Get A Grip

Hey, Democrats and all others calling our incursion into Iraq illegal, calling our President a liar and a murderer, listen up.

In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, sent American forces into the European 'Great War' against the Central Powers of Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. None of those nations had attacked the U.S.. 126,000 Americans were killed with another 234,000 wounded and maimed in just over a year, an average of about 245 a day.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, sent American forces into the war against Germany and Italy, neither of which had attacked the United States. Japan had. In the three and a half years it took to defeat the European enemies about 298,000 Americans died, an average of about 239 a day.

President Harry Truman, a Democrat, finished that war and promptly started another against North Korea which, again, had not attacked the United States. About 34,000 Americans were killed in the three year Korean War, an average of roughly 30 a day.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, although he didn't start American involvement in Vietnam, sent increasing numbers of military forces into that conflict. North Vietnam had not attacked the United States. In just over eight years more than 59,000 Americans were killed, an average of about 19 a day.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, ordered the bombing of Serbia and Kosovo. Neither had attacked the United States. Fortunately, no Americans died in the incursion since there were no American troops on the ground, but the conflict had not received the blessing of the United Nations.

In 1991, shortly after taking office, this same president changed the purpose of the American forces in Somalia from a humanitarian mission to one of policing. The result was 19 dead Americans. The Clinton administration withdrew American forces from Somalia.

In February, 1993, the World Trade Center was severely damaged by a truck bomb. The perpetrators were traced to a shadowy figure named Osama bin Laden and a terrorist group called al Qaeda. 6 Americans were killed and a thousand injured. The Clinton administration prosecuted the perpetrators as though they were criminals rather than as enemy combatants.

In 1998 this same bin Laden declared war on the United States by ordering a 'fatwah' or death sentence on all Americans. The Clinton administration, Democrat, fired a few cruise missiles into the desert. During this same period bin Laden was offered to the administration on at least three separate occasions. Each time the offer was refused by the Clinton administration.

In 2000, the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen by al Qaeda operatives, killing 17 American sailors and nearly sinking the ship. The Clinton administration, Democrat, did nothing.

On September 11, 2001 four airplanes were hijacked by al Qaeda operatives. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers one and two, one into the Pentagon, with the fourth crashing into a field in Pennsylvania. The number of Americans killed in these attacks was just under three thousand. Less than a month later President George Bush, a Republican, ordered American forces into Afghanistan. So far 248 Americans have been killed there, an average of about one every four and a half days.

In March of 2003 the United States sent military forces into Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein. To date 2,091 Americans have been killed, an average of about two a day.

If one of those killed is your son or daughter, father or mother, husband or wife, it is a personal tragedy and you deserve the sympathy of an understanding and grateful nation. However all deaths, whether on the battlefield, on the highway, or on the operating table, are tragic. During the same period that fewer than 2,400 Americans have been killed on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq combined, over 100,000 Americans have been killed on the nation's highways, some 80,000 have been murdered, and untold numbers have died from killer diseases.

The president didn't lie, he did what a president should do when the nation is attacked. He called for an attack on Afghanistan which was protecting the architect of 9/11. When further intelligence was unearthed about Iraq, our attention was turned on it. Every intelligence agency in the world believed that Iraq possessed WMD's. Saddam had used such weapons twice before, had invaded two of his neighbors, had been supporting terrorism against Israel and had been housing terrorists in Baghdad. Iraqi forces had repeatedly violated the no-fly zones and had fired on American planes enforcing that zone. Saddam had violated every United Nations resolution since 1992 and the extent of the corruption of the oil-for-food program is still not fully known. Every Democrat believed Iraq possessed WMD's and said as much.

Without going into all the details of Iraq's WMD's, its attempt to acquire nuclear materials, its extensive support of terrorism, let me close with this. Democrats, leftist complainers, liberal whiners, general malcontents, get a grip and pay attention.

Freedom of speech guarantees you the right to criticize your government. However, the art of criticism demands that you also provide a workable alternative to what it is you wish to change. But you do not provide such alternatives. All I hear from you is 'Bush lied, people died', 'War is not the answer', along with insults, innuendo, accusations, lies, distortions, outrageous characterizations, and a whole litany of mind-numbing drivel. Read the foregoing again and get some perspective and realize that you are in a war for your lives.

Its time for the Bush administration to mobilize the nation onto a war footing because we are at war only half of us don't know it. We need to feel wanted and needed in the effort to defeat the enemies of freedom. Right now those enemies are most prevalent in Iraq and they will be defeated unless we lose our will to resist, to fight. We must not allow that to happen. The result would be disaster for Iraq, for the Middle East, for the United States.

I cannot predict whether Afghanistan and Iraq will emerge as successful democracies. They never have been and maybe they can never be. But I also don't know whether the sun will come up tomorrow, but I believe it will because I have faith in the continuing natural movements of the planets. Similarly, I have faith in the higher desires of the human spirit. We want to be free. My hopes and prayers are that the Afghanis and Iraqis do too, enough to fight for it.

Nuda Veritas