CAN WE AFFORD THE RIGHT TO

DISHONOR THE 2000 DEAD IN IRAQ?
by
Cliff McKenzie, Editor
vigilancevoice.com

GROUND ZERO PLUS 1505 DAY--New York, NY, Wednesday, October 26, 2005--There are those who revel in using the dead in a vainglorious effort to heap dishonor and disgrace on a nation of children born with the battle ax of freedom clenched in their teeth.

Such is the case today, as anti-war, anti-Bush demonstrators cry out to end the "unjust war" in Iraq, and shout their vehemence atop the 2000 body bags of those Americans who, voluntarily, have succeeded in planting the seeds of freedom in a nation formerly ruled by dictoratorship, terrorism and the suppression of any freedom in conflict with the man who ruled the land via torture chambers and indiscriminate killing of thousands of Kurds with chemical agents who sought to protest his ruler ship.

The "evil" of Saddam Hussein has been replaced with the "evil" of President Bush and his Administration for launching a "false war" based on "false information" about weapons of mass destruction. The cry today is to end the war. The premise for ending it is that it is an "unjust" and "illegal" war, orchestrated by a cowboy President and his vindictive, power-hungry staff who sought to make Halliburton's coffers just a little richer than they already were.

What if, all the things such protestors claim are the core of evil in our government were true? What if the war was launched on false foundations, and the government did indeed "dupe" the people of America into invading Iraq?

Would such an "illegal" reason for losing 2000 American lives justify the dishonor of the dead American troops who willingly, voluntarily and proudly gave their lives to free 25 million people from the grip of a tyranny?

There are those who believe America's primary purpose in the global theater of humanity is to provide the bloodshed necessary to seed the fruits of democracy.

Even if this primary purpose is executed in violation of "legal" foundations, such supporters of creating freedom out of tyrannical chaos trumps the rules of the box.

Acting outside the box, when there is a super ordinate reason to do so, creates a moral law greater than any judicial law that exists.

Take it from the viewpoint of one of the 2000 dead Americans whose bodies are being used today as battering rams to knock down the castle doors of the Bush Administration, and crumble the validity of the war in Iraq.

If the dead could talk, they would tell the protestors that their bodies do not belong to those who are not willing to die for their beliefs. They would call the protestors who claim their deaths were unjust cowards, sniveling yellowbellies who, in the safety and security of the First Amendment, under the blanket of the Bill of Rights, have been given the gift of freedom without paying its price, and therefore have no understanding of the bloodshed spilled by hundreds of thousands of Americans to allow that protestor to scream and rant and berate and otherwise denigrate the core principles of Americanism.

One of those core principles is the right of any and all Americans to join the military with the full knowledge that he or she or they may end up dying for the freedom of others in some distant land where people may speak strange languages, eat strange foods, and by most standards, be considered "uncivilized" in relation to his, her or their contemporary views.

Protestors forget the 2000 people who have died, volunteered to die for the rights of others freedom.

The American Primary Purpose, the backbone of our nation, is about our willingness to die for others' rights to freedom, even if those we fight for chose ultimately not to accept it.

This is no new concept.

Americans back in the Revolutionary War fought for the rights of others who didn't want to fight--all from different lands with different political, social, moral, ethical, religious beliefs. That was America's first "illegal" but morally just war, for it violated the idea of people being slaves under the ruler ship of one, and sought to become "one out of many."

World War I, World War II, the Korean conflict, and, despite the "loss" of the Vietnam War, each was an extension of America's Primary Purpose--to spill the blood of its youth on the fields of tyranny and oppression, in hopes the seeds of democracy would one day sprout and flourish.

If America's democracy is valid, then what makes it validity monumental is the eagerness and willingness of its citizens to not shirk the duty and obligation to protect and defend the right of every child throughout the world to grow up in a world free from tyranny and oppression, and, further, to have the opportunity to rise up beyond his or her own expectations.

The legions of Americans who have "invaded" other lands such as Europe, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Somali, Grenada, San Juan Hill underscore that America's power as the world's model of democracy does not shirk the duty to die for others, regardless of the "legal" foundation that might try and stymie that purpose.

True anti-war advocates wish not that troops come home from combat, but that combat never be the court of resort to protect the weak and helpless from the usurping of their fundamental rights. A true anti-war proponent does not protest any particular war, or accuse any one individual, but waves his or her hand over all all wars, and the sources of those wars--the selfishness of those who seek to dominate others by force--as the true target of their disdain.

Such protestors do not climb atop the decaying bodies of the brave and courageous, those who volunteer to fight for freedom anywhere at any time, as the dais of their discontent.

Yet, today, the cannibalistic nature of many protestors--including the media--is to eat our children.

There are those who wave the bones of the dead before the faces of the world and cry out that these lives were "wasted," and "illegally" taken by leaders with immoral agendas.

How far from the truth do these voices ring.

I fought in Vietnam for the elusive belief that if I died, I would die in hopes that one day, the citizens of Vietnam would enjoy the same freedom I had been gifted by birth. Sadly, the Vietnamese had to earn their freedom by blood.

America's pullout from Vietnam was the result of a public that refused to accept the American Primary Purpose--the willingness of our nation to sacrifice the lives of our youth to the benefit of other youth living under the cloud of tyranny.

But Vietnam was only one loss versus countless victories.

The deaths of our troops in World Wars I and II were justified in terms of today's freedom for those nations.

Those who rip and tear at the body parts of the 2000 dead in Iraq would like to blind Americans that each drop of blood spilled in Iraq has evolved into a ratified Constitution, supported by the vast majority of a nation that was, prior to our "invasion," living under the daily threat of terror if they crossed the whim and will of a single man, Saddam Hussein, or his sons, known for their rapacious appetites for rape, torture and other forms of indiscriminate violence against their own citizens.

Americans also forget that the greatest Weapon of Mass Destruction is Tyranny, not nuclear bombs, or poison gases, or virulent diseases bred in labs and unleashed on unsuspecting populations.

Part of Tyranny's chemistry is Complacency--the hope and, often well-founded belief by the tyrants of humanity--that no other nation would "dare" to unseat them from power because they have "sovereign rights to terrorize" their people. Those who starve in North Korea and boil grass to feed their children while their leader builds nuclear might and sells drugs to finance a lavish personal life style, would welcome an "invader" who came to free and not conquer.

This later point is also overlooked by the protestors who tear at the flesh of the 2000 dead in an attempt to desecrate the American Primary Purpose.

America does not conquer.

If there were to be a great criticism of American intervention policy, it is that it walks away from the lands it frees from tyranny without any strings attached. When America pulls out of Iraq, it will not build encampments to keep order. It will let the nation become whatever its people desire it to become, just as America left Europe to evolve into a group of nations who, collectively, are anti-American in nature.

The freedom they acquired at the expense of American blood includes their right to snub America, lambaste it, and deny it support of its Primary Purpose by sending its full support to free the less fortunate from tyranny.

America is being accused of unilateral in Iraq, that it denied the world's opinion and consensus by launching the war in Iraq without the full support of the United Nations.

But, there is a mandate in America that runs far deeper and richer than whatever charters the United Nation. That mandate is the right and duty of Americans to fight for the rights of children around the world to live in a world free from oppression.

Sadly, not all the needs of the world can be met.

But Iraq's was.

The price of freeing a nation of 25 million to carve out its own destiny has been 2,000, about one tenth of all the Americans killed annually by drunk drivers.

Statistically, each American death in Iraq has resulted in the freedom of 12,500 Iraqis, half of which are under the age of 15.

What greater pride is there for an American volunteer military person than to give his or her life to free others? When that freedom goes to 12,500 others, pride and honor should be the rally around the graves of the dead, not protestation and denigration of their acts.

Further, it is important to note that when a protestor rails on President Bush or his Administration, accusing him of engaging in an illegal and criminalized greedy war, the insult and indignity spears into the body bags of the 2000.

When I returned from Vietnam, people spat in my face. They spat because I represented not the liberation of people living in tyranny, but the ugliness of a political consortium that makes it easy for one to castigate for no other reason than to express the freedom of dissent.

The protestations today around the 2000 body bags is an example of spitting on the dead, as well as the tens of thousands of living who are confused as to why Americans refuse to rally in support of the great triumph in Iraq--the consequence of freedom as a result of the war.

Before the nearly 300 million Americans' eyes has cropped a Constitution, and a majority vote by Iraqis to lay the foundations for eternal freedom for their nation.

America did the same. It took a decade after its revolution to strike a document the world knows now as a "model of democracy." That model incorporates the "right of dissent" to ignore and debased America's Primary Purpose.

What few, if any, American protestors realize is that in Iraq, there are people kneeling in prayer over the blood of the 2000, thanking them with all their hearts and souls for the steps to freedom that each of those lives represents to their children and grandchildren.

But, here at home, there is a pall over our nation today, created by the media and protestors, who claim the waste of 2000 American lives.

How sad that is for our children and children's children's children who, over time, may forget the price of freedom is giving one's life for another's freedom.

So, the question is: Can we afford to dishonor the 2000 dead in Iraq by protesting their deaths as a violation of our nation's Primary Purpose?

I think not.

 

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