Quote Originally Posted by Adrian II
The author decries their lack of masticatory 'willingness', not 'abilities'. He doesn't say they gave up chewing, he says they chose not to. And he deplores that choice.
Nah, that's not really what he said. He said the scoundrels were rising on a tide of American weakness. You can't choose to be weak, you either are or you aren't. And the phrase is usually "bit off more than you could chew"; he changed "could" to "willing" in his article because it's he knows we could chew it. He's saying the decision was made out of weakness when for many people it's simply a cause they don't believe in.