IF YOU DON’T FIGHT YOU LOSE

I originally penned this during the time I was in Iraq (2004-2005 for Operation Iraqi Freedom III), but it is still a valid piece. So I present it here now.

I’ve been reading in the papers both in Iraq and here at home a lot of things about the Iraq war. The one thing that jumps out is the effort to set a hard timetable for withdrawal, or even to simply get out now. Surprisingly, especially when it comes to the politicos taking up this mantle, these people should know better.

Now, I understand that Americans hate war. I hate war. I, my brother and father, my grandfather and his grandfather have all been to war. We all hated war. It is an ugly, nasty, terrible thing. I didn’t want to go and I don’t want to go to another. But, if I am told to do so I will. I do know one thing that is certain in this world – If you don’t fight you lose. And if you lose, the people who beat you TELL you how to live. No, they FORCE you. This really is a bad thing. Just ask the Czechs, Slovakians, Poles, Jews, Gypsies, Dutch, Belgians, French, Danes, Norwegians, Yugoslavians, Albanians, Greeks, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians, and Russians who fell to the might of the Nazi juggernaut in World War II. If it weren’t for an overzealous Japan forcing the American sleeping giant into the war, all of Europe and Asia could quite well be under Fascist control today. It took a destructive sneak attack at Pearl Harbor to bring America to reality.

Then ask the Czechs, Slovakians, Poles, Yugoslavians, Albanians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and Ukrainians (again) who felt the weight of Soviet oppression. It took the fear of nuclear attack, a slow economic war, and some hot wars – the Greek Civil War, Korea, Vietnam, Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador and others - to finally destroy the Evil Empire. It will take at least another generation for Russia, the other former Soviet republics, and Eastern Europe to overcome the social, economic and political stagnation and destruction wrought upon them.
I can also tell you that the Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein was as much a Fascist regime as any that was bred in Europe. It is said by some that Hussein admired both Hitler and the late Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Like Hitler and Stalin, Hussein attacked his neighbors, murdered ethnic and religious opponents, and systematically murdered thousands of citizens of his own country – even going so far as to gas Kurds much as Hitler gassed Jews.

America’s greatest military and foreign policy problems stem directly from the legacy of the war in Vietnam. A military success for much of the sixties, and a political disaster for much of the war, Vietnam established the American reputation to the world as the greatest world power ever known, and that we, incidentally, will cut and run.

We have a unique opportunity in Iraq. We can place power in the hands of the Iraqi people, and with that show the rest of the Middle East’s people that they can have a say in what happens in their nations. That’s a radical concept everywhere there, except in Israel and perhaps Lebanon. The stabilizing effect of the democratization of Iraq on the region could have long-lasting implications in an area of the planet second only to Africa in the corruption and mismanagement of their governments.

Or, we Americans can do what we have done for the past thirty-five years. Pack up and go home with our metaphorical tails between our legs, leaving the death of every American who has died in Lebanon, Somalia and Haiti, and now here in Iraq, in vain. Nothing, in the eyes of this soldier, is more cruel, destructive, and unjust than sacrificing our troops to a cause that we are unwilling to complete. Today Lebanon is struggling to reestablish a national identity after a long and destructive civil war and Somalia is a basket case. We left before the mission was complete. It is the same in Haiti where we did even worse by turning over the nation and its people to the most corrupt international entity on earth – the United Nations. Haiti is quite arguably worse off today than it was when we ousted the military junta that had overthrown President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

As a soldier, I must ask the nation, “Are you willing to throw away the sacrifices and efforts of brave, dedicated troops who have given their lives for the cause of justice?” Every war that the United States has fought and won in the last seven-plus decades has ended with the stabilization of the country, the rebuilding of its government along democratic lines, and the rebuilding of the nation and its infrastructure. This model has led to the most peaceful periods that Europe and the Far East have ever experienced. This can’t be coincidental and it’s not.

The United States has established a standard for the world from which we cannot back down. The people of the world expect America to rebuild Iraq and leave it better than we found it. Why? Because it is what America does and has done for around a century. We are a stronger and better nation, and so too the world, for our post-war efforts in Japan, Europe, Korea, and even El Salvador and Bosnia. Peace and democracy are flourishing there. Those nations where we allowed our troops to die vainly, failing to follow through - Somalia, Haiti and Lebanon - continue to struggle politically, socially and economically. We and the world continue to spend time, effort and money to fix the problems we sent our men and women to fix too long ago. These problems would very probably have been dealt with had the USA the wherewithal to finish the job we started.

So, again, are we willing to allow the deaths of American troops to be in vain, or will we finish the job that we’ve set out to do? The cause there is just. The Iraqi people are as deserving as any in the world. By what moral compass should we leave this nation to terrorists, thugs and murderers?

America, don’t allow my brothers and sisters - soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and coast guardsmen all - to die in vain. We must finish this task. It is morally, politically, financially and militarily right. And we must prove to these terrorists – and the rest of the world – that we can STILL finish a fight. They won’t believe it unless we do.