by Kerry Thomas
March 19, 2006
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat
it.” At least that’s the hope of
today’s anti-war activists.
Of course, so many of today’s anti-war activists are the
very same anti-war activists who were protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960’s
& 70’s. They’re hoping that the
same youth movement that they were a part of back then will have the same
effect on public policy today that they did during the Vietnam era.
These aging activists are hoping they will somehow be able
to re-live the past, the glory days of their youth, when (they think) they were
able to change the world…or at least bring down a President.
They’re busy staging anti-war protests on college campuses
across America. They’re holding
marches. They chant the same old idiotic
slogans they used 40 years ago. The
more sophisticated protesters conduct push-polls, asking leading questions of
the public, and then using the results of their slanted polls to claim
widespread support for their anti-war beliefs.
There’s just one little problem: Their only solution is to stop the war. Period. No plans for the
aftermath, no solutions to the problem of terrorism, no plan at all.
It doesn’t matter which war we’re talking about. These pacifists don’t like the idea of a
country (America) defending itself and it’s principles. They don’t like war (who does), and they
think if the enemy would just sit down with them (the social genius protesters)
they could talk out their problems and everything would be just fine and dandy.
These protestors are emblematic of the eunification of
America, the “can’t we all just get along” mentality.
Tyrants and dictators don’t go to group therapy. They don’t look at counseling as a way to
solve all the problems of the world.
They get what they want through the use of force, plain and simple.
There is a just and proper use of military force, in defense
of a nation. When your family, your
neighbors, your country is attacked, it is proper to defend ourselves, to go
after those who would cause us harm.
And whether the anti-war activists want to believe it or not, there are
factions of Islam that have vowed to kill “infidels” in the name of Allah. And if you’re not a believer in their form
of Islam, you’re an infidel.
All we are saying is give peace a chance. We tried that. It didn’t stop the terrorists from attacking us. So we took the battle to them, in their
lands. We’re now engaged in helping a
fledgling democracy establish a foundation upon which they will be able to
rebuild their country.
The protesters want the people of Iraq to run their own
country, now. They think Iraq has had
enough time to organize it’s new fledgling government, and it should be able to
govern itself by now. How quickly they
forget the lessons of history.
From the time we declared our independence on July 4, 1776
until September 17, 1787, it took America more than eleven years, with the help
of the major political powers of the day, to draft a document the original
states could ratify, the U. S. Constitution. Maybe we can let Iraq take a little more time and do the job
right.
There are many social activists who actually do good in the
world. You’ll find these people
volunteering to help the people in their own communities, helping out at the
local hospital, helping to feed the hungry, or building houses for the homeless. They spend time at their local nursing
homes, hospice centers, in the cancer wards, and working at their local
churches. These social activists help
those who actually need their help, in their local communities.
Today’s anti-war activists think they’re speaking for the
men and women in America’s armed services.
They’re not. The men and women
of America’s armed services have volunteered to serve their country. For many of them, it’s a personal
thing. Their fellow Americans were
attacked, and this is their opportunity to take this battle to the enemy. These men and women volunteered o serve,
knowing full well the sacrifices they may one day have to make fulfilling their
chosen role in that service. These men
and women have been trained to do their jobs.
And that job is to protect America and her interests.
The protesters cry “Bring our troops home.” And you know, come to think of it, I must say I agree. Let’s bring our troops home today, the troops from Germany and Japan. After all, that war’s been over since 1945. And while we’re at it, let’s go get an accounting for all the POW’s and MIA’s from Korea and Vietnam. And how about finding other American MIA’s, like Capt. Michael Scott Spiker of the U.S. Navy, one of the first pilots shot down in the opening days of the 1991 Gulf War.
Have we learned nothing from the lessons of Vietnam? We won the military battles in that war. What lost that war was the effort of the
protesters here in America. They
succeeded in stirring public sentiment against the war effort, to the point
where their elected officials caved to the political pressures, and decided to
end the American war effort in Vietnam.
Now these same aging protesters are hoping to once again
stir public opinion. They’re hoping
they can repeat their anti-war message enough times to get it to resonate among
the American public. They’re hoping
that by withdrawing American military forces from Iraq they will somehow be
able to bring down another President.
They don’t care what the result will be for the people of Iraq, just as
they didn’t care what the results were for the people of Vietnam.