I wouldn’t be too fast to dismiss the Left as being weak on war:
War Allows You To Do Things You Otherwise Wouldn’t Be Able To Do
In considering the possibility that the Obama Administration will strike the Syrian government in support of the Al Qaeda-backed rebel forces, I have noticed a lot of people expressing puzzlement over why the ‘Left’ is suddenly ‘big on war.’ What I don’t understand is why this should surprise everyone. The American ‘Left’ has always been big on war (with ‘Left’ being understood to mean a supporter of ‘big government’). Here, let me refresh your memory. Since the rise of the American Progressive movement under Theodore Roosevelt:
– WW I, Democrat and founder of the Progressive movement, Woodrow Wilson (also, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize)
– WW II, Democrat Progressive, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
– Korea, Republican Progressive, Dwight Eisenhower
– Bay of Pigs, Democrat, John Fitzgerald Kennedy
– Viet Nam, Democrat Progressive, Lyndon Baines Johnson
– Persian Gulf War, Republican Progressive, George Herbert Walker Bush
– Persian Gulf War II and Bosnia, Democrat Progressive, William Jefferson Clinton
– Afghanistan and Iraq, Republican Progressive, George W. Bush
– Continued war in Afghanistan and Iraq, with expansion into Pakhistan, Pashtunistan, Waziristan, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and – now – Syria, Democrat Progressive, Barack Hussein Obama (also, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize)
The Rio Norte Line 