Dennis Prager: Dear American Soldier in Iraq (Undeniable truths elegantly expressed!)

Town Hall ^ | November 25, 2003 | Dennis Prager [Creators Syndicate]

[quidnunc]

Dear American Soldier in Iraq:

I am writing to you simply as a fellow American.

In just about every way, I am quite typical. I am a married man with three children, believe in God and love my country. I differ, however, from many Americans in a couple of ways. First, my vocation — radio talk show host and columnist — makes me a professional communicator. So I might be able to say things that most other Americans feel but could not communicate quite as clearly. Second, and more important, I suspect that more than some Americans, though hardly more than President Bush and his administration, I am keenly aware of the fragility of civilization, of the monumental evil you are fighting, and of the historic mission of America.

For these reasons, I am writing to you. Though you may already know everything I am about to say, I need to say it for those of you who, after seeing fellow soldiers blown up or severely injured, may sometimes wonder whether these sacrifices are worth it.

So, first, let me set the record straight. Not since World War II have the stakes been this great. This is a war for the future of civilization every bit as much as the war against German Nazism and Japanese Fascism was. If we had lost that war, the world would have devolved into barbarism.

If we lose this one, the same will happen.

It was a war for civilization then; the war against Islamic Fascism is such a war today.

Of course, there are hundreds of millions of fine people among the world's 1.3 billion Muslims. But that is, unfortunately, as irrelevant to understanding today's war as the fact that there were millions of fine Germans living in Hitler's Germany was to understanding World War II.

It is not the fine Muslims who rule most Muslim countries, some of which are among the cruelest on earth. It is not the fine Muslims who dominate the Islamic schools around the world that teach that it is right to subjugate women and to slit Christians' and Jews' throats. It is not the fine Muslims who wish to impose a violent, hate-filled religion on others. It is not the fine Muslims who burned 13 churches in Nigeria just last week.

And sadly, most of the fine Muslims, including those in America, rarely condemn their civilization-threatening co-religionists.

Iraq is the battleground for civilization. That is why our enemies are throwing everything they can at you. If you help create the first free and tolerant Arab country in the heart of Islam, they are doomed. If we fail in Iraq, we are doomed. Our enemies know this. We need to know this.

-snip-

[Travis McGee]

At least put Townhall.com into your favorites, so you can read his weekly column easily.

[StriperSniper]

I will say this, however: I'm not sure that there has ever been a more public act of sedition than that which is being perpetrated by the mainstream press.

How can you miss the most obvious, the 'liberal' Dims, the Presidential candidates in particular.

[RinaseaofDs]

Political candidates, to me, are people that are entitled to an opinion. We get to vote them up or down, and so there is more of a marketplace at hand in that.

With the press, especially the mainstream press, it feels like a cartel, and it feels like they have protection from big labor that makes it feel more like a mob.

I commented to someone the other day that there was a real hole in the market for a conservative daily. He brought up the defeating point of getting big labor to allow such a thing. No one in their right mind would put up the seed money for such a venture, and labor is the reason why.

I feel like the press is set up that way. Only Murdoch could bring Fox News, for example.

Politicians aren't much to worry about. Never forget the maxim "Never argue with someone that buys ink by the barrel."

[Matthew James]

Thanks!