Choose Wisely, America

January 22, 2007

Once was the time that America went to war and the citizens got behind the fight and put partisanship aside. Americans made sacrifices, even if reluctantly, suffered with less gas, meat, butter, vegetables, whatever it took to ensure our troops fighting enemies across the globe received the tools and food needed to win the fight. Along with Allies, forces desiring world domination under their oppressive ideals were pushed back over a period of years and defeated.

That was then, this is now.

After the stunning victory of America and her allies in World War Two, which was actually an outgrowth of World War One that ended in an Armistice, not unconditional surrender, someone decided to approach war in a “limited manner.” We decided to no longer defeat an enemy of freedom, but to hold them within their borders, or walk away.

Korea is a good example of that, having a shaky peace agreement now for some fifty years with the Communist North continually saber rattling. In spite of “sanctions,” North Korea’s Kim Jung Il now boasts of having obtained nuclear weapons with which to threaten their neighbors.

In Viet Nam, due to pressure from the anti-liberty leftists within America, we abandoned that ally and just walked away, allowing the country to fall to Communism in 1975 after the Democrat led Congress cut off any and all support for the struggling country, while Communist Block nations fully resupplied and supported the North Vietnamese.

Gone were any parades to returning heroes. Instead, we were scorned, ridiculed, called ‘baby killers,’ and yes, spit at, even in only to a minor number. Gone was the support to the troops fighting in a foreign land. Gone was the respect for the Armed Services. Even the history written about that war was written in a manner to make America the aggressor and yes, the loser, even though Saigon fell over two years after the last American soldier left.

On January 21, 1977, in his first official act of office, newly inaugurated president, Jimmy Carter, signed Presidential Proclamation 4483, granting amnesty to Viet Nam era Draft Dodgers, in essence, granting them hero status while snubbing those that served in Viet Nam, especially the 58,000 names now engraved on the walls of the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial.

Carter lost the presidency in the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan, in part due to Carter’s inaction towards Iran as they swarmed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 American citizens for 444 days, the hostages being released shortly after the inauguration of President Reagan.

The efforts of the left led to a very dark era for America, even if a short one. America was embarrassed over Viet Nam, especially as word of the millions of innocent Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians met their fate in the slaughter that followed the Communist takeover. Carter allowed that era to fester as we were referred to as a “Paper Tiger” by foes and our inflation rate reached double digit status. As it turned out, even little pisant nations like Iran lost any fear or respect they may have held for America and attacked our embassy there.

Under Reagan, we started supporting our allies in their stand against Communism, a memorial was erected to Viet Nam Veterans and many who actually dodged the draft all of a sudden became seasoned war heroes, complete with medals, falsified papers and of course, the best war stories one could imagine. Some even managed to falsely obtain benefits available to veterans only. Of course, the aura of the deranged Viet Nam Veteran that was prevalent during the 1970s gave way to the poor victimized Viet Nam Veteran who was still liable to “go off” at any time and cause great harm to others.

Most of us just shook our heads and got on with our lives, speaking very little of it unless to others who were actually there. The wannabes were easily smoked out and several were.

After the Reagan presidency, our troops were once again sent into harm’s way to liberate Kuwait under the first Bush administration. They were heroic and performed well, liberating Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in record time. With Saddam’s forces on the run, the left, once again, undermined our efforts and we stopped short of deposing Saddam and freeing Iraq. 12 years and 17 U.N. resolutions ignored later and after the most devastating terrorist attack to ever come upon America, we were back in Iraq to do the job right, this time.

It should be noted that between the two Bush administrations there was the Clinton administration, who also did very little to combat terror, but somehow managed to deploy our troops more than any other president, after reducing their size and ability significantly.

From the start, the leftist anti-liberty whiners started in about the War on Terror, especially once it moved to Iraq. Within days of invading Afghanistan the leftist outlet, the New York Times ran an editorial asking if Afghanistan was now in a “Viet Nam style quagmire.” During the 2004 campaign we heard phrases like “wrong war, wrong place, wrong time” by some of the very ones who voted to give the President authority to invade Iraq in the greater War on Terror.

We hear “I support the troops, but not the war.” “Iraq is Bush’s Viet Nam.” “Bush lied, men died,” and other such leftist rhetoric, even though none other than Hillary Clinton, justifying her own vote to depose Saddam said, “"The consensus was the same, from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration, it was the same intelligence belief that our allies and friends around the world shared.”

We have a Lieutenant refusing to deploy with his troops being treated like a celebrity hero in our leftist leaning media. Minimal numbers of others have also refused to go, even though they are volunteers, some crying they never realized being in the U.S. Marines might mean killing in a war. A small handful of Veterans from this war come forward to oppose it and they are treated as if they are the majority, when the overall vast majority who actually are in support of this war remain virtually ignored.

Our enemies listen in to our newscasts, just as the North Vietnamese did, when they simply waited America out, fully realizing our Achilles heel is the left whipping up sentiment against the effort to defeat our enemies. Our left, unbridled today, is supporting our enemies in their quest to embarrass the current President and grab power for good in our government.

What they fail to realize is that this current enemy, which is in reality an enemy of freedom and mankind from many centuries ago, will not be content to just exercise their radical oppression and control in the Middle East. Ever since the failure of President Carter to respond properly to the Iranian Hostage Crisis this enemy has been building, arming, studying, learning and building support to destroy the “Great Satan,” America. Our freedoms run contrary to their radical interpretation of their religion and Democracy is a direct threat to their ultimate goal, World Domination.

We are at a crossroads, America and we better make up our minds what we will do, and fast. Do we ‘cut and run’ hoping the terrorist will leave us alone and waiting for the next terrorist attack or invasion? Or, do we support our Military and President, as was done during the last quest for World Domination, and defeat this enemy there, while our Military still has the fighting spirit?

I’ve made my choice.

Choose wisely, America, the lives of our children and grandchildren depend on it.

Lew