American's Fighting Forces - Thank you!

Today, I want to take a few minutes and thank our fighting forces. According the J.C.Watts, most of our on-the-ground fighting troops in Iraq are from the Midwest and from the South. For the most part, these young people are brought up on Christian values, strong patriotism, and a "dedicated" belief in our way of life: freedoms. I have been reading a bit lately from the National Review (October 23, 2006 edition) and the Limbaugh Letter (October 2006). That I am a patriotic conservative should come as no surprise. One quotation seems in order: "On Sept. 5 President Bush declared, 'Hear the words of Osama bin Laden... "Death is better than living on this earth with the unbelievers among us." These radicals have declared their uncompromising hostility to freedom. It is foolish to think that you can negotiate with them."....How many meetings have we had... Kim Jong II is a nuclear threat because Jimmy Carter and Madeleine Albright talked to him endlessly. The fact is, when good negotiates with evil, evil always wins. When right negotiates with wrong, wrong always winds. The history of the world proves: Evil cannot be appeased. It must be stamped out if free people are to remain free. Our survival depends on it." (Limbaugh Letter, Negotiating with Evil, p. 6) Last night I had the opportunity to have dinner with two graduate students in the field of Social Work. One is a conservative (sshhhh) and the other one, age 23, is very liberal. The liberal young lady looked at me with those innocent eyes and said wistfully, "It would be so nice if we didn't need to have a military." [Well, fine, if the folks on the other side didn't want to eradicate my civilization. That is their stated aim.] If I had false teeth, they would have popped out into my dinner! Then she said, with her doe-in-the-headlights eyes and charming arrogance of innocence, "What makes a person join the military? They must have something in them that makes them want to give up a normal life to put themselves in harms way?" Duh! God love her. The other young woman came to my rescue and said, "A friend of mine has a son who is in combat in Iraq. Recently he came home for a few weeks. He told her that we must be in and stay in Iraq. It is too important to Americans' survival. He further told his mom he couldn't tell her why that is or what we are doing in Iraq but that he will go back again and again if called upon to do so." I don't need to explain it. You know. By way of thanks, let me recall a scene in the movie, A Few Good Men, when Kevin Pollock is alone in the court room with Demi Moore, and he asks about the Marines they are defending (paraphrased here), "Why do you defend/love them so much?" Demi looks back and delivers her line, "Because they stand on the fences in the cold at night.... Because they keep me safe so that I can sleep..." To all of you who keep me safe (combat troops, supply, et al), thank you!