We Are At WAR!

It is complicated for a representative Republic to go to war. Our nation was founded by some of the most brilliant political philosophers that have ever gathered to form a nation. It was dominated by people who were not looking for personal gain or power, but who sincerely wanted to create a nation that guaranteed the most freedom possible for the most people. America was the result.

Those founders understood war. They fought a long bloody war to win their freedom. When it came time to create our Republic they created a process of going to war that assured we could keep our freedom.

When such a nation goes to war, the people who bear the brunt of that battle are owed a commitment that we will not cut and run if the battle is not easy. Winning requires the kind of will displayed by George Washington and the many troops who stuck with the battle to the end, forming a great nation in the process. Will. Or willpower. Either word is what this war against radical Islam will require even as it was required to create the nation we are a part of today.

Those who insist that because they opposed the war in "Iraq", the war is not legal or moral, are rejecting our form of government in the process. They want to re-write the discussion and pretend that the other side in the argument must be infallible or the anti-war faction get to claim anyone who opposed their position was being fraudulent. The anti-war faction keeps insisting we are at war with Iraq. We are not. That phase of the war in the battlefield of Iraq ended quickly. Since then we continue in the war that was launched by the enemy nearly a generation ago. That war is against a movement called variously, "radical Islam", "terror" or Islamo-fascism.

The pretense that Al Qaeda was not in Iraq before the war is a lie. Not only were they there, but various other elements of the Islamo-fascist movement were there as well. They have all participated in the battles in Iraq, proving the contention that Iraq was a good place to fight the movement correct. There has always been a reality that if we did not fight them over there, we would be fighting them here. The anti-war faction denies this now, but they ridiculed Bush when he said it before we went in. We are not in a war against Al Qaeda. We are in a war against the entire movement that Al Qaeda is a part of. Focusing on Al Qaeda alone is stupid.

Frank Rich of the New York Times has articulated the anti-war line in his article McCain Channels His Inner Hillary. He continues the argument that the war in Iraq was a mistake based on the fact that most Americans have bought the line that we went to war there solely to attack Saddam Hussein and the nation of Iraq. That is false.

Amazingly, even some of the supporters of the war in Iraq continue to argue mistakenly that the war there is similar to earlier wars against Germany and Korea. That misunderstanding is articulated in Jonathan Last's article One Last Thing: McCain is right about Iraq.

The ongoing attempt to force this war into the nation versus nation conception typical of most wars of the past will lead to our defeat. Our volunteer military gets it. We are at war with a movement. Our future freedom requires that we fight this movement where we find it. Saddam Hussein recognized the power of the movement and actively supported the elements of this war who were fighting Israel and America, wherever he could. If we are serious about winning the war, we may well at some point have to invade Iran. It is frightening that so many, both in favor of winning the "war on terror" and opposed to it, do not understand the nature of our enemy.

If someone says we are at war with Al Qaeda, they simply do not get it. If we fight Al Qaeda alone, this multi-headed movement could destroy us. For a generation various leaders in the radical Islam movement have predicted that we do not have the will to fight. They think that because we have appeasers who advocate the "cut and run" strategy articulated by Barack Obama, we will lose. I don't agree because of a simple reality about the "cut and run" movement. Their position on the war is a position born of the lack of will Al Qaeda thinks will defeat us. However success in America goes to those who have the will to keep fighting, both militarily and politically.

Obama supporters think that they can vote for peace and the enemy will agree. They are destined to fail. An enemy who thinks it is okay to behead anyone who disagrees with them will not be impressed with a political effort such as Obama leads. If he wins the election, he is headed towards the same failure of the last idealistic socialist who became President, Jimmy Carter. At that point this nation will return again to the principles that have always made us the greatest nation on earth. There is no movement on earth that can resist the power and will of the free people of America.