False Peace
The College Republicans held a rally in support of American veterans today. Featuring Col. John Kline, a 25-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, it was a celebration of the lives and sacrifices of those brave souls who gave their lives for our freedom.
At the same time, a group of seven anti-war protestors used the freedom paid for in the blood of American veterans to criticize and belittle those men and women who are putting their lives on the line in defense of freedom.
Such a display can only be considered an act of shame and poor taste.
There is a time for being critical of government policy, and there is a time for reflection and remembrance of those who gave their lives for this nation. To attempt to use such an event to forward one’s political agenda is as crass and irresponsible as criticizing the deceased at a funeral. It is a sign of a fundamental intellectual bankruptcy and poor taste.
If that shameful display was insufficient, one of the posters advertising the event was ripped in half. While the radical Left attempts to show how much they care about freedom of expression, they are unwilling to provide that selfsame freedom to anyone who might dissent against their views. They cannot stand any opposition because their ideologies are so tenuous and incorrect that they crumble against the weakest criticism. They can only argue in memorized slogans like "stop racist war" or "end military madness."
The great philosopher George Satayana wrote that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The "anti-war" movement would see us repeat the atrocities of the past in order to preserve their simplistic ideology. Evil must be opposed, and freedom must be defended. America has every right, and in fact a moral obligation, to defend itself against the evil that is the Taliban and al-Qaeda. We have every right to use whatever force must be used to eradicate the cancer of terrorism from this Earth. If the "anti-war" movement can’t condemn the Taliban, or feels that the United States is more unjust than Mullah Omar’s rule, than they can live under their rule.
Wars are bloody. People do die. But in the end, they are necessary. The people of Mazar-i-Sharif would agree now that the Northern Alliance has freed them from the grip of Taliban oppression. Tell that to the millions who were liberated from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Tell that to those South Vietnamese and Cambodians who were massacred because the people of the United States lost the courage to protect them. There are those of us who are not so sheltered or naive to think that conflict can be ended by mere good thoughts. We know that freedom comes at a price, and we know that war is necessary to maintain true peace and real justice.
As for those that believe that all war is terrorism – take a good hard look at Ground Zero. Next time, it could be your ashes entombed in a grave of concrete and steel. We must defend ourselves, or we shall lose our last, best hope for peace.
