Posted on 06/16/2004 6:31:45 PM PDT by wagglebee
The United States is at war, but from the way Americans are acting, you'd never know it. With every report of a terrorist bombing or ambush, while casualty lists grow by the week, Americans are recoiling in horror, as if they expect combat to be a form of pattycake where nobody, except perhaps for the bad guys, gets hurt or killed.
There is a good reason for this. We simply don't understand that this is a real war, a fight to the death, and we can't seem to recognize the fact that wars are brutal things where brutality is the norm.
On September 11, 2001, our enemies declared war on us. They weren't kidding. They told us that we are the great Satan and they are determined to kill us all or enslave us in a Taliban-like Islamic regime because that's what their bellicose deity wants them to do.
The enemy is not stupid. They see our economy as our Achilles heel, and they are striking us where it hurts. In Saudi Arabia they are attacking the wellspring of the world economy – oil - killing or kidnapping the men who keep the oil flowing and Saudi weaponry in firing condition.
In Iraq they are laying siege to the nation's infrastructure, attacking power plants, oil facilities, water plants and doing everything in their power to cripple the economy and destroy the wellbeing of the Iraqi people.
This is a real war - it's just being fought in a way different from the wars we have fought in the past. In Iraq we have established a beachhead in this strange war, and, because the enemy sees it as a beachhead - a new Normandy from which our forces can drive deep into their midst - it is being fiercely resisted.
President Bush has said that America has been thus far spared another tragedy like 9/11 because Afghanistan and Iraq, and not the United States, are the battlegrounds. Should we lose in that area, we can expect the war to be fought here in America.
We seem to have forgotten that at the time of 9/11 the president told the American people this war against international terrorism will last a long, long time, perhaps beyond his lifespan and that of many of his fellow Americans. And because we have forgotten, we are rapidly wearying of the struggle and resenting its cost.
We must keep in mind that strange as it is, this war on terrorism is a war, just as real as World Wars I and II. During those struggles, the American people were forced to make sacrifices both in the standards of living and in the sacrifice of tens of thousands of American lives. At Normandy alone, over 9,000 men died. In a mere 30 or so days, we lost 6,000 Marines on tiny Iwo Jima.
Here at home just about everything was rationed - food, gasoline and other commodities such as meat were scarce. People couldn't buy new cars. Long distance travel by train was restricted by a scarcity of railroad car capacity. And this went on for four years. Yet nobody demanded a quick and easy end to the war that was costing them so much in lives, and in their standard of living. They knew that victory has a price, and they were willing to pay it.
They understood that war is war, and knew what was at stake. When errors in the prosecution of the war were made we understood that the most certain thing about military planning is the uncertainty of the planning of any combat operations. Mistakes will be made - the enemy doesn't always oblige us by acting in a way we want them to act. Nobody demanded an investigation of the Roosevelt administration that because of poor planning, naval and air interdictions against Iwo Jima had failed to prevent the carnage there or the tragic farce that was Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands where thousands of allied troops died.
We had better begin to understand that we face a well-financed, highly intelligent enemy determined to destroy us by any all means available to them. They are not about to quit. They are capable of gutting our economy. Just think about what it will mean if al Qaeda drives out the Saudi monarchy, thus gaining control of the Saudi oil fields - now a very distinct possibility.
Think of what it will mean should the insurgents and their al Qaeda allies destroy Iraq's oil production. South of our borders, Venezuela has threatened to cut off oil shipments to the U.S. And thanks to such demagogues as John Kerry and his lunatic environmentalist allies, America is prevented from exploiting our own oil fields in Alaska's ANWAR and elsewhere.
We are not talking about extravagant gasoline prices and rationing here - we are talking about an economic catastrophe that will bring us and the rest of the West to our knees.
This is why we are in Iraq, and why we must stay there until the new Iraqi government is able to defend itself. But even then, the war against terrorism will go on - for perhaps decades to come. We are in the fight of our lives and our very existence as a free and prosperous nation is at stake.
In its deranged religious fanaticism, the enemy believes that our prosperity and material well-being are tools of Satan. Because of this distorted view they are determined to stop us from doing what we set out to do in Iraq - to create a bridgehead from which the American way of life could be brought to the people of the Middle East. To prevent this from happening they will go to any lengths. While we prefer persuasion to make the export of the American dream possible, we first must first win by force of arms.
Exporting that dream can't be won by an advertising or public relations campaign. If we want to prevail we must first adopt what Stonewall Jackson advised after the Battle of Fredericksburg when asked what could be done about those rascally Yankees (including some of my ancestors) who had destroyed and looted that charming city: "Kill em," he said. "Kill 'em all."
Either that, or be prepared to be killed ourselves.
If we want to prevail we must first adopt what Stonewall Jackson advised after the Battle of Fredericksburg when asked what could be done about those rascally Yankees (including some of my ancestors) who had destroyed and looted that charming city: "Kill em," he said. "Kill 'em all."
All of this merely proves that the left cares more about its own power in Washington than it does about victory over evil.
***All of this merely proves that the left cares more about its own power in Washington than it does about victory over evil.***
waggle, kindly read my tag line which another Freeper was good enough to let me steal,and you'll see that Tom DeLay said it better than I ever could.
Actually, I think the ultimate goal of the left is to destroy America and fold the country into the UN or EU.
This is so true.
This must be some of that repackaged news you were telling me about.
We've spent TRILLIONS of dollars over the last 40 years on the "war on poverty" farce and all we have is an entire segment of the population that is content to live in drug-infested squalor and collect welfare every month. And what is the left's answer to this fiasco, give it more time and spend more money.
Yet more "Oh no the American people aren't behind the war" whining from conservatives who should know better than to shoot themselves in the feet like this.
Bush will be re-elected in a landslide, and when he does, I hope these people will shut up and stop insulting me.
Yes, it *is* so true -- and so scary that people have already forgotten!
I don't like the tone of this article, most people, especially the ones I'm seeing on this forum, are well aware of the fact that we are at war and that war is a dangerous thing. We recognize the sacrifices being made by our men and women overseas.
However, this war is different, to win it we've got to on living our lives, promoting the American dream, and as the President has said time and time again, making the engine of America work.
(BTW, there was a public investigation into the Pearl Harbor attack, though it didn't occur until the cessation of hostilities with Japan)
-PJ
Remember about a week before we went to war with Iraq when Baghdad Dan Rather interviewed his old buddy Saddam. Afterward, Ratherbiased refused to assist the military in any way in pinpointing Saddam's whereabouts. I said this yesterday and I will say it again, if TIME or the NYT or any of these other leftist rags knew the location of bin Laden, I think they would go to court to protect the information rather than give it up. If Henry Luce could have seen what would happen after his death to the media empire he created, I think he would have shut it down. I challenge the left to find one instance of Edward R. Murrow not being 100% behind America in WW II.
Of course the people on this forum know we are at war. It is the reality tv watching sheeple that have not quite caught on.
I can't read this now, but at brief glance it looks like something that should be printed out and nailed (taped I mean) to the street lamps in every city and town.
I will read this luego!
A bridgehead, yes, but bringing the American way of life to the Middle East is not necessarily what we want, even if it were possible. They can keep their way of life so long as they do not force it upon us by violence. And we should do likewise. Aside from that, the article is an excellent exposition of what we face, the reality of which too many Americans have not accepted.
As much as I don't like defending Rather, I can't imagine any journalist would provide information to any military.
This is so important, delineating the nub of a major problem with vital implications for the future, that it should be noted by all and quoted where-ever and whenever possible.
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