Victory or Death

As I listen to the radio and watch the television, it seems everyone is talking about how badly things are going in Iraq and asking how quickly we can get out of there. I agree with the first part in this respect – bad things are happening in Iraq. People are dying every day, both soldiers and civilians. News flash: It is a war! Nothing points out America's soft pink underbelly more than our reluctance to lose even a single life, even in the pursuit of our enemies. Consider this for a moment, during a supposed time of peace, terrorists killed approximately 2000 American civilians in a single day on 9/11, yet during a time of active war our enemies have only managed to kill a little more than 3000 US soldiers in over 3 years. No major US victory has ever taken place without bloodshed and the war on terrorism will be no exception.

Wake up! Our enemy understands the importance of winning this war. In the face of an enemy that is better financed and far superior technologically they have pulled out all the stops to ensure victory. There seems to be no end to the amount of time, money, manpower and material they are willing to invest in this war. You see, they understand! If we are successful in establishing a working democratic government that can protect its people and provide an environment where the people of Iraq can be prosperous, the terrorists stranglehold on the middle east will crumble. The only viable weapons the terrorists have are fear and intimidation. If we strip them of that they are beaten.

Yet, still everyone seems focused on how quickly we can get our troops out of there. When can we bring them home? Let me ask a different question. How long did we have to leave troops in Japan and Germany after World War II? How long did we have to leave troops in South Korea? We must adjust our mindset. It took decades to reform Japan and Germany into productive allies that no longer threaten us. And Korea is a lesson we are still learning. North Korea remains one of our most serious problems, largely because we refused to do what was necessary to win there. Now, decades later, they are a fledgling nuclear power on the cusp of developing missiles that can reach our shores. This is what happens when we allow our will to waver.

We absolutely cannot leave Iraq! Not this month, not this year, not this decade! We must dig in and show the world we will not settle for anything less than complete victory. Only when Iraq is a free and democratic nation capable of defending itself from all enemies, foreign AND domestic, can we leave. In short, we will leave when we are no longer needed.

Yes, things are bad in Iraq. And you can bet they will get worse before they get better. We have a short memory. If you think our troops are fairing poorly you should remember the battles of World War II. It is a slap in the face of the veterans who fought at places like Iwo Jima and Normandy to even suggest the current casualty rate is unacceptable. The world has never seen a less bloodless war. We must firm our resolve! The storm is upon us. We must not be lured back to the illusion of safety by the comforts of our own camp, where we can ignore the effects of this storm. The storm will only increase in strength until it is powerful enough to consume us. If we give up and go home, the terrorists will only be encouraged to fight harder. What will they attack next while we think we are at peace? Will it take a 747 crashing into a stadium of 60,000 people to wake us up? Must we wait until a nuclear weapon is smuggled into our country and hundreds of thousands of us are killed? Will the current price we pay in lives seem too great then? The attack on 9/11 was our wake up call. Those who choose to ignore this call will never hear it. But, those who do hear the call, no matter how faintly, must act! Now is the time. Iraq is the place. If we do not win here, then history will look back and record this as the time when America's fall began.