Once again Americans in the service of arms are in harms way in foreign lands. There are people who, in good conscience, oppose the war. They have that right. It is a right that was deeded to them by men who fought and died for it in wars past. Some quote things like: “If war is the answer, it must have been a stupid question!” That, in itself, is overly simplistic and more than a little stupid. Sometimes war is the answer. Sometimes economic and political pressures don’t have their desired effect. Sometimes all diplomatic efforts fail and nations are left to slug it out. There’s always a bully in the schoolyard who won’t get the message any other way. That is what it boils down to.
War has served to end political oppression over millions of people. It has served to end slavery. It ended the genocide of European Jews. It ended Nazism and Japanese imperialism and it has freed enslaved peoples the world over. For whatever other reasons this one is being fought, it is serving to bring freedom to people who have never known it in their lifetimes.
This much is black and white to me. Osama Bin Laden and his kind are pure evil. In acts of cowardice they commit mass murder without provocation. Some will argue it’s not cowardice if you’re willing to commit suicide in the act… It ‘is’ cowardice to murder unarmed, innocent people who don’t know you’re coming even if you die in the process. I’ve heard liberals say we should try to understand them. ‘We’ are the ones who need to learn tolerance…not the men who murder innocent people in the name of their religion. That attitude is far worse than simplistic and stupid…it is collaborating with evil! That too is black and white.
Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator. He and his regime deserved to be toppled…and killed. Whether he was linked to the 9/11 mass murders or not, whether or not he had weapons of mass destruction (something believed by many administrations in many nations for years)…he deserved to be toppled. Whether or not we should be the ones to do it may be a question but the bigger question is, if we don’t do it…who will?
The innocent men, women and children who suffered under his regime didn’t deserve the atrocities they were subjected to… This man used poison gas on his own people and invaded his own neighbors. His men raped, pillaged, burned and stole whatever they wanted. They killed and destroyed things…just because they could.
The innocent men, women and children who are dying every day in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t deserve it. Sometimes we forget about them in the mix. The soldiers and marines who are dying every day so far from their homes don’t deserve it either. At least they have the consolation of dying for something they believe in. They are spilling their own blood to set oppressed people free. What higher value can we have as Americans?
There is a price to pay and we all end up paying a part of it. The soldiers and the innocents who die pay the greatest price. So too the families who are torn apart, the children who will never know their fathers and mothers, the friends and relatives who will never see their loved ones again…they all pay a price. It tears marriages apart. It inflicts harm on almost everyone it touches in some way. The psychological damage that war inflicts on its survivors is almost immeasurable.
No mother or father would want to lose a child in any way…much less to lose one in war. It is simplistic to think anyone in their right mind ‘wants’ to go to war. But Thank God there are always men and women willing to do so even knowing the price they may pay. By their actions, the sights and sounds of freedom are being seen and heard in places where they’ve never been known.
Maybe we are creating a new generation of terrorists. It is irrational hatred of Americans and Jews that fuels our enemies and, by definition, no rational arguments will sway them. But we are giving many, many others a taste of freedom. The psychological effects of that are immeasurable too…
Jesus the Christ taught us that: “No man has greater love than to lay his life down for his friend”. That’s what soldier’s and marines do every day. The least we can do for them is to support them in any way we can. And no…I don’t believe you can support them without wanting them to win and to complete their task. The American military has fought to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves, for our posterity and for our fellow man. That’s an American value and it, too, is black and white.
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