True Grit: Winning the Hearts and Minds of Al-Qaida
By Lee Culpepper (07/17/07)
I wonder if John Wayne is glad to be dead. If he were alive, I imagine our impotent politicians' apologizing to the public about Iraq would kill him. Seems like America's once-triumphant spirit endured through our unrelenting grit and hunger to prevail. Such perseverance remains a prerequisite to all success. Sadly, our new breed of representatives has no familiarity with the hunger necessary to win a war. Do you think our barbaric enemies suffer the same dilemma?
Have we simply grown used to life being too easy? Today 76% of the entire Congress has never served in the military (source: Military Officers Association of America). The 24% of Congress that has served should appreciate the perils inherent to military duty. People die during basic military exercises – danger is in the job description. The fact that warriors kill and also die is not romantic. Military victories come at high prices. Victory requires considerable pain and sacrifice. There was a time when Americans refused to consider defeat. However, the painful sacrifices we have endured in the past are now being polluted by nauseating, limp-wristed politicians who are folding to the insolence and intimidation of an enemy who rejoices in fear and death. Perhaps more telling of our politicians’ moral fiber appears in their cowering to opinion polls.
Today, after four years of war in Iraq, our military has suffered 3600 deaths and had 26,695 members wounded. While we mourn our fallen soldiers who have sacrificed their own lives fighting voluntarily for the freedom of others, how can our politicians be so cowardly to demand we quit? In 1945, after only 25 days of fighting on Iwo Jima, the Marine Corps alone—the military’s smallest branch—saw 6,821 Marines killed, and more than 20,000 Marines wounded. What has happened to America’s grit?
Congress’s pathetic pessimism blazes brightest when we address the fundamental danger of military duty. From 1993 to 2000, our military averaged 937.5 deaths per year. In the four years preceding 9/11 (1997-2000) the military experienced 3198 deaths (source: Murdoc Online – The Official Department of Defense Report). Clearly, there is a reason the media and politicians provide no context when advertising American deaths in Iraq.
Our weak-kneed politicians lack the instinct to strangle our enemy’s hope. Spurred by an ego-driven desire to remain in office, a majority of the House and Senate jeopardize America’s future by openly encouraging our enemy to hold on. Outmatched on the battlefield, terrorists have one key asset: religious faith. However, faith withers swiftly without hope. Congress contemptuously opposes our military success by smugly offering our enemy information required to fuel his hope: our military calendar. The House and Senate overtly promise the enemy that he will break us if he can simply hold on long enough while Congress publicly sabotages our military forces. Who knows how many more Americans will die as a result of our politicians squabbling versus focusing their efforts on throttling our enemy? Who can say that the terrorists would not have capitulated already had they been convinced of the US resolve and unity?
Where would President Bush’s opponents prefer we engage this enemy? Before we withdrawal troops from Iraq, let’s first remove security from Capitol Hill. Allow our Congressional “leaders” to lead by example. Ask them to expose themselves to danger first. Encourage them to demonstrate how their demands for our own defeat will make America safer. What do they propose we are gaining by giving up? Our enemy is traveling to Iraq to engage us. If he is not fighting us there, where will he appear next? Who will he target? If history serves as any sign of what we must sacrifice to prevail, we have not even begun to suffer.
Instead of reveling in the political gains created by the danger our country is facing, politicians should be rejoicing in every American military success. The troop surge has shown a positive shift in momentum. We have cleansed insurgents from the once infested territory of Anbar province. Violence in Baghdad is decreasing. Along with this positive news, we have also learned that the war is not hurting us financially. The federal deficit is actually falling.
America needs another voice like John Wayne’s. The Duke once drawled, “If you got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.” Our representatives should put that kind of grit in the Congressional Pipe and smoke it.
Lee Culpepper
Online references:
http://www.moaa.org/lac_declining_mil_exp_congress/index.htm
http://www.murdoconline.net/pics/Death_Rates.pdf
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