God bless.

Thank God, in each of these historical conflicts, we have been able to field a class of young men who consider it a duty and privilege to defend and protect our country and our way of life. Some of them put on our uniform and pick up their weapons and go to meet the enemy on the battlefield wherever that may be. Others work in another uniform. One that enables them to blend in rather than stand out. They go right into the enemy’s back yard and try to get inside his mind. To accomplish their mission and come out alive, they sometimes are required to do things most of us wouldn’t talk about in polite company. They are not more or less important than the soldier in uniform they are simply necessary to win. That is the whole point of war. To win. No one has ever had their hearts or mind changed because of war. If anything, war serves to whet and sharpen those differences that started it in the first place.

War is not an athletic contest where there is always next year if you don’t win today. Had Germany won the second world war, today we would all be speaking German and reading articles in the daily paper about what a glorious thing it was to eradicate the Jews. History would have condemned Eisenhower and Bradley as war criminals and on certain dates every year we would again see photographs of them hanging from a gallows. We do not experience these things simply because we won. In some circles today, Harry Truman is believed to be a war criminal because he ordered the A-Bomb to be used against the homeland of Japan. At the time he faced a fanatical enemy who would fight us to the last person, even if that person was a 12 year old school girl. By using the Bomb he saved thousands of lives, both American and Japanese. However, the Monday morning quarterbacks still like to believe it would have been more humane to slug it out for another half dozen years, leaving a bloody trail all across the Pacific killing more civilians, albeit one at a time instead of all at one time.

So, the question is simple. Do we want to win or do we want to just step aside and give our lands or freedoms and our futures to the next bully who shakes a saber in our direction? Do we really believe that living under totalitarian rule would be preferable to being thought of as “bad people” by a few ideologues? I really don’t think so. Who does history always say had the moral right to act as they did? Always the winner. It’s always the defeated who were wrong headed and evil. If we intend to win then fight to win. If we don’t intend to win, then it’s a good idea to measure your wrist and ankles…….for the shackle maker.