Bill Quick: “President Bush, if it’s all the same to you, I’d just as soon have a National Day of Rage.”
Rage isn’t the right word. We should have a National Day of Determination. Determination to finish this war. Determination to stand for the values of tolerance, free expression, and democracy. Determination never to bow to the evil ideology of radical Islam. Detemination to never allow the events of September 11, 2001 be repeated.
This day should be a reminder: we are still at war. And victory depends as much, if not more, on our will as it does on our force of arms. The enemy thought they knew our weaknesses four years ago. They were wrong then – let us make damn well sure that they’re wrong now.
If someone four years ago would have said we would be debating the new Iraqi Consitution, the Taliban would be gone, and al-Qaeda would have been unable to launch another strike on this country, I wouldn’t have believed it. If someone would have said that it would have costed fewer American lives than were lost in that first morning of war, I would have been even more incredulous.
Afghanstan may be free – the Taliban scattered. Al-Qaeda no longer has free reign there. Iraq may no longer be under the bootheel of Saddam Hussein, and one of the strongest state sponsors of terrorism is no more.
For as much progress as we have made, there’s still much left to do. Zarqawi’s network of evil must be smashed. Bin Laden remains trapped along the Afghan/Pakistan border, but still out of reach. Iraq must be stabilized. The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran still looms. Syria still supports terrorism. The tentative steps towards reform in Saudi Arabia must continue and accelerate. Pakistan remains a stronghold of al-Qaeda, and the threat of Pakistani nukes falling into the hands of terrorists still looms all too large.
These challenges are indeed daunting, but they are not impossible.
As some of the first heroes in this war once said to an even greater challenge: let’s roll.
“If someone four years ago would have said we would be debating the new Iraqi Consitution, the Taliban would be gone, and al-Qaeda would have been unable to launch another strike on this country, I wouldn’t have believed it. If someone would have said that it would have costed fewer American lives than were lost in that first morning of war, I would have been even more incredulous.”
If that’s true, you were the only one on the right predicting a two-year timetable for even the most rudimentary of goals such as an Iraqi Constitution, not to mention preparing for a casualty count in excess of what we saw during 9-11. Most Republicans were telling us the Iraq war would be over in a matter of weeks and that Iraqis would immediately dig in and set up a democracy…after they got done dancing in the streets, of course. They were also projecting body counts more along the lines of 180 Americans than 1,800.