Tuesday, August 16, 2005

"With it, or on it."

Reports have reached us concerning the Californian mother camped outside of President Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch calling for his impeachment and “America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine”. There was a time when, upon seeing her son depart on a military campaign, a Spartan mother would point at his shield and warn “with it, or on it.” This meant that the soldier was expected to stay and fight to the death, and never to dishonour himself and his family by discarding his shield and fleeing. Ah the good ol’ days. You have to wonder whether this woman realizes that she has made herself one of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal of her son’s killers or, for that matter, that Israel and Palestine are in fact the same place.

One of our best friends will return to Iraq shortly. Although the highest honOr and the sacrifice belongs to him and the thousands of Allied troops like him, it is vital for the rest of us to understand that this war is not going to be won on the battlefield. Like many wars in the past and future, the outcome of this war will be determined by an act of the will. Apart from mutually assured destruction, there is no military means of defeating the US Armed Forces. The enemy is painfully aware of this. The goal of the Islamists is therefore not to defeat us militarily, but to wear us down. Exploit our democracy by using incremental violence to turn public opinion against the war. Exploit our obsession with tolerance in irrational degrees to recruit, incite, and carry out attacks in our own countries. Our casualties in this war by a volunteer service have been minuscule compared to that which our forefathers, or even our fathers, bore. Do you have the will to win?

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