Tuesday, March 25, 2008

WAR IN PERSPECTIVE

The Legacy Media -- by which, I mean, ABC, NBC, CBS, the NY Times, the Washington Post, etc. -- have been waiting for more than a year for this week's big story. Now they are pounding us over the head with it.

We are told that we have achieved "a grim milestone", according to ABC News. Voice Of America tells us that both Bush and Congress "Respond With Grim Messages to US Military Death Toll In Iraq". MSNBC, meanwhile, tells us that President Bush remains resolute, while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi frets that “Americans also understand that the cost of the war to our national security, military readiness and our reputation around the world is immense and that the threat to our economy — as the war in Iraq continues to take us deeper into debt — is unacceptable."

All of these "news" stories are told in a way that purposely slants the message to the Left, toward the anti-war, toward the un-American and the unpatriotic. They are told in a way that is designed to make us believe that none of this is worth our time, money or blood. But is that an accurate picture?

Let's try to put things like war and peace into perspective. Let's look at what America represents and what we have done for the world. And let's examine how our Liberal friends denigrate our towering achievements.

First, by way of disclaimer, I am not, nor have I ever been a member of the United States Armed Services. I was just too young to be drafted for Viet Nam. When I was young and irresponsible, I led a young and irresponsible life. With the coming of the Gulf War I was too old to serve.

However, despite claims to the contrary from the Left, I am capable of forming an opinion on the matter and I see no reason not to share it with you, the reader. After all, most folks have no experience with being a murderer, yet they have opinions on the subject of murder. Half of all people will probably not get pregnant, but they have opinions on abortion. Most folks don't take drugs, but they have opinions about drug laws. Therefore, I will offer my opinions on war and peace.

No one who is sane actually wants a war. Wars should only be fought when our American interests are involved, either directly or through threats. At the same time, America cannot afford to back down from a fight, especially in these times of Islamo-fascism and international terrorism.

We will not debate here the justification for going to war in Iraq. I know the old shibboleth "Bush Lied People Died", and the constant refrain "So Where's the WMD's?" I won't belabor the point made by the 9/11 Commission Report's twenty three paragraphs detailing Iraq's cooperation with al Qaeda. Nor will we look at Kenneth Timmerman's excellent investigative reporting about Iraq's WMD's in his book, Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender . Nor will we consider George Sada, whose book, Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied & Survived Saddam detailed how Saddam hid those WMD's, with the help of Russia and Syria.

No, what we will look at is the Iraq War in the context of past American wars. The principal question asked will be "Why is the Iraq War death toll considered so important?"

It's easy enough to search the Internet and find out just how many Americans died in past wars. Wikipedia alone has a detailed accounting, from the Founding to today:
  • The Revolutionary War: ~25,ooo
  • The War of 1812: ~20,000
  • World War I: 116,615
  • World War II: 405,399

But the number that really jumps out a grabs you is that for the Civil War. That war, which only lasted four years, killed approximately 625,000 Americans. This is a stunning death toll, especially considering that the Union, which ultimately won that war, lost far more than the Confederacy.

Contrast that, if you will, with the Iraq War. We had just past the five-year mark of hostilities in Iraq and we have just reached the death toll of 4,000. How can anyone be other than thankful that our death toll is so low?

To be sure, no one wants dead American soldiers. The fact that the death toll is so low should not be used to minimize the sacrifice of those fallen soldiers. What we need to remember though, is that we are winning a war while keeping the risk to our soldiers at an absolute minimum.

Meanwhile, our friends on the Left are bemoaning the high number of wounded in Iraq. This sounds suspiciously like the new reports about air bags in cars, reducing the death rate from accidents, but increasing the injury rate. Obviously, given advances in modern medical treatments and advances in rapid transportation of the wounded, the ratio between the dead and the wounded will be much different than in past wars.

Let us also remember that this time around, as opposed to almost every war in our past, our military is completely volunteer. These men and women, on their own accord and with full knowledge of what they are getting into, put themselves in harms way. They do this for America, for American interests, and also for the betterment of their fellow Man, regardless of his nationality.

For despite the official reasons given for going into Iraq, there is also an ancillary benefit that has appeared. Iraq, and also Afghanistan, have, for the first time in their long and bloody history, elected governments. As a result of President George W. Bush and his efforts to defend our nation, and especially thanks to our brave men and women in our Armed Services, fully 55 million people actually had a say in their governance. And those people went to the polls to participate in spite of the threats from the Islamo-fascists that made the invasion of their nations so necessary.

The American Left may belittle these brave warriors. They may try to claim that they were stupid, or they were duped. They may try to make the case that they were so poor that they had no choice. The Left may claim that President Bush got us into the wars under false pretenses or, even worse, staged the attacks on 9/11 to justify the invasions.

These lies, however, will never besmirch the honor of the American soldier and his commitment to Liberty, both here in America and abroad.

So, although one death in combat may be too many, in the context of what America represents to the world -- Liberty -- 4,000 war dead really isn't that much, considering that not only America remains free, but that 55 million other human beings now have a chance for that very same precious, God-given commodity.

We, here at Montag's World, are proud to be Americans!

Copyright March 25th, 2008

3 comments:

legal11 said...

I've found your argument to be interesting and thought provoking, but what gives America the authority to assume their the World Police. Why not the UN? Who reported that their were no WMDs ties to Iraq. Your saying that America should be fighting to secure themselves from terrorists, but why Iraq? when there was no affliation between them and the 9/11 attacks that were misconstrued. Why not, if we're so big and bad and want to make a name for ourselves, go fight the people that have the active and large terrorist groups or those who we know have WMDs. Cause you know they would blow us the f**ked up. This is a meaningless war and America will not gain any respect or any other justified achievements. The war has only made people hate us more! The soldiers who've died has died based on lies and no good gains for their country. Yeah they might have wanted to serve their country, but I'm sure they thought they were going to actually do something good for their country and not for people's private interests. Yeah there may have been larger casualties for previous wars, but most of these big wars had a good reason to fight. In the REvolutionary war, they were fightng for our independence. In the Civil War, the Union were fighting for African Americans, (like myself) to be free and also to keep our country together. No one knows what would have happen if we would have let the Nazis takeover the world or keep killing JEWS. You could avoid all the obvious about the misgivings of the war if you want to but its there.

Montag said...

Hello, legal.

1. What gives America the authority? Well, were it not for America, far more of the world's population would be living under oppression than today, far more would be living in squalor. America has been, and continues to be, the single greatest force for good in the history of the entire world. The UN, on the other hand, has become nothing more than a debating society cum patronage/ bribery mill, run by third rate Third World bureaucrats who basically hate America and Israel. The UN's credibility, compared to America's, is zero.

2. Yes, it's true. Iraq was not in on the 9/11 attacks. But, as noted by the 9/11 Commission, Iraq and al Qaeda had many contacts and were cooperating on many projects. Facts are facts, my Friend. Furthermore, Iraq was funding terrorism all through the Mideast, as is Iran. You don't take all of these states out at once, you do it one at a time. Unfortunately, there has been a consistent misinformation campaign, waged by the Democrats and the Legacy Media, that has made any further steps in the War on Terror problematic, if not impossible.

3. WMD's? We know Iraq had them because they used them, and on their own people! Besides the sources I noted in my column, there have also been stories in the NY Times (which also peddles the "Bush Lied, People Died" shibboleth) about some 500 tons of uranium, some of it highly enriched, that were removed from Iraq by American forces. The Times only carried the story as a possible ecological disaster, not the evidence of Iraq's weapons programs. Further, the US, the UK, the French, the Russians, the Germans, and, yes, even the UN all believed that Iraq had these weapons. And yes, some were found while more have probably been hidden in Syria.

4. We never needed the Iraq War to get some folks to hate us. Just the fact that our Liberty has made us the most powerful nation in history, the most wealthy, and the most potent force for good is reason enough. Why was al Qaeda gunning for us before Iraq? Why was France against us even before they were paid off by the Oil for Food debacle? One word, my Friend: Liberty. We've got it, they don't.
And if people hated us as much as we are told, then why do so many people try to get into our fair country? If we were so hated, wouldn't they rather go somewhere else?

5. Slavery was, at most, a side issue in the Civil War. The most important issue was about the limits of federal power and the rights of the states. The Confederacy was, obviously, wrong about slavery, but they were on the right side of the debate as to states rights. But, since the Union won and the right to secceed has little or no bite, we now have a federal juggernaut, rather than the limited government envisioned by the Founders.

6. What do you mean we don't know what would have happened had the Nazi's won? After the Jews, they'd have continued what they'd already started for the Christians. They'd have teamed up with the Grand Mufti in Jerusalem and helped spread Jihad. They'd have come to some accomadation with the Soviets, since fascism and communism are but two sides of the same coin. Oh, yeah! We know what would have happened. And it wouldn't have been very pretty!

In conclusion, war isn't desirable to anyone who is sane. It is necessary, though, sometimes. However, if you're not willing to fight for your Liberty, or that of your fellow Man, whether he's an American, a Jew,an Asian, an African, or an Arab, then perhaps you don't deserve Liberty. For, as Thomas Jefferson so famously said: "The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots."

That is the perspective I am talking about.

Good to hear from you, my Friend!

legal11 said...

Liberty..Freedom...Democracy...I can agree that America was set up to have these elements in our government and country, but that is where it ends. I can agree with you that we have lots of people who wants to come here because their country is crap, but that doesn't mean they agree with our standards, only that our country is a litte better than theirs. We are a land of opportunity, but we are the biggest hypocrites of them all. How can we spread peace and democracy when we dont really have that in this country? Our own president and media lie to us and gives us bias information. You can't even get the president that the people vote for in election. So how can we honestly spread these things.
Because of the outrageous cost of this war, we are strewing ourselves over. People are going to start wanting to leave this country as the economy gets worse and worse. I always treasure the liberty and freedom ordained to us by the Constitution, but how can future generations do the same when we are downplaying are education, health care, and other needs. People will be trying to survive the aftermath of this war.
If we really wanted to spread liberty, why not go to DAfur and other places, where people are being butchered everyday. And I'm pretty sure you know where Iraq got those WMDs that they used to kill their own people..they got them from us. Their is research that says most/all of those weapons should have lost their shelf-life by now. Reagan wanted to make sure that Iraq was winning that war between them and Iran. When word got back of what Hussein did to his people, Congress wanted to fine him and such. But the Reagan Administration didn't want it to hurt America chances at making money to finance the reconstruction of Iraq, after the war.
If we were all about just the terrorists connections and liberty over in Iraq then that's what we should be focused on. Not documents coming up for Iraq to sell or give up their oil. I stand by the fact that their shouldn't been a single soul lost in that war because of these hidden agendas. 4,000= too many

p.s. you should check out my blog for my main opinion about this war, (my friend)