TemplarKormac
Political Atheist
What has happened to us? What has happened to this great country of ours? Where is our pride? Where is our sense of patriotism? Has all of this been lost over the past two decades? Before you start flaming me, I want you to answer those questions honestly. I know a lot of old folks, vets from World War II on... they can remember when America's word meant something. When we could give anyone the look and they would back off. When Britain needed our help with the Nazis we came in. Our president even then skirted congress to give ships and planes to the British back then. It didn't matter that we were war weary from the first great war, we defended our allies, we were drug into a war we didn't want to fight, but we fought it anyway. As it so happened, history was better for it. We kept our promises. Our patriotism and our desire to help keep the world free was unquestioned. Until now.
My point is, when a country calls for our help, do we abandon them? Think about it for a minute. If some person was being beaten on the street to within an inch of his life, and you alone had the power to stop it, would you abandon him? "Well it would be none of my business" you would say. Ahh, but tell that to the person being beaten. Whatever he did, whatever happened for this person to bring that upon himself, that shouldn't stop you from helping. In fact, he would welcome any help he could get. It speaks of your character if you were willing to risk life and limb to help someone. Some will say "we aren't the policemen" well, no, but we claim to fight for truth, justice, and freedom. It does us no good to wave that banner around if we sit here letting people be taken over by despots. Believe it or not, like it or not, the violence you see today on the news could be at your doorstep in an instant tomorrow. Then what? "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it"? By the time you get to it, it may already be too late.
If all we can do is be feckless in the face of the world, we have betrayed who and what we are. We were once a proud country of sacrifice, now we are one of indifference. What do I know of sacrifice? Admittedly nothing. But I know people who did make that sacrifice. If they had their health, their bodies and vigor, they would be beating down the doors of the local recruitment office and demand that they make that sacrifice again. For their country. Mind you, there is nothing honorable about war. Nothing. But if it takes war to liberate a peoples, so be it. If it takes war to prove we haven't forgotten ourselves, so be it. Sometimes, it's better to put down the pen and pick up the sword. The phrase, "the pen is mightier than the sword" only works if we have leverage against our enemy, if our resolve is rock solid. Right now we have none of either. Let's get one thing straight here: I don't like war. I loathe it. I loathe violence, I don't think killing anyone is the answer to anything. I would much rather we negotiate our way out of our crises. I wish there were no such thing war, violence or killing. But that's not the way life works. War is war, it will never go away. Sometimes you must end life to preserve life.
We profess to be a country of compassion. Yet, as we can already see with Iraq; we are willing to let them fall back into the abyss of true totalitarianism. Does this not belie our compassionate nature? We claim we want to help the poor, the homeless, the needy; we claim to be caring and compassionate people. Does our inaction not say to our friends and allies that we do not support what we say we support, or uphold what we say we uphold? Do we really support freedom? Or justice? Or truth? "But we're fighting someone else's war!" you'll exclaim. Are we really? What we would be doing is showing the world that we cherish the things we stand for, and that those things transcend not just us, but it meets the billions of people living here. Sure, some wars are started for the wrong reasons, and we did make quite a mess in Iraq, but to abandon them in an hour of need is wrong. If we made the mess it is our job to clean it up. It is time we redeemed ourselves.
Just imagine if we took this kind of indifference with us in our everyday lives, just imagine how sad it would be.
My point is, when a country calls for our help, do we abandon them? Think about it for a minute. If some person was being beaten on the street to within an inch of his life, and you alone had the power to stop it, would you abandon him? "Well it would be none of my business" you would say. Ahh, but tell that to the person being beaten. Whatever he did, whatever happened for this person to bring that upon himself, that shouldn't stop you from helping. In fact, he would welcome any help he could get. It speaks of your character if you were willing to risk life and limb to help someone. Some will say "we aren't the policemen" well, no, but we claim to fight for truth, justice, and freedom. It does us no good to wave that banner around if we sit here letting people be taken over by despots. Believe it or not, like it or not, the violence you see today on the news could be at your doorstep in an instant tomorrow. Then what? "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it"? By the time you get to it, it may already be too late.
If all we can do is be feckless in the face of the world, we have betrayed who and what we are. We were once a proud country of sacrifice, now we are one of indifference. What do I know of sacrifice? Admittedly nothing. But I know people who did make that sacrifice. If they had their health, their bodies and vigor, they would be beating down the doors of the local recruitment office and demand that they make that sacrifice again. For their country. Mind you, there is nothing honorable about war. Nothing. But if it takes war to liberate a peoples, so be it. If it takes war to prove we haven't forgotten ourselves, so be it. Sometimes, it's better to put down the pen and pick up the sword. The phrase, "the pen is mightier than the sword" only works if we have leverage against our enemy, if our resolve is rock solid. Right now we have none of either. Let's get one thing straight here: I don't like war. I loathe it. I loathe violence, I don't think killing anyone is the answer to anything. I would much rather we negotiate our way out of our crises. I wish there were no such thing war, violence or killing. But that's not the way life works. War is war, it will never go away. Sometimes you must end life to preserve life.
We profess to be a country of compassion. Yet, as we can already see with Iraq; we are willing to let them fall back into the abyss of true totalitarianism. Does this not belie our compassionate nature? We claim we want to help the poor, the homeless, the needy; we claim to be caring and compassionate people. Does our inaction not say to our friends and allies that we do not support what we say we support, or uphold what we say we uphold? Do we really support freedom? Or justice? Or truth? "But we're fighting someone else's war!" you'll exclaim. Are we really? What we would be doing is showing the world that we cherish the things we stand for, and that those things transcend not just us, but it meets the billions of people living here. Sure, some wars are started for the wrong reasons, and we did make quite a mess in Iraq, but to abandon them in an hour of need is wrong. If we made the mess it is our job to clean it up. It is time we redeemed ourselves.
Just imagine if we took this kind of indifference with us in our everyday lives, just imagine how sad it would be.
Last edited:
