Soldiers fought, fight to end terrorism

Aberdeen American News ^ | June 20, 2006 | Art Marmorstein

[jwalburg]

Less than two weeks after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the often stumble-tongued George W. Bush somehow found it possible to make one of the finest speeches in recent American political history.

Bush outlined clearly what he hoped would become a consensus strategy for ending terrorism. He warned Americans to be prepared: The War Against Terror would be costly, and it wasn't going to be over any time soon.

"This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat. Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." No more appeasement. No more "we-somehow-brought-it-on-ourselves" hand wringing. No more symbolic after-the-fact missile strikes. Instead, terrorists would be hunted down, rooted out and disposed of.

Now this was exactly what we wanted to hear at the time. We applauded his speech. Our representatives voted overwhelmingly to back Bush's anti-terrorism policy. The president's hitherto-mediocre approval rating soared.

Bush gained particularly loud applause with his warning that national regimes that abetted terror would henceforth be regarded as our enemies and treated as such. And soon America's enemies found out that Bush meant exactly what he said. By taking on the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Baathists in Iraq, Bush kept his promises. There will be no safe haven for terrorists. Regimes that support terror will pay the price.

But, as Bush warned us ahead of time, America, too, would have to pay a price. In a recent column, Knight-Ridder military correspondent Joe Galloway eloquently reminds just how great that price is for our soldiers and their families. He concludes his column with Wellington's famous summation of the Battle of Waterloo. "Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won."

The battlefield at Waterloo was indeed a melancholy place. Forty thousand casualties in a single day - 15,000 of them on the winning side: no wonder Wellington was less than ebullient. But it's important to realize that Wellington never made the leap from "war is horrible" to "we shouldn't be fighting this war." Wellington knew Napoleon had to be stopped, that a price had to be paid.

Was it worth it? The sacrifices made at Waterloo meant the end of one of the bloodiest periods in European history and the beginning of the most prosperous, peaceful era Europe had ever seen.

Those who remain safely at home in wartime owe soldiers a debt that can never be repaid. But, as Abraham Lincoln reminded us on a battlefield even bloodier and more melancholy than Waterloo, giving up on the struggle is no way to honor that debt. "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."

But are our soldiers fighting for a noble cause? Galloway says no: Bush took us into Iraq on a "whim and a grudge," we are fighting "for no good reason."

Neither is even close to true. We fought to eliminate a terror-sponsoring regime. We fought to bring a brutal tyrant to justice. We continue to fight in an attempt to see the establishment of freedom and democracy in Iraq. To deny this demeans our soldiers and their sacrifices - and makes their job even tougher.

[JustAmy]

Thank you for this thread.

We need to remind the liberals that FReedom is not FRee.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

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The Words:

http://www.Freerepublic.com/~ALOHARONNIE


The Pictures:

http://www.Freerepublic.com/~JLO

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[jwalburg]

Cool!