Soldier Asks Rumsfeld Where U.S. Solidarity Has Gone

American Forces Press Service ^ | Jim Garamone

[SandRat]

MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 10, 2006 -- A soldier in Mosul told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld he was worried because the American people seemed to have lost the combined will they had immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The secretary, who visited Iraq to thank the troops before he steps down from office, allowed that this is true. “In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, the American people came together and were united in their concern about our country,” he said.

But in the years since, there have been no big land, sea or air battles that grab the attention of the American people, Rumsfeld said. The battle against a shadowy enemy is much more complex and less familiar than any conflict America has been involved with before, he explained.

He said the United States has also been fortunate that there hasn’t been another attack on the scale of Sept. 11 in the country. The farther removed some people get from the events of Sept. 11, the more the cohesion and solidarity the American people felt during that period dissipates, Rumsfeld said.

Part of the reason this feeling has dissipated is because there have been no more attacks in the United States. There have been terror attacks in other parts of the world – Madrid, London, Bali and Russia, to name just a few.

The war on terror, Rumsfeld said, is like the Cold War. During the Cold War, public opinion ebbed and flowed. “Millions of people demonstrated against the United States, not against the Soviet Union,” he said. “They acted as if the Soviet Union wasn’t one of the most repressive regimes in history. People were granting moral equivalence to the Soviet Union – a vicious dictatorship – in the free countries of Western Europe and the United States. People can drift off.”

The same is true today, Rumsfeld said. There are many who believe that governments can negotiate with terrorists or who believe if just left alone, they will somehow leave freedom-loving people alone. But that is not possible, Rumsfeld said. “The dangers today, the lethality of the weapons today, the risks to our country, are real,” he said.

A tabletop exercise a few years ago posited a release of smallpox in two airports in the United States. The simulation showed that inside of a year, almost 1 million people would die, Rumsfeld said.

“There are dangers, there are real people out there – as you well know – who will put in place a small number of clerics that will tell everyone how they will live and how they will behave,” he said. “And that’s not what we’re about.”

But overall, the United States and its allies weathered the Cold War. The countries stuck together and today the Soviet Union is no more. “Our country would not be here if we didn’t have the ability to ride through some ups and downs in respect to opinion and come out the other end having made some right decisions,” Rumsfeld said. “I expect the same today.”

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

WAR News You'll Hear Nowhere Else!

All the News the MSM refuses to use!

[Terpfen]

Good question. What say you, cut-and-run conservatives?

[SevenofNine]

If I was US Soldier station oversea see the US like this I be concern myself

[SandRat]

Well dat ain't me. I want a reprise of "Monte Casino" on Sadar City.

[unkus]

I'm affraid that we have lost our solidarity because only so many of our people realize the true danger we are in; because the MSM media uses "censorship by omission" and we have become soft and complacent beyond belief, to name a few reasons. When this country goes down, it will be the most senseless and grandest in scale loss in the history of the world. And those who take everything for granted will be most shocked and deserving.

[rocksblues]

As long as we have the media trumpeting the likes of Obama, Clinton, Kerry, Pelosi. Reid, Kennedy etc.

We do not have a chance to save our country!

[cripplecreek]

The soldier needs to ask Howard Dean, Jon Carry, and Nancy Pelosi why they've fed the anti war left.

[SandRat]

The LameStream Presstitues Censorship by omission is why I keep posting the truth.

[Terpfen]

Oh, I wasn't accusing you. I was thinking more of the usual suspects--we all know who they are.

[SandRat]

Yep we do, we surely do.

[cripplecreek]

Monte Casino

Yes it was a holy place but the enemy was inside so we sent some 1300 B17s to turn it inside out.

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

Everytime Don Rumsfeld opens his mouth my level of respect for him goes up and my level of respect for the President that fired him goes down. I am of the opinion that President Bush fired Don Rumsfeld.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

TANKS,Rat,,,,Sad...

[Paul Ross]

People were granting moral equivalence to the Soviet Union – a vicious dictatorship – in the free countries of Western Europe and the United States. People can drift off.”

The same is true today, Rumsfeld said. There are many who believe that governments can negotiate with terrorists or who believe if just left alone, they will somehow leave freedom-loving people alone. But that is not possible, Rumsfeld said. “The dangers today, the lethality of the weapons today, the risks to our country, are real,” he said.

Bump!

Sure don't see that kind of clear-headeness and sense of history amongst the ISG.

Rummy and Bolton were t he last good members of the Cabinet and near-Cabinet appointees...that leaves only Vice-President Dick Cheney with any real redeeming character in the outfit.

[IronJack]

"Sadly, soldier, I don't know where our solidarity went. Where does light go when you blow out a candle? I can only tell you WHY it went, and WHO killed it. It was beaten down by the people who now occupy the majority position in our Congress."

[Incorrigible]

 

[SandRat]

That last cartoon block is what Erick Klinghoffer thought too.

[RedRover]

Bump and ping.

[tongue-tied]

Allow me to introduce myself: I am "Concerned".

I am also wondering where all of the unity in the parties went, and why it seemed to disappear so fast after 9/11.