Fighting For America

By James L. Martin

The carping and back-biting among the liberal elite over our fighting for America in Iraq is a national disgrace…and I for one am sick of it!

President George W. Bush has called himself a ‘war time President’ and as such, I wanted him to know this is one old Marine leatherneck, out of thousands, who is proud to call him Commander in Chief. Against cheap, withering attacks and mis-characterizations by Democratic opponents and their liberal allies in the media, allow me to be one sure voice for staying the course in Iraq. Under the leadership of the President, we’re changing history.

Most reasonable Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, do not wish to politicize the war with Iraq. How the U.S. wages that war both for Iraqi stability and ultimately for the safety of our own country — ought not be political capital for election-year grandstanding.

Most Americans understand that now is a time for coming together to resoundingly win this conflict that was brought to our shores…let me repeat, brought to our shores! We didn’t start this confrontation but we are now honor-bound to finish it. I can’t say it any better than Toby Keith sings it… being sucker-punched, and you know where Uncle Sam’s boot is headed!

Does anyone think for even one second that al-Qaeda, the Taliban and evil men like bin Laden do not wish our ultimate demise?

Sept. 11 began a war unlike any we’ve ever seen. And it is not exclusive to this country as more and more parts of the globe are discovering. With a callous disregard for human life, we’re fighting cowards that battle with box cutters, shoe bombs, commercial airplanes and explosives taped to the chests of women and children. God forbid, chemical, biological or nuclear mayhem would be their ultimate weapons of mass destruction. These are lunatics who for illogical and misguided loyalty to some religious mania seek to blow-up, maim or outright annihilate freedoms, civility, and standards.

I’m convinced the only manner of “winning” a war on terrorism is by eradicating the terrorist. Pre-empt. Excise. Cut-out. Pacifism or weak-willed molly-coddling will not pre-empt the forces that wish our country the ultimate harm. We must take them out first before their hateful cancer spreads.

What we are doing in Iraq is inextricably linked to the security of our nation against evil and terrorism. And it is having a profound effect. Recently, North Korea, Libya, Iran and even Syria have shifted their hard-line anti-American rhetoric for a more compromising statesmanship. Some in the American Congress could learn something here: your words and accusations are not helping!

Of late, Bush-bashers draw similarities between the Vietnam war and this one. That is hogwash. Vietnam was an apple, Iraq is an orange. Vietnam was fought with a conscripted military; Iraq is being liberated by a volunteer force.

Iraq is NOT another Vietnam. Their own people in vast numbers want the freedom and dignity that our heroic actions today make possible. Iraqis are investing in land, buildings, homes and businesses all over their country…sources tell me Iraqi demand far outstrips supply because their citizenry is convinced of better days to come. As USA Today reported recently, “Baghdad’s teeming streets, crowded souks and back alleys…where…[n]ow that Saddam is gone, signs of bounty are visible everywhere.” Our hope can be that Iraq will soon become a “global country” with international interest by companies looking to expand…once the U.S. does what needs to be done.

Must Fallujah be leveled first? I don’t know. Will we eventually discover Saddam’s arsenal of WMDs? Likely — but still, I do not know. It is clear that WMD’s were there and are still there. But I do know this: the Islamist extremists and their Arab ultra-nationalist allies will not just go away. Diplomacy alone won’t cut it. And I further know what these maniacs don’t need is our very own anti-American rhetoric in times of conflict by the so-called liberal intelligentsia.

Now is not the time to go wobbly …and this President, as he again clearly said the other night, won’t.

There is an old Marine Corps axiom that goes, ‘When right, use might.’ And this President at this time in our nation’s history, is right.

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