Congress, the public and self-defeat

What happened to the generations of American citizenry and politicians that had the iron in their backbone to stand firm in their commitments despite hardship? Our nation grew strong on a can-do attitude that our wealth and prosperity seems to have removed from our government and the media. The current generation of leadership, particularly on the left, with the support of the media seems intent on leading the nation into defeat again by tying the hands of its troops overseas and refusing to lend any support to the Commander-in-Chief who was elected by the people to do his job.

I cannot say that I thought going to war was the best idea when the President decided to liberate Iraq back in 2003, but that does not mean that I think cutting and running is an acceptable idea. Doing so would ruin the remaining respect our nation has in the halls of governments around the world and only embolden our enemies. It also is a statement of the greatest disrespect to our armed forces in thinking that we cannot succeed despite having the best trained and equipped armed forces in history. Watching clips from the Senate proceedings yesterday made me almost physically ill as Senators confirmed a new general to lead the effort in Iraq while passing a resolution against the very support he stated necessary for the opportunity to succeed. "So long, good luck, we hope you fail" seemed to be the message of the day. The cowards should be sent out to the front lines themselves. Were it not for the knowledge that I would not be accepted by the service, I would have volunteered to go a while ago.

Success in war is never guaranteed and wars of liberation are longer and bloodier than others. Despite that, we have a track record of success from our own Revolutionary War (8 years) through the Philippines (4 years) and the Banana Wars (two decades). None of these campaigns were short and yet each ended in a measure of success. Not always the desired outcome, but at least stability. More recently the intervention in former Yugoslavia is finally showing some results in relative stability in the region. A good counter-example is Somalia where we intervened in 1993 and then pulled out leaving a much smaller nation without the deep seated cultural animosity to boil with anarchy until just this past month or so when Ethiopia of all nations helped a new government begin to take control. Imagine that scenario with a much larger population, fueled by ethnic hatred and ambitious, unscrupulous neighbors. The death toll is awful to even contemplate and the chaos it would breed would bring catastrophe to the region unseen in ages. On a much more cold-blooded note, the price of gas would skyrocket beyond the $3+ spike as the main oil producing part of the world became too unstable to allow for reliable supply.

I have no desire to see our friends and family die in a foreign country, but they volunteered to serve and in doing so are keeping their end of the bargain. The best our nation can do is to keep up its end and support them fully with the equipment, funds and people they need to achieve their mission. Congress needs to do its job which is to approve the funds, which is their only remaining ability to influence the war since they declared it, and get on with doing its real job of legislation on domestic issues (not that I want the Democrats to succeed in their announced plans, but at least they'd be busy elsewhere). Give the generals their mission and the support they need to complete it. The liberal Senators who fancy themselves generals will be surprised by what our troops and their leaders can do when allowed to do their job.

I have even less use for the mainstream media than the liberal members of Congress. I won't repeat my rant about them in full here. My point on this topic is that fair and balanced does not mean preaching a pre-ordained opinion from only one viewpoint and vilifying anyone who dares have a different perspective. I prefer to decide for myself what to think.

We can succeed, but we have to believe in ourselves in order to do so. If the ability to have hope and optimism in what we do as a nation is gone its time to pack our bags and let some other people take up the burden of history. I for one think that would be the worst thing in the world.