I remember, from my childhood, watching the evening news at night with my parents and seeing the images and reports that came out of Vietnam as we were at the time of some of our heaviest involvement in the war there. I remember watching in 1975 as our helicopters evacuated our embassy in Saigon, once and finally leaving the South Vietnamese on their own without us. I can remember, even at the age of seven, feeling sick to my stomach looking at the images of people trying desperately to reach the helicopters and escape what was coming their way. Days earlier, the president of the falling regime stated “that the Americans had betrayed South Vietnam,” and fled for exile in Taiwan. Our nation, called by many the greatest nation on the face of the earth, abandoned a people we had promised to help. We gave our word, and then we betrayed that word. And a nation fell because of it. And our military suffered a tremendous shot to morale and confidence in themselves and their leadership. The democrats controlled Congress, by the way, during this time period, the President was a Republican (Ford), but he was in a diminished position of power thanks to the resignation of President Nixon, but the thing that I want remembered during everything that follows is this: WE GAVE OUR WORD.
Fast forward, if you will, a few years with me. 1979 saw the world watching as Iranian Muslim extremists held hostages for 444 days. An operation was set into motion for a rescue, but due to unforseen circumstances caused by the weather, it was a dismal failure that resulted in classified materials being left behind, materials which fell into the hands of the enemy we were attempting to rescue hostages from. Another black eye for the military, and the deciding factor, in the eyes of many political scientists, for the loss of the Presidency by Jimmy Carter (we won’t go into a discussion of Carter’s administration in this piece, that in and of itself is a discussion of it’s own for another time). The President during this time? A Democrat.
Now we enter the 1980’s, an era of mall hair and the death of disco. Ronald Reagan has taken the White House, much to the chagrin of my yellow dog democrat family (yes, I know the term going around now is blue dog, but where I come from, it’s yellow dog, I ain’t changin it) and the military is involved in operations around the globe, from Central and South America to the Middle East to the Far East. The hostages were released from Iranian custody (yes, there was that whole mess with the Iran Contra affair, but the hostages WERE released under Reagan’s administration). Thanks to a military coup in Grenada in 1983 and the involvement of Cuban advisors, President Reagan invoked the Monroe Doctrine, committed U.S. forces to the liberation of Grenada, and we sustained a victory. This gave the military, and indeed the nation itself, a tremendous shot in the arm in terms of morale and belief in itself, despite the repurcussions later from the scandal. The Soviet Union fell during this time, an event attributed to Reagan. We also bombed Libyan targets in response to terrorist attacks in Berlin in 1986 (I remember being told in morning formation that we were to have our gear ready and to be ready to roll in case we were put on alert and listening in the motor pool to short wave radio to keep up with the news coming in from overseas). The Presidency was held by a strong willed individual, a man of character and determination (yes, this is my opinion, but it’s an opinion shared by a great many who are today looking for another Ronald Reagan to put forth in 2008 in the hopes of leading our nation out of the mess it is in today. And like to admit it or not, we are in a mess).
The beginning of the 90’s saw U.S. troops massing with troops from other nations in preparations to invade Kuwait to liberate that invaded country from Iraq. During a 100 hour operation in February of 1991, Iraqi forces withdrew and the U.S. had achieved another tremendous boost of morale and confidence and pride in our military. Democrats held the Congress, but again we had a Republican President (Bush Sr) in office.
During the 90’s, the world saw an upsurge in terrorism, carried out by Islamic extremist groups. This site has listed, previously, a compilation of activities carried out around the world and within the country by these groups, which dates back at minimum to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan B. Sirhan (a Palestenian) in 1968. During this time, the U.S. military was in a period of downsizing and our operations overseas had been diminished (more on this in a few moments). Control of the Presidency during this period was largely held by the Democrats, although President Clinton DID order the bombing of a target in Iraq.
September 11, 1991, changed our nation forever. Our nation was attacked on it’s own shores. In the course of events following the attacks up on our country, we gave our word to track those responsible for the attacks down and punish them. We gave our word that we would deal with the threat to our nation so that it would never happen again. And now, five years later, our political leadership stands on the verge of withdrawing our forces from Iraq after we gave our word to the Iraqi people that we would not leave them without the means of protecting themselves from a return to power of oppressive Islamic extremist rule.
We gave our word before, didn’t we? THAT’S RIGHT, we gave our word to the Vietnamese that we wouldn’t let them fall to the communists.
I remember seeing on the news and hearing with my own ears phrases like “better red than dead” and “hell no, we won’t go” during the early 70’s prior to our withdrawal from Vietnam. I remember thinking, even at that age, how cowardly both expressions sounded to me. Now some of those protestors are in office, holding national positions of power and influence. George McGovern has made a return to national attention with his proposed plan for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. “Hell no we won’t go” has been replaced with “Hell no, YOU won’t go.”
My questions, and the point I want to make in this little rambling session, is this: is it so easy for our country to give it’s word and then take it back? Is there no honor left in our country at the national level? No valor? We know that our troops have both character virtues, they prove it time and time again, day after day, yet we show them the disrespect not to allow them to do what we sent them to do? Where is the outrage of the American public that we are on the verge of withdrawing before we are done? Where is the rightous indignation that fuels our desire for victory and success? It’s sitting in front of the television, watching the liberal media poison our population against itself by making negative commentary and biased liberal reporting about the things happening in our world and dying of atrophy and indifference. It writhes, dying, under the heels of John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton, and others who have undermined our work overseas. We have become so complacent in the years following 9/11 that we have given ourselves a false sense of security that it won’t happen again.
Guess what? It ain’t over. Just this week Islamic leaders pronounced that because of our elections here, one phase of the Jihad is ended, and another begins. We MUST get off our collective asses, rally again behind our troops, return to the ideals of Valor and Honor instead of cut and run, before we open the door and let the bastards in ourselves with open arms as they slide the blade of the knife between our ribs and do us in at our own invitation.
Why?
Because we gave our word, and dammit, that means something to some of us.
Others Posting:
Stop the ACLU with "Democrats Plan Cut and Run in Iraq."
Hot Air.
OPEN TRACKBACKS ALL WEEKEND
Linkfest Haven.The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns.Blue Star Chronicles.
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