I want to win...don't you?

Do you remember what you were doing on 9/11? Like most of us, I do. I felt helpless not knowing for sure what was going to happen next. Were we under attack? If so by whom? Why was our guard down and around our ankles? On that day most of us just stayed by the television and watched in horror as we discovered that over 3,000 of our fellow citizens had perished that day...victims of terrorism. "They finally got us", I thought!

That night I was at a local eatery and every patron in the place was glued to the television as President Bush addressed the nation. You could have heard a pin drop! I was in uniform and the manager saw me with my wife and approached me to ask if everything with dinner was ok. After my positive response, he said sir, dinner is on me! To which I replied thank you, but why? He said, "Just because...well, I guess I appreciate our military now more than ever!"

In the days and months following we were just hoping to get our hands on the scum that planned these horrific acts and secure and defend our country from any follow-on attacks. Flags rose everywhere...patriotic bumper stickers made waiting at traffic lights go quicker. Politicians said they were behind the President...the only rhetoric you heard from them is that we stand as one. It felt good to see us together with purpose and conviction.  My colleagues simply said, "Let’s go get 'em!"

Well, it’s been 5+ years now and I think time has caused us to grow complacent. For example, I came across this piece today in the Los Angeles Times written by what would appear to be a very smart person, Ms Rosa Brooks. Well, according to her bio she is a graduate of Harvard, Masters at Oxford, and has a law degree from Yale. Oh yeah...she's a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and has written articles on of all things, the law of war. Guess what? Terrorist don't care about the law of war. Here's a snippet of what she wrote today:

Since 9/11, our political leaders have proceeded on the assumption that Americans are cringing, cowardly souls more than ready, when we hear the word "terrorism," to suspend our critical capacities, mortgage our futures and jettison our civil liberties and our principles — all for impossible assurances of "safety." The awful thing is, many of us obediently conformed to this condescending stereotype. The United States is the most prosperous and powerful nation in the world, but after 9/11, many of us started to act as if we're in danger of imminent extinction. The 9/11 attacks were appalling and tragic, but they did not threaten the survival of the nation...

Excuse me for a moment...I felt threatened that day! So did most people I know! Then Ms Brooks attempts to tie her argument to gun control and remarks made earlier this week by Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani regarding vulnerability to future terrorists attacks should a Democrat be elected President. The truth of the matter is that we more than likely will be hit again. I just pray it's not with a nuclear bomb carried in a suitcase. That said, we will have then rocketed over the gun control worries. It will be radiation burns and sickness...who knows...nuclear winter for at least a week in Los Angeles if the winds stay calm. Then it moves slowly across the country killing countless victims in the dust cloud's path, interrupting air travel (jet engines don't particularly like flying through dust clouds which would be similar in magnitude to those resulting from Mt. St. Helens), contaminating food supplies and livestock, possibly infecting citizens with heavy doses of radiation poisoning. This could be the next 9/11...sounds like fun...doesn’t it ;) ? Remember Chernobyl? Let me see, what did Ms Brooks say:

The United States is the most prosperous and powerful nation in the world, but after 9/11, many of us started to act as if we're in danger of imminent extinction. The 9/11 attacks were appalling and tragic, but they did not threaten the survival of the nation...

Ms Brooks, we need to be on the offensive not on the defensive! If it means giving up some civil liberties to protect our country from as you indicated in your article "...maniacs..." so be it! It's time to take the gloves off and use sufficient force get the bad guys...hit them hard! I want to win...don't you?

Comments

[Quaker Orts]

Define 'win'.

Something other than saying we lost!

[monica]

I agree with most of what you saying but what do 9/11 have to do with Iraq. You have been brain washed by the government. There is not a direct connection to 9/11 and Iraq. Remember , we are in the wrong place and there is not a preventive measurement that our country can ever do to stop terrorism. What we are doing is weaking our defenses. Killing off our young bright stars has been the most diffucult thing i had to deal with.

"There is not a direct connection to 9/11 and Iraq..." Iraq is where the terrorists take their vacations!

[Ron]

I agree that Reid did go to far but for different reasons. Please Read:

The Poltics of Defeat

The other day I was sad to hear Senator Reid proclaim that the “war is lost”. I have been even more disturbed to hear the administration use phrases like “surrender date” and “cut and run” over and over again. Doing so in attempt to imply that the Democrats lack the “will to win”. Each party dispensing these baseless barbs without a single credible challenge by the opposition. This is the language of defeat.
WHO IS DEFENDING THE HONOR OF OUR MILITARY AND THE SECURITY OF OUR COUNTRY!?!?
In using this politically motivated and misleading terminology I believe the truth is distorted. Perhaps worse is the grave disservice these words do to our troops in harms way. Their bravery and incredible accomplishments ignored, maligned, and dishonored by these words.
A little more than four years ago we invaded Iraq to eliminate WMDs, depose Saddam Hussein and his sons and bring Democracy to the Iraqis.
There were no WMDs.
Saddam and his sons are dead.
The Iraqi's have held free elections.
The fact is that our military has done everything asked of them. They've already WON the war! Mission accomplished.
America's military will not resolve the centuries old religious disputes of Sunni and Shiites. Not in 16 months, not in 16 years. They must do that for themselves. After all, during their nearly 50 years of occupation and domination of the Balkans the Soviet Union kept Christians and Muslims from acting out age old vendettas. We all know what happened once they left.
Either by misreading intelligence or misleading the American people, ultimately what the Bush administration has done is to split our forces during time of war. Incompetent at best, criminal at worst.
I believe that we should bring our people home or; redeploy them to Afghanistan to finish the still unfinished fight against the Taliban and Al Queda.
What if after the D-Day invasion General Eisenhower had suddenly ordered the vast majority of Allied forces to head West to Madrid instead of East to Berlin? After all, Franco was a fascist, A friend to the Nazis and engaged in the extermination of his dissenters. What would have happened? He would have been immediately removed as Supreme Commander. And rightly so.
The politics of defeat are ultimately the politics of bigger and more dangerous wars. For by not making it perfectly clear that this War was NOT lost by the United States military, that our soldiers accomplished their mission doing in weeks what Iran could not do in 5 years, we invite attack. We need to impress upon our enemies that they should not mistake temporary incompetence in our leadership for weakness. To do so would demonstrate the same lack of vision and grasp of reality that the Bush administration has shown. To do so would be the gravest of errors.

Thank you,
Ron Hurst
Pasadena, California

[Monte]

The Democrats need to reverse the Bush strategy. Bush is the one who is putting the troops in harms way. He refuses to listen to the American voters and bring the Troops Home. Why doesn't he understand that we are an Democratic society and the majority has spoken.

[Floyd Opperman]

As a Vietnam vet and long-time liberal, I too wanted and still want to get the "bad guys." The bad guys were not in Iraq. Why do conservo/neocon/Republicans have so much difficulty with that simple fact? What is in Iraq? Oil, you know, Texas tea, bubbling crude. The priorities of this administration are not and have not been getting the bad guys. But, like in Vietnam, lots of good people are getting killed for spurious, specious reasons. And that's why libs like me find this episode so disgusting.

[Scottimack]

I think we need to define a few things before we can evaluate whether we can win or lose.

1) What is the objective?
Is it to bring democracy to the people of Iraq?
Is it to secure American presence in the region, to solidify pressure to keep oil flowing?
Is it to wipe out 'islamic fundamentalists'?

2) What would be a 'victory' for America?
To promote good will about America throughout the world?
To establish permanent bases in foreign sovereign nations?
To push American ideologies onto other cultures?
Bringing home American soldiers safely?
Wiping out all followers of the Muslim faith?

3) What should the role of the US Military be?
To secure our own borders from attack.
To defend the United States and its territories from attack.
To assist other nations IF ASKED.
To secure United States economic interests in other sovereign countries.
To take on the role of World Policeman.
To act as the enforcement arm for corporate cartels.

We need to consider what it is we're doing before we can say whether we even have a possibility of winning.

[Eric Timco]

The Democrats support the terrorists. The Aclu suing airlines, the wiretaps, Making political hay out of Abu Graib, gitmo, Anything designed to protect America like the immigration bill. Becomes an opportunity for Democrats to show everyone they side with Al Qaida. Soon Hillary will turn over the biggest oil reserves in the world to Al Qaida and wage war on American gun owners. (like Waco or Ruby Ridge). Wage war on freedom,Christianity. She will force feed us a homosexual agenda and tax us to death.

[terry Swann]

"Demagogues have always promised security in return for the surrender of freedom." Al Gore said this in his new book, and he is absolutely right. I, for one, am not afraid of terrorists. We lost 3000 people to terrorism on 9/11. We lose 30,000 people every year to gun violence. Quit being afraid and start living up to America's motto: Land of the FREE, home of the BRAVE.

[Marcello Rollando]

THE PRESIDENT IS RIGHT

The President is Right: yet he is so isolated from the love of his subjects. Indeed he's so far Right, he couldn't possibly be any more Right, unless he was a child Left behind.

Why do we continue to insist that the Duet of Bush & Rove or its Enforcer owe us an explanation? Did Al Capone's Enforcer (Frank Nitti) explain anything to the public, and he could shoot straight!

The President is Right: nobody except us & no country in the world matters except the Land of the Free. It doesn't matter that we invaded an innocent people, destroyed their country, killed their children. Didn't we give them the opportunity to act like men and fight it out with each other?

The President is Right: We saved them from illegal, arrogant, immoral leaders who sacrificed their people to fulfill their own selfish ambitions. Oops, that's a little too close to home, Mr President.

Suffice it to say, "mistakes were made:" amazing how easy it is to say that, but it worked so well for Reagan, even before the Republican Party canonized him.

The President is Right: but perhaps the truth isn't always with the Right. Perhaps the Right is simply, dead wrong.

Look they did a bad thing (and we let them). Nearly FOUR THOUSAND American kids died because of it. Thousands more will never be the same, but it's not like it was Watergate, Iran Contra or oral sex in the Oval Office.

Our greatest lie, is the one we tell ourselves:
The President is Right!

It's the right time to give the Bush/Cheney team a little time alone to contemplate their sins, where they can do no further harm. I understand Scooter Libby's reserved spot is now available.

The Reasonable Voice for a Rebirth of
Freedom, Honesty and the Rule of Law,

www.TheReasonableVoice.com