Liberating Europe
circa 1943 |
Numerous bombing runs over Nazi
Europe resulted in limited tangible progress yet caused the death of
over 500 US fliers in a day. Numerous land battles in Nazi-held
Europe resulted in losses of territory and the death of
tens-of-thousands of US troops. Regaining Japanese-held South
Pacific islands often resulted little gain in territory, yet cost
tens-of-thousands of US lives. |
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Yet, because of those and other
sacrifices, on 9/2/1945, both the Nazis and Japanese had been
defeated. |
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The Iraq War which liberated 26
million Iraqis and toppled one of the most despicable dictators of
history has claimed over 2,000 US service people and hundreds of
allied service people. |
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Post-WWII
Germany
was a significant European battleground. It was the scene
of the struggle between dictatorship-communism and
democracy-capitalism. In 1989, the Berlin Wall -- the symbol of that
struggle -- was destroyed physically by thousands of people freeing
themselves. It was destroyed spiritually only after leadership
proclaimed it must fall and worked tirelessly for decades to ensure
its demise. They could only free themselves after immeasurable
sacrifice of millions of military and civilian warriors in
unknown moments of secret battles and violent clashes. |
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The Cold War was fought
on economic and cultural fronts, using clandestine military force.
Neither the Korean and
Vietnam Wars ended in celebratory wins, but
communism and dictatorship using despotic methods have been
discredited and defeated on the global stage. All people are
free to learn from this history. If they understand world events,
they see that democracy and capitalism have won and are thriving.
Non-free and communist nations are struggling to continue to
exist. |
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Understanding
current events and extrapolating today's perceptions to estimate
what tomorrow may be like is nearly impossible. Even many people who
lived during WWII failed to perceive victory for democracy and
capitalism. They were driven by fear, frustration, and political
expediencies. They missed the thrill of the fight and even today cannot
appreciate victory. |
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In a Veteran's
Day speech, President Bush
stated,
"The
stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national
interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges.
While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or
the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the
history of how that war began." |
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President
Bush continued,
"Some Democrats and
anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence
and mislead the American people about why we went to war."
He acknowledged that critics have made allegations
even though they know a Senate
investigation "found no evidence"
of political pressure to modify or distort
intelligence assessments tying Saddam
Hussein to WMD programs.
Bush added that
the United Nations passed over a
dozen resolutions identifying Saddam's
development and possession of weapons of mass destruction.
Bush pointed out that, "More than 100
Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same
intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power." |
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President
Bush declared, "These
baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy
that is questioning America's will... As
our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of
life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to
send them to war continue to stand behind them...
Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm
when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that,
whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our
nation is united and we will settle for nothing less than victory...
We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never
accept anything less than complete victory." |
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President Bush
is a leader who
stands on principle and accepts derisive, ongoing personal and
political attacks as part of accomplishing what needs to get done.
Hopefully, President Bush is leading a nation filled
with individuals worthy of his leadership. |
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As all who
work on significant jobs know, large projects are
difficult, they do not produce positive results at each milestone,
and they are costly. Only with skill and perseverance can these
projects be successfully completed. Difficult and erratic progress
at high cost are the content of history. The history of a free and
prosperous Iraq will be written at a high cost in lives and years. |
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