America Must be Willing to use its Military Might
By Doug Hagin (10/24/06)
War is many things. It is ugly, it is obscene, it is horrific, and terrible. At the same time, it is sometimes very necessary, and in certain cases, fighting a just war is far more humane than choosing the route of appeasement. No nation, no matter how strong or merciful, or charitable will survive unless it has both the capacity and the willingness to not only have a military, but the willingness to use it.
There is no great utopia out there, the world is imperfect, and will remain so as long as people possessed with power, greed, or evil are in positions of influence and power. The one great truth political leftists cannot, or more truthfully will not see, is that evil does indeed exist. It is there, and those who follow it, whether out of greed, or wickedness, or mental illness, cam ultimately be deterred and halted in their treacherous designs by either the threat of force or in extreme cases the actual use of devastating force.
That is not a very pleasant fact to own up to or accept. It would be quite wonderful if there were no evil in this world. However, sadly, that is not the reality we live in. Serial killers and rapists exist. They are not stopped in their barbaric deeds but by force. The choice these miscreants force upon society is a simple one. Either society can stop violent criminals by force or society can continue to be victims of criminal violence.
Likewise, nations that embrace liberty and human rights are faced with the very same choice, only on a grander scale. Take Adolph Hitler for example. He was a monster, his followers were monsters. They were no better than a serial killer was; they just had opportunity and occasion to commit murder on a far larger scale. Hitler forced the civilized world to decide whether to endure his evil, or stop him by force. We all know very well what course the world took. We all know, if we are willing to admit it, that appeasement and outright cowardice by some world leaders delayed the use of force against Hitler. This foolishness cost the world millions more lives than a sooner use of force would have.
Today, the world faces a very similar crisis. An evil, just as barbaric and heinous as Nazism or Stalinism ever was, is very much thriving in the Middle East and even in in free nations. Islamo-Fascism, or Islamo-Nazism, or terrorism, or whatever we wish to call it, is a direct threat not only to the people in Iraq and Israel, and across the Middle East, but to the West as well. Dates like 9/11 and 7/7 are very clear reminders of just how very real the threat is. There is no doubt that the threat exists, and history gives us explicit examples of how threats to our nation must be met. Yet there are many who apparently think we can ignore history or who have deluded themselves into thinking that appeasement and trying to “get along” with and “understand” our enemies will somehow work this time.
These people live with a defeatist mentality, which, if we allow it to lead our strategy, will result in our defeat! According to the typical leftist “thinking”, we only create more terrorists by fighting them. OK, if this is true, then we have already lost. By accepting this illogic, we resign ourselves to the idea that we can either wait to be slaughtered or fight back, and make our plight even worse because we are creating more terrorists. That type of thinking is a recipe for inglorious defeat and must be rejected immediately.
The solution to this threat is the very same as the solution to the threat of Hitler or Stalin. Either the threat of force or the use of force. Stalinists can be dissuaded from evil by threat of force. The Soviet Union, no matter how badly they wanted to crush America were dissuaded from taking action because its leaders knew they would be annihilated by U.S. military might. Likewise, North Korea’s leaders understand full well we could lay them to waste with no trouble if they ever attacked our allies or us.
North Korea, though, is right now testing our willingness to use our might. They understand that there is no threat of force where no willingness to USE force exists. It might prove very necessary for us to illustrate our willingness to use the might North Korea already knows we have. They have begun to doubt our resolve, and that is extremely dangerous. They perceive us as weak, not in actual strength, but in our willingness to use our strength. It may well be time to make an example of North Korea. I do not mean wipe the nation off the map, I mean destroy any area they might use to test nuclear weapons or launch missiles that might threaten us.
While some of our enemies can be deterred by our willingness to use force, others, like the nuts running Syria, Iran, and the terror organizations they support, cannot be deterred by the threat of force. We have very clearly shown we will take out governments that support terror, yet Iran and Syria continue to threaten us. Sadly, we may soon be forced to use force against them as well. Moreover, make no mistake any and all force at our disposal must be used if our military leaders determine it to be. To hell with world opinion, or United Nations diplomacies, and our media, which is obsessed, apparently, with Vietnam Syndrome. We must never limit our strategies in insuring our security.
The threat is real, our options are limited. We cannot long exist without the ability AND the willingness to use the might we possess. Our enemies are becoming convinced they do not need to fear our might. They will push as far as we allow them. The question is, and it is a fateful one, is whether or not we, as a nation still possess the willingness to use our military might. If we have lost that, we are not long for this world.
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