amount of material of theirs I have published here.). The fact is: we on the right side of things in this War are stronger working together than competing. I am not in this for money—and with “six degrees of separation” even making a difference with just one more person per day could have incalculalble ripple effects that I will never know or appreciate. And that is what keeps me going.
4. It will give me the impetus to do a bit more of my own writing, although Mark Steyn I am not…

This doesn’t mean that I will quit altogether pasting quality quotes—I’m just going to change my mission a bit and look at the numbers. If they actually go down due to this change, then maybe I need to rethink what I’m doing yet again. Still it is worth a try if only to see if I can get a little better about brevity and getting to the “main idea”, and also to see if by doing so I can actually make The Discerning Texan a more robust and interesting place to visit every day. In the meantime, I need to thank all of my loyal readers and would like to thank especially Radio Blogger, and Chris Muir for choosing to link me on their blogrolls. These are giants in the blogosphere and I really appreciate their continued support. Still...it might be nice to move a bit further up in Radio Blogger’s NASCAR standings.

Also I would be remiss if I did not mention: Frau Budgie, Texas Fred, Hatless in Hattiesburg, Texas Cowgirl, Alamo Nation, Pat in NC, and many others have been great about commenting and linking often. I do appreciate you all.

In any case, please bear with me while I experiment with some slight format changes, briefer posts and more links, (unless it my own writing). And yes, I probably will keep putting up at least one cartoon. Sometimes a simple cartoon communicates so much more than hundreds of words could. And there are some great cartoonists out there who should be seen by more people.

Hopefully this new approach will allow me to highlight even more good material, and that thus my loyal readers will click through to some of the best blogs going today. The important thing is that the battle for our country’s hearts and minds is the most important battle in this War. I will always be looking for ways to improve the site, because our nation’s future could depend on any one of us getting through to the right people—before it is too late.