Don's Tuesday Column

         THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   5/30/2023

       The Rest of the Story…

We “of a certain age” have fond memories of commentator extraordinaire Paul Harvey, who set the standard for radio news and opinion with his tag line: “And now you know…the rest of the story.” Rush Limbaugh, love him or hate him, emulated the flawless delivery of thoughts distilled into 12 or so minutes of riveting, often compelling, facts and opinion (excepting golf and NFL). It was a time before podcasts and streaming content; your ears had to be there at noon (Mr. Harvey) and noon Eastern (Rush).

Rush’s entire show contributed to providing Americans with “the rest of the story” from the 80s through his final broadcasts, February of 2021. He remained a thorn in the side of the liberal-left, as it morphed into the Marxist Progressive/Socialist movement we currently battle for the soul of this nation.

They endlessly sought to “cancel” Rush, in whose shadow rose a near-army of advocates for Americanism, conservatism, and liberty-worshipping citizens who came to realize: 1) they would no longer be left alone to pursue their economic goals or their children’s education, and 2) they may not be interested in the politics of the activist left, but the activist left was very interested in forcing its agenda on them.

The “rest of the story”—begun last week over the Durham Report which should, if justice remains in Washington, bring prosecutions, convictions and removal of politicians from office—is the sordid, corrupt and nearly treasonous tendrils of the Trump/Russia hoax.

The “Trump colluded with Putin’s Russia to steal the election” was hatched, absent a scintilla of evidence, in the corrupt bowels of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the summer of 2016 for the crass purpose of distracting from Clinton’s illegal private server containing 30,000 unprotected emails. Had those emails been examined—if James Comey had done his job—the evidence would have led to Barack Obama’s blackberry, also unprotected.

Everyone—from Clinton to the CIA’s Brennan, and Clapper, Rogers and other denizens of the FBI and DOJ—including Obama and Biden, knew there was nothing to the hoax and no legitimate predicate for FISA warrants, spying, wiretaps, investigations, Special Counsel and/or impeachments. Six years of hysterical, guilt-assuming, news media and Democrats’ personal/political war of destruction of legitimately elected President Trump was nothing short of treasonous in effect.

The policies, decisions, appointments and legislation of an opposing party’s leaders are fair game for even lying, underhanded opposition. It was an abomination to knowingly use fabricated accusations, which actually relied in part on a Russian national, to undermine President Trump’s electoral right to hold office.

Memorial Day lessons must be remembered. Everything that can be said has been said regarding the ultimate sacrifices of American men on battlefields from the Revolutionary War through the Middle East. Women have been heroic in their own ways. Immigrants have defended this nation as waves of foreigners proved their allegiance to their new homeland. Descendants of slaves, and Blacks persecuted under the Jim Crow and segregation era, nevertheless enlisted with pride.

Columnist Joe Guzzardi provided a touching tribute to a fallen soldier of the Vietnam War. He bemoaned the commonly accepted narrative of futility and defeat in that distant Southeast Asian quagmire. A war’s conclusion in victory or defeat (or neither) shades our perspective on military sacrifices.

You could read a book on the Vietnam War every week for years. I’ve gleaned several ways that that war could have been a “win” for America and South Vietnam, not the least of which would have been by honoring the commitment our leaders made to simply replace military assets used by the South defending their nation. We also promised that American bombs and aerial attacks would back them up against continued ruthless, China-supported aggression.

At little risk of American lives, it would have shown the Communist dictatorships of the world that their domination of neighbors would not be tolerated. Congressional Democrats bear the responsibility for the fall of South Vietnam to the bloodthirsty hordes of the North—and for the millions of Vietnamese condemned to “reeducation” death camps, and for the sad preventable deaths of the “boat people.”

Osama bin Laden said that America’s abandonment of South Vietnam showed us to be a “paper tiger.” North Vietnamese internal communications revealed that 1) the Viet Cong were never a popular revolutionary force, but were despised thugs; 2) counter-insurgency operations that protected rural villages were effective at winning “hearts and minds” and were a bulwark against Viet Cong intimidation in the mid-1960s;

And 3) President Nixon’s bombing of the North not only succeeded in driving them to the Paris negotiations but also could have likely forced the North into surrendering their war of aggression which had no hope of winning on the battlefield while America backed its commitment to the South (see #1 above).

No, Mr. Guzzardi, quagmire, defeat and futility were imposed from Washington, D.C. and, while all lives lost on battlefields are tragic, the sacrifices of the 58,220 names etched on the Wall were ultimately for a cause lost by antiwar Democrat fanatics in Congress—not by the grunts, swabbies, devil-dogs and fly-boys.