Take off the gloves

Take off the gloves! According to The Debka File, the Islamic Republic of Iran is supplying the insurgents in Iraq with Soviet designed SA-7 “Strela” surface to air missiles. These missiles are the functional equivalent of the US designed “Stinger” missiles that were used so effectively against the Soviets by the “Mujehadin” in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of that country. Additionally, the Iranians are reported to be supplying high tech compressed gas bombs for use as roadside explosive devices to kill our troops. I confirmed this with my son, who returned from Ramadi, Iraq in January. I realize that many, like me, were a little reluctant to support the invasion of Iraq in the first place: I wrote an opinion piece that ran on the first page of the opinion section of the LA Daily News in March of 2003, expressing my concerns. Our son is a US Army Infantryman who just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. I wholeheartedly support our troops. What they need more than anything is for their leadership to be decisive and as committed to the fight as they are. I frequently write the President and my congressman and senators about issues of concern to me. But I haven’t been satisfied that they are listening. The problem as I see it is that our elected “leadership” aren’t leading. Their primary concern is getting themselves re-elected. Most of them have never seen a shot fired in anger. And most, like far too many other Americans, think of war in the abstract. That is, as something they see on television or at a theater. It’s not their son or daughter who gets killed or maimed by the roadside bomb, or shot out of the sky by an SA-7. Politicians see war as a means to a political end, not as all-out, gloves off fight for our nation. If we are sending our military to fight, suffer and die, it had better be for a cause worth fighting, suffering and dying for! If it isn’t, our finest and bravest young people should not be callously wasted. We are in Iraq for better or worse. To expect that the final product will look exactly like our democracy is naïve. Anyone who thinks it will is destined to be greatly disappointed. We need to build that nation as quickly and efficiently as we can, let’s get the job done and get out. Meanwhile, we have to deal with Afghanistan, the al Qaeda elements in Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines and even in Europe. We don’t even know how many of these people are in the United States. With all this to worry about, we are slipping into a melancholy in which people don’t care about the conduct of the war, the very real threat to our nation, our independence and the clash of cultures that is threatening us. We have a right to our culture, our heritage, our freedom of religion and thought. The enemy wants to take these treasures away from us. They believe that they will ultimately defeat us because we are soft, indulgent and weak-willed. It would seem to me that many of us, including our “leaders” are all of these things. I, for one, am not any of these things. I want to take the fight to the enemy. I want to pound them to powder and to teach the survivors and the rest of the world that America has not lost its will to survive. We are told that the Islamic fanatics in Iran are developing nuclear weapons and have threatened to use them; that North Korea has supplied Iran with missiles capable of reaching Israel and parts of Europe. and that Iran has threatened to attack US installations and interests in the Middle East. I would like to see the United States Navy make sure that no ship leaving an Iranian, Syrian or North Korean port ever makes it to its destination. The ships should merely “disappear” somewhere at sea. Send a “love note” on the nose of a cruise missile every time that crackpot Ahmadinejad threatens us or our close allies. It would be a hoot to see him spout some sort of threat then scurry for cover. Let our enemies experience the ferocity of a nation that has “taken off the gloves” and is ready and quite willing to slam them so hard, the tin-pot dictators and fanatics will understand that the American People will not tolerate these threats. Let our enemies feel the iron fist that has been gloved for so long. I am asking that you send this message on to the people on your email lists and to do one other thing: Send your congressman, senators and the President a glove to let each of them know what we must do; take the gloves off! Write them and tell them to exterminate the fanatics who want us either Muslim or gone from the earth.

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