OK, first, I know what you are thinking. Did I miss something? Wasn't the last global conflict World War II? Did something happen while I was asleep? How did I miss WW III? Well, unless you are only ten years old, you didn't miss it. It's just that nobody bothered to call it what it was. Allow me to explain.
WW III is more commonly refered to as The Cold War. And while the Cold War may not have been marked by pitched battles, make no mistake, it was a war just the same. Soldiers DID fight and die in the Cold War, in places like Korea, Viet Nam, and Germany. But this blog is not about that conflict, it is about our current war, World War IV.
Those who know me know this Marine would be hard pressed to find a more conservative Republican than me. I believe in gun ownership, using the death penalty, and a strong military. But again, that is not what this is about. Another thing I believe in is calling out mistakes, regardless of who made them. And in this current war, mistakes have been made going back decades.
For too long, the US tried to treat terrorist attacks not as what they were, which is acts of war, but rather as criminal acts. To put this in perspective imagine this. On Dec. 8th 1941, instead of FDR declaring war on Japan, he announces that he is turning the investigation over to the FBI, and those responsible will be brought before the courts and tried for criminal offenses. Ridiculious, right? So why is it that for years, that is how several US Presidents chose to handle attacks on this country, it's service men and women, and it's civilians?
Ronald Reagan, probably my favorite President in my lifetime, was famous for declaring that the US will "not negotiate with terrorist". True enough, we didn't. But when 241 US Marines were killed in their sleep in 1983, what did he do? Launch a full scale invasion, call in Naval and air strikes? No, he left. That's right, he left. Ten years later, Bill Clinton would do the the same thing in Somalia after 18 US Soldiers were killed. The problem was, these acts were viewed as criminal rather than OVERT attacks on this country and her people. And remember, 9/11 was the SECOND time the Towers had been the target of an attack. After the first attempt, those who carried it out were arrested or put on a "Most Wanted" list. The garage where the bomb exploded was treated as a crime scene. What it actually was, was a war zone.
It has been less than ten years since the Towers fell, but people are already forgetting. They have forgotten how they felt when they they woke up on Sep. 12th. They forgot the fear, shock, and anger. They forgot how, for a all to brief time, this country pulled together as one and said "No, this will not happen. You will pay and pay dearly for this" Every day there are renewed cries for an end to "this pointless war". Pointless? I wonder if these people have considered the alternative. Personally, I don't think my wife would look good in a Burkha, and I would like my daughter to have options in life when she grows up. Now some of you will say that I am being overly dramatic, nothing like that could ever happen. But remember Sep. 12th., 2001. Did you ever think something like the previous day could ever happen?
Marine Til DEATH©2008, MTD, all rights reserved.
Disclaimer: WOTN endorses NO political party, but reserves the Right of Each Author to express their party preference. WOTN endorses Victrory in the War On Terror and the politicians that support achieving Victory. It does NOT in any way support appeasement, attacking or abandoning allies for political or "it's too hard" excuses.
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