Got some news this morning. My Marine Reservist son is scheduled to ship out to Camp Pendleton in April, then out to Iraq in September.
A lot of people have wondered openly if my support for President Bush and the Iraq War would change if my son was involved. I’m happy to report that if it has, it’s only made me more resolute in my support.
What the mainstream media and the left fails to grasp are several fundamental truths. First, when someone wants to kill you (Al Qaeda) you have to choose: fight or flight. They carried the fight to our shores, so there is nowhere to run (even if we were so inclined). It’s far better to fight on their turf than ours. You’ll notice that a large number of fighters captured in Iraq are from parts beyond Iraq. Therefore, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (but evidently more braincells than Alec Baldwin posesses) to see that the terrorists have traveled to where the fight is (Iraq) to fight us.
Here’s a clue for you liberals out there. This is a good thing.
Another thing: America is worth fighting for. A central concept of the liberal/secular-humanist mindset is that America must be guilty of something, so we deserve all the bad that happens, but couldn’t possibly deserve to win. Here’s the deal…America is the greatest nation on God’s green Earth. What we’re doing is GOOD. It’s real simple people. America = good, Terrorists = bad. We’re not invading Iraq for their oil (we’re letting them keep it). We’re not invading them to create a 51st state. We invaded them because they were a threat to us and the rest of the world, because they supported Al Qaeda, and because they were run by a vicious, genocidal maniac who was slaying his own people to stay in power.
I’m proud of my son. I was proud of him before he became a Marine, but I’m even more proud of him now. The Marines have given him priceless gifts – discipline, focus, and a sense of direction. He plans to go to OCS and graduate from College as a 2nd Lieutenant. More power to him. I expect he will return from Iraq, God willing, but he will be a different person than when he left. My wife, God bless her, is a Key Volunteer with the Marines. She works with Marines from my son’s unit, when they return from duty. She knows, firsthand, just how difficult adjusting back to life stateside can be, both for the Marines and their families. I’m sure it will be no different for ours. Still, I’m proud that he’s going. I’ll worry about him when he’s gone. And I’ll be overjoyed when he returns. He is what makes our country great, and he’s one of my heroes. The few. The proud. The Marines. Oorah!
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