Do You Really Think We Have It That Bad?

If the only people I ever listened to were leftists, miltitants, liberal elitists, and the MSM which gives them their mouth piece, I'd think that this country is totally in shambles and on the verge of reaching the point of utter collapse.

Remember the election last year?

Everybody needed a job. The soup lines were full, famine was widespread. The whole national economy was in near, total ruin. And Americans were in a state of despair. Add to that, the American military was on the verge of collapse at the hands of the Iraqi "insurgents" (wink wink, nudge nudge), who were just too mighty and too strong for our forces that had been severely demoralized by a flawed foreign policy and a resilient people that were so very much misunderstood, by America.

But wait. Hasn't it been a year since the election? It has, but we are still hearing the same gloom and doom, about the times we live in.

Don't get me wrong. I do firmly believe that we indeed live in perilous times. But not for the same reasons that this current bunch of naysayers do. The very objects of their criticisms are misdirected and in some cases, there is no case for criticism at all. The things they should be criticizing, they don't; and they criticize the things that warrant very little (if none at all).

Just how bad today is, compared to times past, is the subject of this AP article about a survey recently conducted at Siena College. Keep in mind as you read this article, this data came from the academic wing of the liberal elite. Here is a short exerpt, but by all means read it all:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Terrorist attacks, a war in Iraq and natural disasters aren't so bad compared to other tough times in America's past, from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War, history professors say.

Asked to compare eight difficult periods of the nation's history, 46 percent of the 354 professors who responded to a nationwide survey agreed the current era was the least trying. The Civil War, 55 percent said, was the toughest.

Putting today into perspective requires some knowledge of history, something that is lacking in today's world. The "it's all about me" and the "I want it and I want right now" crowd does not value the importance of history and how we can use it to make better lives for ourselves, today. So, many people that fit this description cannot understand the sacrifices and sufferings of many, in the past; therefore, they have nothing to compare with the challenges we face today.

Because if they did, every time they were tempted to claim that a 5% unemployment rate is why people everywhere, suffer so much; they would know that contrasted with the 25% rate seen in the Great Depression, this is a cakewalk. And if every time, they were tempted to claim that this war is a total and utter failure because the casualty rate is unacceptable, they could look up the numbers of all of the previous wars. They could note that we lost more men on D-Day than the whole Iraqi war, to date. They could note the meat grinder nature of WWI, WWII, and the Civil War, where dead littered the countrysides of both Europe and this country, by the thousands.

In spite of an islamofascist threat that is ever busy trying to find ways to wreak havoc by killing innocents and destroying western civilization, we do have it damned good compared to our forefathers. Cars, cell phones, information available 24 hours a day at your fingertips, microwave ovens, you name it. They had none of it. We do.

And yet today, very few people understand, just how fortunate they really are. They have known nothing of sacrifice or what it means to truly suffer, yet they want us all to believe that it's worse now, than ever before. But that's not the shocking part of it all. What amazes me, is the fact that these same spoiled elitist snerts and snobs do not think that a little fight now, could and would prevent the need for a bigger one later; a fight that would very definitely come much closer to the reality of what they want us to believe is happening now. Thousands of dead, in a day or week, mass funerals, widespread grief and sorrow are all just a moment away, if we do not defend that which we have so good, right now. And, do it right.

In some ways it is a bad time, depending on how you look at it. But if we could all understand a little bit about the times that occurred before us, we would know that it could be a whole lot worse. On the other hand, it's good, but if those of us that sleep could/would wake up, it could and would be a lot better. If the left, could put aside politics for long enough to get Iraq up and running, instead of tearing it down at every opportunity, we could get the troops home sooner rather than later.

And believe me when I tell you this. If I thought for one moment our troops had been there too long, with all of the reasonable objectives met, I'd be posting it. But until that day, let's just finish this up, without anymore distractions.