Death or Glory? How about “victory”?

I’ve heard the name before and it’s obvious he reads monoblogue, but Isaac Smith of The Old Line took offense to my criticism of newly-minted Senator Cardin the other day.

In particular, he sniffed:

Our Army and Marine Corps is on the point of breaking just in Iraq and Afghanistan. How the hell does Swartz think they can up and depose the Iranian regime, the Syrian regime, the Lebanese regime, etc. without drafting every able-bodied male, including me and him, into a war that would last decades? Swartz may be willing to gamble with other people’s lives, but I am not, and neither is the majority of Americans. Oh, and the troops Swartz claims understand the danger of his “Long War”? They’re against the war too.

So I read the short articles he cited in this passage. One thing that stood out among the two polls he cited was this passage from the AP poll:

Just 35 percent think it was right for the United States to go to war, a new low in AP polling and a reversal from two years ago, when two-thirds of Americans thought it was the correct move.

All this tells me is that the constant beatdown by the partisan media has borne fruit and turned Americans against the War on Terror. As I noted before, back on September 12, 2001 we couldn’t wait to turn our guns on whoever knocked over the Twin Towers. But Americans now seem to be cursed with a short attention span and the enemy is smart enough to see how the steady drumbeat of criticism is yielding results much as the antiwar slant in the media eventually doomed South Viet Nam to a Communist takeover.

The other poll Isaac Smith cites is a Military Times mail poll that states 35% of military members approve of the way President Bush is handing the war while 42% disapprove. Also it claims that “in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place.”

But then we have this disclaimer:

The results should not be read as representative of the military as a whole; the survey’s respondents are on average older, more experienced, more likely to be officers and more career-oriented than the overall military population.

And I liked this passage:

But (those surveyed) are convinced the media hate them — only 39 percent of military respondents said they think the media have a favorable view of the troops.

That’s interesting since it’s “the media” that did this poll: the Military Times is a subsidiary of Gannett, Inc. (the folks who publish everything from USA Today to our local Daily Times.)

And there’s another item I’d like to address before I finish this tonight.

If I had my preference, we wouldn’t have to see young men and women die in some foreign land. Unfortunately, I don’t think we had much of a choice given the series of attacks that have occurred to America and its interests for nearly 30 years in the Middle East and elsewhere which can be traced to radical Islam. (There. Is that a better description than Islamofascist?)

Honestly, Isaac, do you think that if America had done nothing in response to 9/11, that we wouldn’t have had another similar attack?

I have a philosophy that government should be proactive rather than reactive when used in its proper context. Because of that, I see the logic of the methods (if not necessarily the means) by which we are fighting this war. We are using people who have volunteered to fight the war knowing full well what they are signing up for and taking the battle to the original instigators on what is essentially their turf.

I’ll close with some of what President Bush said on September 20, 2001. It sounds like Isaac and his cohorts on the left may need a refresher course.

Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen.  It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success.  We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest.  And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.  Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.  From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime…the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows.

(…)

The civilized world is rallying to America’s side.  They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens may be next.  Terror, unanswered, can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments.  And you know what — we’re not going to allow it.

(…)

Great harm has been done to us.  We have suffered great loss.  And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment.  Freedom and fear are at war.  The advance of human freedom — the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time — now depends on us.  Our nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future.  We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage.  We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.

It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal.  We’ll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good.  Even grief recedes with time and grace.  But our resolve must not pass…I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it.  I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.

Nor will I.