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I had not read this before tonight, and thought it might be appropriate to post here. Please note the original date when this speech was given. (I highlighted the two paragraphs that jumped out at me.)
1 posted on 12/08/2001 1:47:23 PM PST by snopercod
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To: snopercod
...this country should stand them up against an adobe wall tomorrow and give them what they deserve. If any man deserves death, it is a traitor. I wish that I could pay for the ammunition. I would like to attend the execution, and if I were in the firing squad I would not want to be the marksman who had the blank shell." . . .

Sounds like some of the FReepers here.

FWIW, I have no problem with people objecting to war on philosophical grounds, but mostly what I hear is SOPHISTRY.

Before the entry of the U.S. into World War I, there was the incident of the RMS Lusitania. In that case a British steamship sailing from New York was sunk by a German U-Boat after the British had announced plans to requistion the Lusitania and her sister ships Mauretania and Aquitania for use as troop ships. It was thus a legitimate target of war, at least in the minds of the Germans. But in the process more than one hundred American lives were lost.

Even then, the U.S. tried to steer a course to avoid entry into that war. The Wilson administration sent several strongly-worded messages to Germany expressing outrage, but a willingness to come to an understanding. For awhile it worked but as the tide of war began to turn against Germany, she began to implement desperate measures.

Among those was the announcement in February 1917 that Germany would resume "unrestricted submarine warfare." Despite the best efforts of the U.S. it appeared that the threat of more American lives lost to German predations was again very real, and Wilson finally felt that nothing less than a declaration of war would suffice.

Again, it was all done legally and in conformance with explicit Constitutional dictates.

The difference with that conflict and what we have today is that (1) American targets have DELIBERATELY been attacked, not just once but over a period of some years with no possible solution since we're dealing with madmen who care little about their own lives (or rather the lives of the dupes they get to strap bombs to their chests or fly planes into buildings) and not with a government; (2) all attacks have been surreptitious, with no prior warning or reasonable explanation; (3) Some of the attacks have been on American soil, or against American military targets.

The provocations have been such that, were we the same country with the same degree of Iron Will as the United States of 1915, we would have already BEEN at war and been done with it--saving countless thousands of lives in the process.

So, please go ahead and continue to spout whatever nonsense you wish. But if the United States has no right to defend itself in this instance, then no nation anywhere EVER has the right to defend itself at all.

2 posted on 12/08/2001 2:16:22 PM PST by Illbay
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To: First_Salute
For your lunchtime reading pleasure, sir.

I guess I'm attracted on some fundamental level to these apostates.

6 posted on 12/09/2001 11:38:20 AM PST by snopercod
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To: Major Matt Mason; x; ninenot
Maybe you guys have some comments?
8 posted on 12/14/2001 1:46:30 AM PST by snopercod
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