Tony Blankley and Making the last mistake in Iraq

A note on our first Thanksgiving at Berkeley Plantation which is Virginia’s most historic plantation. The first English speaking Thanksgiving feast was held by the Jamestown Colonists in Berkeley Planation in 1619..." "On December 4, 1619, early settlers from England came ashore at Berkeley Plantation and observed the first official Thanksgiving in America", celebrating with seafood, crab, and mussels...and now forward to today... As we are now celebrating our day of Thanksgiving as first celebrated in 1619 at the Berkeley Plantation on the shore of the James River in Virginia, we must look to the decisions we are about to make with regard to Iraq and the Iraqi citizens - the men, women, and children who look to us to keep our word. Making the last mistake in Iraq by Tony Blankley is a must read on these few days of reflection with family and friends.

The decisions made on Iraq over the next few months will take the measure of America's maturity and sense of responsibility. Because, whether we like it or not, our decisions — and our decisions alone — will determine whether the barely containable murderous pathologies of the Middle East will just be dumped into the face of humanity — or whether rational efforts will be persisted at to contain and mitigate its civilization-threatening forces.

Americans need to contemplate on the seriousness of our course of actions in Iraq. Mr. Blankley points out the importance of our course of action.

We have the most profound obligation to attempt to calculate the consequences of the impending American decision to wash our hands of the Iraq unpleasantness. In that regard, the words of President Kennedy come to mind: "There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."

Mr. Blankley also brings the question of maturity to the table and says that our actions in the next few months will show the measure of America's maturity. For my part, I suggest that we must not shirk this measure of our maturity and this measure of whether we, as a nation and as a people, are in fact eligible to step up to the plate and be considered a world power for all of our military might. Without the courage, the integrity, and the national resolve, we may well show that we are not worthy of the title of "superpower". I say these words with an optimistic heart because I know that we as a people are greater than those who lead us and it is we who must shore up their spines and call them to stand for us, for our nation, for our place among nations. America has responsibilities in the world. Are we worthy of the men and women who serve in our armed forces? Are we worthy of the men and women who work undercover in places we don't even want to know of? Think of these things and we can determine our nation's course. Put the partisanship and the hatreds aside. This is not the time for "fear" and running. We simply must stand tall as are the young men and women serving us in foreign lands. They are volunteering for more than one mission in Iraq. We must be worthy. We, the people, are better than the politicians. It is we who must be the statesmen; it is we who must make the politicians meet the challenge; it is we who must not leave the Iraqi people, who have looked to us for hope, alone to meet their undeniable fate of slaughter. God bless you and your families - here at home and abroad. God bless all who stand with America and with our men and women serving overseas.