Treat War With The Gravity of Football

I wonder why we can’t take war as seriously as football? A couple of months ago, I tuned into the Fox shout show, Hannity and Colmes. Alan Colmes, the program’s designated liberal, asked a thought-provoking question. I don’t have the precise quotation, but the essence was: When is it permissible to question a war? Colmes, of course believed that second-guessing the commander in chief was fair game anytime. And I suppose from a First Amendment standpoint, he was right.
But legally correct and ethically correct are not the same thing. The mainstream media has taken to calling the Iraq war, “Bush’s war.” But the fact is that we are all at war. Liberal Democrats can no more sit out this war and pout anymore than Republicans could have declined to pay Bill Clinton’s higher taxes. War and taxes are examples of national obligations, not individual choices. When the Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, voted overwhelmingly to authorize war it committed the entire nation, not just those who feel like it this morning. And, it is now the obligation of every one of us to finish it to the best of our ability. We need to demand of ourselves at least as great a commitment as we expect from our athletes.
For example, a football player who publicly dissents from his team’s strategy and play calling can expect ostracism and banishment. The sports press will denounce him and the fans will boo him. His teammates will shun him. Even those who disagree with the coach understand that nothing can be accomplished without team chemistry. If winning football games is that important, does not the struggle four our very existence deserve at least the same steadfastness? Why do we condemn wide receivers who might cost us the division championship and indulge politicians who are facilitating an enemy that wishes our extermination?
It is not difficult to imagine how the disloyal opposition in this country encourages our enemies. Right now, those who dream day and night of that glorious future in which all the infidels are rotting corpses take heart from the prospect that they could win the war in less than two months at the American ballot box. The leadership of the Democratic Party has openly declared its intention to retreat from Iraq and surrender that country, its 23 million people and vast oil wealth to the terrorists. Their argument that the Iraq war represents a distraction in the war on terror, which in their rhetoric means getting Bin Laden, is childishly simplistic. Osama Bin Laden is the creation of a culture that must be changed. Those who early on argued that if Bin Laden were killed, a successor would surely replace him were correct. And Bin Laden was correct when he said that democracy and fundamentalist Islam were incompatible. It’s hardly surprising that Al Qaida has made Iraq its primary battlefield.
Our enemies will not allow us the luxury of a choosing whether or not we will fight this war of civilizations. If we slink away from Iraq, then they will bring the fight to our side of the Atlantic. Monday will mark the 5-year anniversary of the deadliest foreign attack ever on US soil. Only a month ago, the same enemy tried to hijack and destroy as many as 10 commercial airliners over the Atlantic Ocean. The war will come to us. And our enemy has made it clear that only his resources will limit the death toll he inflicts upon us. When radical Islamo-fascists get their hands on a nuclear bomb, they will detonate it in our midst. The path of appeasement currently peddled by leftwing opportunists will buy us only the shortest respite as the enemy regroups and rearms.
The appeasers have already weakened us to the point that Iran feels free to flagrantly pursue nuclear weapons. The failure of diplomacy in that part of the world reveals the impotency of the United Nations and inadequacy of the John Kerry approach of boring enemies into submission with a blizzard of verbosity. History has also proven the foolishness of the French approach of feeding friends to the alligator.
Hopefully, the five-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks will remind Americans of what the future holds for us if we let the enemy dictate terms and chose the battlefield. The war is not a choice.