[SandRat]

General, ... only if you can tear them away from their TV Faux-Reality Shows for 5 minutes of undivided Paris Island MCRD Motivation Platoon Counseling time.

[phoenix0468]

"He said the terrorists have been at war with the United States since the late 1970s. Americans didn’t realize this until Sept. 11, 2001."

Uh, I'm an American and when the terrorists attacked the Marine Barracks, I knew it, and I was fifteen. Heck, in '79 when the hostages were taken, I was eager to hear of the impending attack on Iran. I was quite confused when it didn't happen. Geez, come to think of it, maybe we do have ourselves to blame for 9/11. We certainly had more than enough instigation to take out half of the Middle East from about '79 on. Probably would have been much easier to have sent troops into the Middle East in 1983 than it is today. Especially if it were to take out Iran's Mullahs.

[pissant]

And if we did not have a anti-american MSM, the people would have grasped this long ago. It's sickening to me.

[Valin]

The United States can handle this, the chairman said. “We as a nation have capacity to do whatever we need to do for the long haul to protect our children and our grandchildren. We've proved it against the Soviet Union,” he said.

Once Americans understood the nature of the Soviet threat, they worked together to provide the right resources and the determination to protect the country, Pace said, adding that it didn’t matter what party was in the White House.


Rumsfeld on the Record
A wide-ranging discussion with the SecDef.

By Jay Nordlinger
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGM2MWUzY2MyMGRiMWI5MzFkOGQ0ZTFjMDI1Yjg1ZDU=

(snip)
THE COLD WAR AND THE TERROR WAR
I remind Rumsfeld that, when we last talked — three years ago — I asked him whether the American people would stick with the War on Terror. And he replied, on that occasion, “They stuck with the Cold War.”

“Yeah,” Rumsfeld says now. “Long time. Lot of wavering. A lot of cold feet at the various points along the way. I remember being in Spain and getting a phone call saying I had to come back to testify against the Mansfield Amendment,” which proposed to pull U.S. troops out of Europe. “I was ambassador to NATO at the time — early ’70s. And here you are: The Cold War’s in full flower, and the Soviet Union’s making mischief in Central America and Africa and subjugating Eastern Europe . . .” Yet the proposal was made all the same.

Plus, says Rumsfeld, “Eurocommunism was in vogue.” For example, “the Italians constantly were wondering about putting Communists in their coalition and changing their governments about every 15 minutes.”

So, continues the SecDef, “you look back on it now and say, ‘Oh, my goodness, it was a good, straight, upward path. We all knew all along the Cold War would last a long time. We knew all along it would be tough, but we never wavered and never doubted.’ And we did waver and doubt, and there were plenty of people who got cold feet as they went along.”

Victory, says Rumsfeld, “didn’t just happen.” And “I don’t take it for granted.”