[Rhodes22-list] Politics: A Few Good Men/Boys - War Sucks!

[brad haslett]

Bill,

We are in the middle of an election cycle and far too
many of us politsize the involvement in Iraq and do
watch the progress as if it were in fact a Saturday
afternoon college football game.  If you read
Woodwards book "Plan of Attack” one gets the
impression, or at least this reader did, that our
entry into Iraq was hardly a headlong rush to war. 
Saddam was a de-stablizing factor in an unstable
region. Every administration since at least Nixon has
tried to find a lasting peace in the Middle East. 
When that instability shows up on our shores with two
buildings and three thousand US citizens destroyed, it
can no longer be ignored.  9/11 was our wake-up call
that Islamic extremism is a worldwide threat that
calls for greater action than “police work”. 
Eliminating one, or a hundred, or even thousands of
bad guys will not solve the problem.  There has to be
a fundamental shift in mindset.

FDR launched us into a two front war, one gainst an
enemy that attacked us, and another against an enemy
that threatened Europe.  At the time our military was
the sixteenth largest, right behind Romania, and our
economy was still recovering from the most difficult
economic period in our history.  There were voices in
our country, Charles Lindberg and America First, for
example, which advocated our not getting involved
prior to Pearl Harbor.  After that attack, we united
as a nation and eliminated two of the most disgusting
and horrible regimes of the twentieth century. 
Unfortunately, at the end of that conflict, we
declared victory early and allowed the next great
threat to civilization, Communism, to expand in
Eastern Europe and China.

I’ll quit the “Al Gore” history lesson now and get to
the point.  Islamic extremism is a worldwide problem
that is every bit a threat to civilized nations as
were the evil forces growing in the middle twentith
century.  The difference this time versus the 1930’s
is this; then we lacked the muscle and the will until
we were attacked - now we have the military strength
but perhaps lack the will.   The lessons of Munich
should teach us that there is no negotiating with
tyrants and terrorists.  As a nation we watched the
events in Manchuria and did nothing.  We watched the
rape of Nanking and did nothing.  We witnessed the
fall of France and turned a blind eye to the Vichy
government surrendering its Jewish citizens to the
Nazi’s, and did nothing.  Every president from Reagan
forward has ignored the growth of the terrorist threat
and but for a missle strike here and there, we’ve done
nothing.  

Vietnam became the quagmire it was because we didn’t
have clearly defined goals.  We did not lose a single
major battle there.  The enemy defeated us on our own
streets, in our own homes becaused we lost the will.

Our current fight, in my humble opinion, is no less
important to the survival of our principles than World
War Two.  Isolated retaliation and half-measures won’t
do.  If only slogans like “Give Peace a Chance” would
work with intolorant religious zealots, perhaps we
could all sit down at a long table in Paris and settle
our differences.  

This fight will be long, it will be bloody, and it
will be sad.  Some of our finest men and women will
die early tragic deaths, much like 9/11.  Iraq is a
mess.  However, to lose our sense of purpose now will
be the beginning of the end of our great nation. 
Regardless of who wins in November, this fight must go
on.  Our enemies have no interest in resting.

--- Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:

> Len, (and Brad)
> 
> I stop to read the names of the fallen in the
> newspaper every day, and take a minute to reflect on
> those they left behind.  There are so many of them.
> 
> What troubles me is that I don't have the slightest
> idea of why they died.  I don't mean that in a
> global sense.
> 
> What I mean is that I read news reports about every
> time Moqtada Sadr has a hangnail that is bothering
> him, or Osama Bin Laden has a bunion.  Somehow we
> say that we know these things.  But you tell me
> about attending a service for 2 soldiers killed this
> week in Afghanistan, and this is the first I heard
> of it.  Where did they die?  What were they doing? 
> How were they defending Liberty?  What is going on
> over there?
> 
> Good people are coming home dead in large numbers
> and nobody knows about it except those personally
> connected.
> 
> Some of us can remember when the Vietnam dead were
> at the same levels and our leaders were telling us
> we had to stay the course.  Needless to say,
> ultimately we cut and ran.  Depending on how you
> count them, we must have over 200,000 people
> involved in the fight by now.  They are in the
> middle of a multi-ethnic tribal war that our leaders
> clearly don't understand, which gets more out of
> hand every day.  
> 
> Virtually no one thinks we can prevail without
> enough troops to do the job.  What do you and your
> friends think we should do?  Is this the right
> fight?  How many troops would it take to win it? 
> Where can we get those troops from?  Should we
> restart the draft?
> 
> I don't have the answers, but I do have a lot of
> questions.  Our leaders must give us more than
> platitudes and dead soldiers.  This won't stop until
> we all speak up.
> 
> Bill Effros  
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: GrahamLBN at aol.com 
> To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org 
> Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 6:13 PM
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Politics: A Few Good
> Men/Boys - War Sucks!
> 
> 
> To All who read:
> 
> As a civilian member of Special Operations, I just
> attended the memorial 
> service for two of our brave Special Forces Soldiers
> who were killed this week in 
> Afghanistan.
> This was a gut wrenching occasion. One Soldier left
> a young wife and son, 
> while the other was the father of three young
> children and his wife. 
> 
> Both men were eulogized by their team mates for
> their great soldiering, 
> wonderful sense of humor, community service and
> other achievements.  Bottom line is 
> that we are losing many gifted soldiers and
> civilians in the War on terror.  
> The church was packed to overflowing with the same
> kind of determined brave 
> Soldiers, paying respect to their comrades, and
> ready to do their duty.
> 
> Both men were known most for their love of country,
> and courage to defend it. 
>  
> 
> Staff Sergeant Robert Stacy Goodwin, 3d Special
> Forces Group (ABN)
> 
> Staff Sergeant Tony Bruce Olaes, 3d Special Forces
> Group (ABN)
> 
> May God Bless the United States of America
> 
> De Opresso Libre
> 
> Len Graham
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