Military Might

San Diego — La Jolla's Linden Blue, co-owner with his brother Neal of General Atomics, the big defense contractor, is also a well-known tuxedo-clad socialite who has of late been squiring San Diego mayoral aide and ex-admiral Ronne Froman around to high-end fund-raising bashes, including the Burnham Institute's "Fire and Ice" gala in October and the USO's "Star Sapphire Jubilee" in April, where Iraq vets were honored. According to the Union-Tribune's Burl Stiff, Blue recently cowrote a pessimistic op-ed piece about the Middle East in the Washington Times with Herbert London, president of the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think tank where Blue is a director. "Islamists hide behind the Constitution as they promote anti-American diatribes in many of their mosques," bemoan Blue and London. "Our civil libertarians are eager to remove the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance and the pledge is not allowed in many schools. Left wing university professors decry every aspect of U.S. foreign policy and much of American culture. These conditions undermine national purpose and a patriotic sense that our values are worth fighting for." The piece continues: "Moreover, the United States of 2006 is not the United States of 1941. The nation is divided politically and culturally. A military culture that still exhibits heroism and bravery is excoriated by liberal elites. A president who responds to attack and threats is criticized as a warmonger. And the media organs are far more interested in perceived internal threats to civil liberties than in mobilizing arguments against radical Islam."