- (YellowTimes.org) - In the late 1700's, a clarion call
went out in the British Colonies of the New World. Brave sons responded
and waged war upon their masters to shake off the yoke of colonial rule
and change the face of the world.
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- In 1812, that same colonial master failed to properly
respect her upstart bastard offspring, and the United States again gave
up many of its youngest and bravest in a war that is primarily remembered
today for inspiring the American national anthem.
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- In 1861, the founding principles of this great experimental
union were threatened and one of the most truly binding facets of both
the North and the South was the eagerness with which their native sons
responded to fight for their land, for their liberty, and for their determined
beliefs.
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- They were both convinced that the governments in which
name they were fighting had called upon them with integrity and were waging
war for the noblest of causes. The ensuing Civil War left no winners; only
survivors remained.
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- These survivors picked up the fragments of cannon shrapnel
and entrails on the battlefields and reconstructed the South. Steel tempered
became steel strengthened.
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- Several small wars followed, but it was not until our
policy of isolationism was overcome by the horror of World War I that again
American sons and daughters were asked to go forth en masse into the Old
World by their leaders and wage war for noble causes.
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- Without question, this generation also responded and
fought in the bloody war to end all wars. A peace brought on by horror
lasts only so long as those who can vividly recall the violence that actually
occurred, and so a short 20 years later, we found ourselves on the brink
again.
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- Europe was thrown into chaos by political and social
intolerance, wearing the names of Nazism and Fascism. Again, an American
generation was called by their leaders and ennobled with the power of righteousness
and the desire to liberate the free world from a tyrannical shadow.
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- Following this, we once again found ourselves embroiled
in a conflict in Korea, where the policy of containment was put to a successful
martial test.
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- Today, American sons and daughters are again called upon
by our "elected leaders" to wage war in the Middle East. Yet
at this time, we still have not learned the lesson of the Vietnam War,
in which the same caliber of indefatigable American men and women answered
their nation's call to wage war on communism only to have their great capabilities
wasted by a government that failed to develop a successful policy. They
failed even to develop a policy of any kind other than to feed more and
more of our nation's youth to the jungle out of some misguided fear that
the spread of communism to Vietnam would somehow threaten our own way of
life.
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- The lesson that Americans have failed to learn is this:
Simply stamping our flag upon the face of a cause does not give it intrinsic
value or righteousness.
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- Through the trials of our early conflicts, we fought
with the strength of a young child determined to live. Our abilities were
being tested by the world at large and we needed to prove ourselves to
be more than the upstart child. We did this well and shrouded ourselves
in the nimbus of our newfound independence, fighting always in its name
and rightfully so. We preserved our Union and then went on to fight in
the world at large, with the flag of freedom always unfurling in our wake.
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- Our soldiers, marines, sailors, & airmen distinguished
themselves in the fields of Europe fighting with the will of the entire
free world alongside the British, French, Russians and others to stop the
tide of malevolent regimes from overtaking them.
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- In Vietnam, we fought forwhat? We fought to fight back
what we painted as the "evil" wave of communism, a wave that
crashed and receded now some twelve years past. To this day still, our
Vietnam veterans maintain a fierce pride of their time in country, as they
should.
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- They answered their country's call as all young men and
women of the U. S. should be proud to do. But that pride is accompanied
with a great confusion and bitterness over the period served. All of our
veterans want to maintain their pride of service, but something tells them
that our war in Vietnam, while waged by the same honor bound and brave
soldiers as our prior conflicts, was waged not in the name of righteousness
but in fear and in confusion and amidst one of the greatest public debates
of history.
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- Today, we speak of war in Iraq. In whose name is this
war waged? In whose flag can Bush's cabinet wrap themselves?
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- This war is not waged to abet the war on terrorism; Iraq's
government is secular and while Saddam welcomes any blow to the United
States, he has professed no major interest in supporting Al Qaeda's jihad.
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- It is not waged to stop the tide of a malevolent regime;
Saddam has shown no interest in expanding his territory, and his government
is, in fact, hard pressed to hold on to the territory that it does control.
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- Saddam Hussein is not fit to preside over a populace.
The citizens of Iraq will be much better off without him or his sons sitting
atop their nation's regime. But why do we wish to bomb these people into
further submission for the crimes of their President?
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- Will they see American and British soldiers as riding
into their country on white horses shaking off Saddam's regime, or will
they look around seeing only fragments of once great Mesopotamia left and
wonder what there is for them to go on with?
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- Of course, the West will involve itself in the reconstruction
and aid in the adoption of a democratic regime, but will we honestly be
able to keep our over-burgeoning thirst for oil from taking control of
us? Will we be able to support a regime that is favorable to the Iraqi
citizens in place of one that gives us a reduced price per barrel?
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- We have no leg to stand on any more, considering that
Saddam has now capitulated and agreed to allow inspectors into Iraq unconditionally.
We held some moral high ground while he refused to allow these inspectors
in, but we are quickly losing that high ground.
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- Most of the high ground that we gained after the Gulf
War was lost in our supporting of UN imposed sanctions that did little
to hurt Saddam's regime. These sanctions actually injure the citizens of
Iraq more than anything and they allow Saddam's propaganda machine to paint
the Western World in a negative light to these citizens. But still our
leaders wrap the Iraqi invasion plans in a red, white and blue dossier
and expect it to have righteousness simply because it was designed by those
who stand behind that flag.
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- True patriotism is not standing behind that flag; true
patriotism is standing in front of it, bleeding in front of it, and breathing
your last breath in service to it, just to keep it from being sullied by
those who would take it away and hijack our values from us.
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- Our elders failed to properly indoctrinate our children
with the lessons of Vietnam, and again we find the American government
covering itself in the Stars & Stripes and attempting to dupe the American
public into following into a war that should properly be presented within
a barrel of oil.
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- Another lesson taught in every conflict and still unlearned
is that the decision to go to war should be one that is despaired over.
It should be one that is met only with the firmest resolve and that is
often signed in tears.
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- Bloodshed is not something to approach lightly. Freedom
is not gained easily and the American way will never be cheap, but a war
declaration should never be signed in red, white and blue ink and binding
one in our flag does not give it the quality of correctness; it only fades
the colors of that flag. I hope that the majority of the American public
realizes this, in spite of what is fed to us from the mass media.
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- [Colin Dorrity is a Non-Commissioned Officer serving
proudly on active duty in the United States Marine Corps. He is currently
stationed afloat in the Middle East region and looks forward to returning
home in 2003. In getting his point across, he would like to dispel the
rumor that Marines and soldiers are only capable of following orders and
drooling; he wishes to demonstrate that they are indeed creatures of independent
thought and strong convictions.]
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- Colin Dorrity encourages your comments: guestbox103@YellowTimes.org
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- http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=765
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