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Feb 12, 2004 “We have faced serious challenges together, and now we face a choice. We can go forward with confidence and resolve, or we can turn back to the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat to us,” said George W. Bush, January 20, 2004. As one who has read through the Clinton “Legacy” concerning the war against terrorism, I, for one, do not ever wish to see America return to the “dangerous illusions” of the former administration. The “dangerous illusions” of Clinton and his entire entourage got a lot of good people killed that never should have had to die. “We face a choice” to go “forward” and that is the only choice to make. We must see the complete end of Hamas, Hezbollah, el Fatah, The Mullahs of Iran, all Arafat’s allies and all other groups that deal in terror as a tool of negotiation. If we must end these threats through total annihilation by war, then that is the way it is. War, death and power are the only things the enemies of peace understand. “Serious challenges” require “resolve” and commitment from serious people. We have already heard from a host of people who would fail to be serious in the effort to protect and defend America. Al Gore, Howard Dean, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Al Sharpton and a whole caboodle of nay Sayers have already told us how they would stop American aggression against the poor radical Islamists. After all, we were the ones to blame because we are the arrogant and boastful nation that dares assume the role of leader of the free world. How dare we try to impose the ideals of peace and freedom on nations that insist on remaining in the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Centuries A.D. Have terrorists stopped plotting against American interests and ideals? No. Osama bin Butthead still sends out an occasional diatribe to rally the radicals. Muslim clerics still spout messages of hatred against America and Israel (with one amazing exception at the hajj the other day). Israel trades over 400 living terrorist prisoners for one living Israeli businessman and the bodies of three dead soldiers; the terrorists calling that a fair trade; and at the very moment of the trade the terrorists blow up another bus full of innocent people, killing 10 and wounding another 50. I believe every terrorist must be killed. There is no doubt. We must make no mistake. Every terrorist must be tracked down and killed. Israel understands that. There is no way to negotiate with killers. Murderers disserve only to be hunted down and completely eliminated. To show any mercy is to show weakness and leave us vulnerable to further Arab aggression. When Clinton was President, this nation fooled itself over and over into thinking that talking about our problems and “feeling each other’s pain” were the same as fixing problems. We threw a lot of talk around and fixed nothing. We watched our military weakened; our intelligence community become hamstrung; our CIA become impotent. We permitted our enemies to gain strength by negotiating treaties that we failed to follow up on and verify, enabling our enemies to circumvent the treaties and undermine American security. We stood by and failed to challenge the President and the Vice President concerning their abuses of power and their fawning over the attentions of the Communist Chinese and the acceptance of foreign campaign contributions. We all became guilty of succumbing to the ‘dangerous illusion” that our enemies had somehow become our friends and allies. We allowed a foolish and cowardly commander to be a Commander-In-Chief of fools. Fortunately for our nation we now have a leader who is not afraid to fight our enemies. We now have a leader who is more concerned about the continued prosperity and freedom of America, than about personal power, legacy or prestige. The Presidents with truly worthy legacies were the ones who made the truly difficult choices over the more politically expedients ones. They fought the wars that needed to be fought and only made treaties that could be verified and supported through military strength. “We now face a choice” in this election year. We must all listen closely to what every man who is running for the office of President is saying. Do their words match their political histories? Have they wobbled, waffled and contradicted previous stances to pander to the crowd? Have the candidates seemed “serious” enough to face the “serious challenges” faced by America? We voters of America have to examine ourselves. Why would we vote for anyone who advocated retreat in the face of an enemy when we had the means to defeat that enemy? Even John Kerry said the other day that we are not just voting for a president, but we are voting for the leader of the entire free world. In many ways, that is a fact of foreign affairs political nature. Do we go “forward” or “turn back” to the “dangerous illusion[s]” of the past administration? ------------ About the Author: Independent, Conservative, Christian. Married 29 years with 5 children raised and one grandson being raised. 30 year Army Veteran and published poet with www.poetry.com since Y2K. Email Michael John McCrae: michael.mccrae@us.army.mil Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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