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Commentary: We are still here.
Just a few notes on what Ive been thinking. This is a tough day for me.We are still here. Two years ago, for the first few days after the 9/11 attack, I wasnt too sure we would be. But lets take a quick look around: Since 2001, weâve built 25 new skyscrapers in the cities in the US, untold thousands of new homes, cars, aircraft, software, computers, bicycles, telephones, cellphones, new miracle drugs have been designed built and delivered to the market. The American Stock market on Wall Street goes on making money as the miracle of western capitalism that it is. A regularly scheduled election of congress has occured, yet not a gun fired or a tank rolled in the country to make it happen or to ensure the outcome. Children have entered school for the first time or left school for the last time and gone on to enjoy the life that the liberty and freedom that we have all worked for, and some have even died for, has made possible. While this has been true in the west for some time, its now also happening for the first time in Afghanistan, why, even girls are going to school in Afghanistan(imagine that!). 3 million people who were afghani refugees in pakistan walked home after we removed tyranny from Afghanistan. While the rest of the world predicted millions of refugees out of Iraq when we removed the tyrant in that country, in fact, people who had resettled in Syria and Iran have begun to move back to Iraq. What has Usama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein produced in the last two years? nothing that will be remembered in 50 years, no food, clean water, hospitals or housing was produced by either of those men. Saddam killed thousands of his own people just last year, and his sons killed an equal number just for sport. This year, there are 100 new free newspapers in Iraq. Burger King is open in Basra, 95% of all towns in Iraq are under democratic control by their own people. Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden have done nothing except herald the end of wahabist islamic stalinist fascism. Islam may have a future, but its should be clear to all that the future does favor the survival of Islamic tyranny. Our fathers and grandfathers once fought a war against another form of tyranny, one which was supposed to separate the world into the "supermen" and "untermenchen". Its hard to remember today, but at the time all bets were on that the "supermen" would win against the decaying and decadent democracies and the men they could produce. Today, there are a great many people who bet that all of Islam will rise up to smite the "decadent west", but the truth is, most of Islam is quietly and secretly happy that the Americans are coming, and for my money, its about time we came. You folks in Tehran, sit tight. Well be there soon, you just wait and see. Just remember the fellas with the âscreaming eagleâ on their shoulders, they are your friends. When they start to fall from the sky, your liberation is at hand. We need to remember, we are still at war. Its hard to remember that we are sometimes because just like in WWII the war was "somewhere else". It may be 2003, but it does sometimes feel like 1943. Like the people who lived through 1943, we cant see the end of the war just yet, and its all far from a sure thing. We all still sleep with the little prayer of "please dont let me wake up and see people dying in New York again", but we know on our next breath that the end of this war is coming, and we have faith in the fact that, in the end, we will win. We have not taken council of our fears of the all the things that might have gone wrong, but have done our best to ensure the future of civilization in our own little ways. Our flag and the country it represents are still held in reverence by the people it governs, men and women in uniform are routinely given the deferrence of the heros they are. Self sacrifice has a different meaning here in western tradition, self sacrifice in the west says men will lay down their lives to save women and children, not try to kill them because the had the bad timing to ride the cross town bus. Americans are the first people in history to spend billions of dollars makingweapons less distructive and more accurate. We are also the first culture on earth to put its own men and women at risk rather than deploy weapons that could instantly wipe the enemy from the face of the earth. I know for a fact that the people and culture we are fighting, would not.Given half a chance, they will kill all of us. The men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States have brought freedom from fear and tyranny to 25 million people in the past two years. Recently, In my local Safeway, I watched a line of 8 people give a young marine the front of the line, he standing in the back of the long line with a package of pampers under his arm. You could see the pride on the face of everyone he walked by on the way to the cashier, you could also see the lump in the throat of each person he passed with those pampers under his arm " I hope heâll be ok, hes so young" they all said with their silent gaze. That young boy volunteered to put his life at risk, put his life on hold for 4 years, to protect not just the people in that line at safeway, but at somepoint he may be standing on a checkpoint in Sammara Iraq, not to be an occupation force, but to make sure that Iraq and its people become a democracy. Can the people who selfishly march in âanti war" parades make as much of a positive difference in the world as one young marine can make at a checkpont in Sammara? no way, and for that I feel sorry for the selfish pissy little protesters, theyve missed the boat, they all want to be a part of a revolution to change the world, they just dont want to get hurt doing it. We now know who are friends are, we now know who are enemys are. The good news is, our friends are the english,the scots, the poles, the italians. The bad news is our enemies turn out to be many of the same people whom american men and women have died to protect and defend ( the french, the germans, the saudis). The french should hang their head in shame on every June 6th, The germans should be required to fast one day a year in recognition of the berlin airlift. the saudis, well, we are getting there arent we...... The job is not nearly done yet, but our president has sent us on a task of draining the swamps containing the mosquitos, rather than handing out flyswatters and cans of raid. Two swamps are drained, we have four to go. Its hard work, and it will take a long time and the europeans will tell us the entire time that it simply cant be done, until after its done and then they will say its was their idea the whole time and will want their piece of the action. Nothing makes me prouder of my ancestors being kicked out of every so called decent country in europe than watching the decrepit self serving actions of those nations today. 15,000 french people died because they havent yet discovered that a cold bath or wet towel works wonders in cooling off the old folks. Imagine what the french will be capable of when the discover the modren wonders of the daily shower for hygene, with both soap and water at the same time, but of course, Im "je simplesse"! A friend of mine who was in Afghanistan on the ground said the Taliban soldiers who they had captured could not understand how it was that they were losing so badly to the Americans, after they had beaten the Russians just a few years earlier. He told the talibani prisoners "weâre not europeans and we aint godless communists, weâre Americans, we are the worlds trash, most of us are people who were thrown out of europe and the rest of the world. We have no where else to go, unlike you, theres no place for us to run away to. We have to fight or we will be come slaves and outcasts again. We will never do that, we are free and we intend on staying that way. You can have no greater friend or no worse enemy than an American". I hope that each of you will spend some time today reflecting on how far weve come, and I hope you brace yourself for how far we have yet to go. Fly the flag, hug your kids, call your parents( if you can) and thank god for the miracle that we are all still here, and still free. We are still here. Posted by: Frank Martin 2003-09-11 |
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