On the occasion of Veterans Day, the Marine Corps birthday, and our continued battles in Fallujah I am reminded of events from my own past and the lessons they taught me about the struggles of the left and why a sixth grader from Rhode Island ensures their defeat.
The current rash of anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-anything republican demonstrations and even violence are nothing new. They are simply another incarnation of an entity that has been with us since our nation’s birth. Be it the Torries of the revolutionary period, the proponents of secession in 1812, the 60’s counter culture, or today’s MoveOn.org crowd, the agenda is the same, hatred of our ideals and rejection of the fundamental principals that guide our nation.
The cry from today’s left that you can be patriotic and not support the war has a hollow ring. Though they may actually believe this about themselves, when you understand that their predecessors have been on the wrong side of every major issue we have faced to build this great nation you see that if their viewpoint were to conquer there would be nothing left for them to be patriotic about.
In late 1990 I was an artilleryman with the 1st Armored Division (Old Ironsides for you historians) waiting to be deployed to the Middle East to fight the first gulf war. The 1st AD was stationed in Germany, which then, as today, was full of anti-American sentiment. During this time soldiers were constantly bombarded with phone calls to our homes, mail, demonstrations, and even television commercials imploring us to desert the US military and telling us there were German “safe houses” we could desert to and they would help us. Thankfully, and not surprisingly actually, none of us did. We all deployed to Saudi Arabia and then on to Kuwait, and Iraq.
During this same time, against a backdrop of protests at home, a Democratic congress, including Senator Kerry, which refused to support Bush 41’s plan to liberate the Kuwaiti people, a constant barrage of media reports on the certain doom we faced by taking on such a formidable opponent as Saddam Hussein, a sixth grade girl from Rhode Island named Christi Balch wrote a letter to “Any Service Member, Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm” and dropped it in the mail. Out of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the gulf, that letter ended up in my hands.
Christi wrote just to tell someone out there they were thinking of us back home, and how very proud they were of us. She told us they appreciated our service and the sacrifices we were making to protect them. Christi was one of millions of people that wrote those “Any Service Member” letters and only one of many that I personally received. But hers was the one that touched me, even to the point I remember her to this day.
Therein lays the reason the left is doomed. With all of it power and might it tried, they protested, used the media, obstructed us in the Senate and in the House, they used every trick they had and yet could not even prevent a 10 year old girl from seeing the righteousness of our cause.
For over 200 years America has been a beacon of hope to the world. We have provided opportunity, comfort, and freedom from oppression to millions across the globe. Often we are reviled even by the recipients of this generosity; still we stand strong in our beliefs, never wavering. The reason we have stood for so long is that our cause is just. Freedom is always better than tyranny, self determination than oppression. Liberty is the most basic need of the human spirit and because of this fundamental truth, the forces that gather against those ideals will never prevail.
After all, Christi is watching.
Update: for more excellent Veterans Day commentary:
PowerLine
La Shawn Barber
The MUSC Tiger
Winds Of Change
Update 2:
On a couple of articles now I have had troubles with my trackback service sending dupicate pings to sites I trackback to. I apologize if you get sent here twice by mistake. I'll try and be more careful in the future.
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