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Feb 14, 2004 Edwin Starr tells us, “absolutely nothing!” It was a song of the Vietnam era, a time when Bill Clinton fled overseas to participate in anti- American rallies and John Kerry served his country in the military. A time when President Bush joined the Air National Guard. A time when I served in the military myself, thankfully, being stationed stateside rather than overseas. A time when Jane Fonda posed for communist photographers preparing to man an anti-aircraft battery. A tough time for America, to be sure. Lyndon Johnson rightfully was shamed away from the White House in part because of his atrocious handling of the war. Richard Nixon found it to be his political cross to bear, the “plumbers” merely being the providers of the nails. John Kennedy escaped blame by the force of a sniper’s bullet. The Democrats gave us a president in the 1990’s who had fled the country to avoid the Vietnam War. John Kerry defended his right to be a commander-in-chief, coming close to recommending Clinton’s cowardice as an asset, for he would not easily send young men into battle who dared not go himself. Ah, but now we have a Republican in charge of the military and Kerry and his cohorts have called President Bush a deserter or an AWOL because some of his military records are incomplete or missing. It reminds me of a great line in the movie, “As Good As It Gets” in which Jack Nicholson utters a scathing comment when he is asked how he is able to understand what is inside a woman. I will apply it here. How do you understand a Democrat? You envision a Republican and then remove reason and accountability! John Kerry voted for the resolution that gave President Bush the impetus to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein. Now he bitterly opposes the President’s decision to have gone to war, and won it. Kerry lambastes the Bush after-war rebuilding program in Iraq. I see all this and shake my head. It is not merely the colossal hypocrisy of Kerry and fellow democrats to give Bill Clinton a pass for his draft-dodge and heap criticism on President Bush for being in the National Guard and not having every conceivable record of his service on hand for their perusal. It is not merely a slap in the face of all Guardsmen, who are often called into service when there is a major need (such as the Iraq situation), Worst of all, it shows me how frightening for America a democratic President would be at this time. The Iraqi war is just the tip of the iceberg. President Bush and his administration have had to acknowledge that they are in a full-tilt battle with terrorists around the globe and have taken action suitable for such a situation. We have needed to show the world that we will act to protect our national interests. We have needed to show crazed dictators such as Hussein that we will not allow them to threaten our safety even if France and Russia and Germany don’t like it. It is a near miracle that another 9/11 has not occurred. Much credit goes to the Bush administration and the thousands of workers who make safeguarding our country their primary occupation. A certain amount of good fortune is involved here as well. But can you imagine if the military did not demonstrate its strength and if border and travel security was not tightened up? What if we had not ramped up our intelligence resources to emergency level in order to prevent another major terrorist attack? In other words, what might have happened was Al Gore the commander-in-chief. I have a son who is in the military, like a few generations of his family before him. Men of my family have served in some capacity in every major war from the Civil War to Vietnam and although we missed the first Gulf War my oldest son is now an MP while we are still in Iraq. He is being sent to the Middle East this spring. Do I want my son in danger? Of course not! Would I be devastated if he became a casualty? Yes, I might never be quite the same. But it doesn’t mean I don’t believe he should go. Human History teaches us that one cannot hold on to what one cannot or will not defend. If John Kerry has become such a pacifist over the years, then I feel sorry for him. I feel even sorrier for those he represents. Let him not represent me! As an American, I say, we need to protect our shores! We have sometimes been called upon to do so by fighting in faraway lands like Midway Island or Albert or the shores of Normandy. I cannot imagine a John Kerry having the guts and resolve of President Bush in dealing with the threats we face around the world. As a veteran, I appeal to John Kerry. You were a genuine hero once, risking your life, how have you gone so far astray? Is it the money, the good life amongst Ivory-Tower Massachusetts Liberals like Ted Kennedy that has turned your head? Or is it truly just “anything to get elected?” As a father, I hate to see my son in any risk but I admire him and the efficiency and camaderie of his unit. I believe in their ability to defeat enemies and defend our nation. I advocate their use in times of need. As an observer of political battles for many seasons, I am appalled at how far the Democrats have fallen. I wonder if there is no lie or position-change too ridiculous for them to use if it seems to be a way to keep or maintain power. Is there no fringe issue or radically anti-God group that they will not embrace for the sake of political expediency? I digress. War. What is it good for? Ask those who were spared from Hitler’s death camps. Ask the thousand of Iraqis who had relatives murdered by Hussein and his henchmen. Ask the millions of people down through the years who have sought refuge in this country and depended upon its might and its ways to give them freedom and safety. Remember grade school and the bully that picked on smaller kids? Bullies would beat up the smaller kids or the less confident kids and perhaps take their lunch money. You learned that if you stood up to a bully and punched him in the nose, he usually ran away. But if you were very small, you learned to appreciate the big brother or playground monitor who came to your rescue from a bully or bullies you could not conquer. Terrorists are like the bad kids who stand across the street and lob rocks at your house, to break your windows and torment your dog. If you are not willing to leave your house, you will never get to where they are, to stop them. We can’t just hide within our own borders and hope that if we leave everyone else alone, they will leave us alone. No, John Kerry, it doesn’t work that way. There are too many bad guys out there that not only want to hurt us, they want to destroy us. They want to take away our way of life, and our very lives to boot! We can’t placate them with diplomacy or stop them with UN resolutions that are not worth the paper they are printed on. If we open our arms to them, they stab us in the belly. We have to let the world know that we mean business. We have to guard our property, with vigilance and if necessary, by force. Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. If you are doomed, John Kerry, then I can only hope you are never in a position to take the rest of us down with you! ------------ About the author: Kimbal Ross Binder is a husband of one wife and parent of six child units of various sizes. He is a tennis bum, karaoke singer, punster and a reformed liberal who now admires Rush Limbaugh and hates to miss Fox News in the evening. You can pass along plaudits and invectives to: radarbinder@comcast.net Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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