Stick to the Real Issues and STOP the COLLATERAL DAMAGE!

We have to be able to have honest and sincere discussion and debates in order to protect America from ALL enemies, Enemies abroad and Enemies within. These discussions, however, should not leave our citizens in the wake of collateral damage. I have two great examples of what I mean.

• Iraqi War: When the President made a case to the American people and to the UN for going to war with Iraq, he had several reasons. The one reason that most people remembered was the WMD. This is understandable; WMD is quite a fear factor for people, especially in the aftermath of 9/11. I am not going to list all the other reasons President Bush gave at this point, that’s for another post. I will focus on this one to make my point, since this is the one that everyone seems to be arguing over. We were told that our intelligence (the best in the world except maybe for Israel), showed Saddam to be a serious threat to the US. This is where it gets complicated, because we have to cover another reason for war. The other reason being Saddam’s ties to terrorists. For some, the suspicion of WMD’s was enough reason, and for others, it was not. For some, the ties to terrorism were enough, and for others, it was not. For most, it was the picture painted by the both of these put together. Now, we can debate this all day long (or year, or four years, whatever). The point is this- at the time we were discussing war, and making the decision, this is what the majority believed. Now, we have not found WMD’s. (at least not large stockpiles as we were told) We will forever debate the legitimacy of the accusation of Saddam’s ties to terrorism. It is very valid to back up and re-evaluate our intelligence. We certainly need to take a look at the intelligence information, how it was gained, and analyze how we got it and where it came from. Doing this is not only valid and reasonable, but also darn right necessary. Even if the information was wrong, however, this does not make America immoral or evil. It does not make the President a liar. EVERYTHING we knew at the time needs to be taken into consideration. The only thing that the President can be blamed for, is not having the right people gathering and vetting the intelligence. Broadening the scope into accusing the President of lying and tricking us, is not only counter productive in protecting America, it is downright dangerous! Trying to portray Bush as a cowboy in efforts to win an election is SHAMEFUL! This has cost lives! And for what? So the Democrats can gain POWER? It is perplexing, at best, to realize that no one considered what the collateral damage would be? Do we really want people representing us and guiding our policies that have no regard for the body count they create because a vie for power is more important? How hypocritical to call President Bush a cowboy! PROTECTING AMERICA should ALWAYS come ABOVE POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS! The ONLY candidate I have seen in the last 15 years to do this IS PRESIDENT BUSH! He has taken great risks to his political career and popularity in order to make hard decisions; and ultimately, he always put our protection ahead of himself. Senator Kerry did not create this tactic, but he exacerbated it, with the help of the media, in order to gain politically. He opted to put his own self-interests above the American people. He had NO BONES about pitting Americans against each other, or feeding the terrorists tools for recruitment. The enemy knows how to play on America’s emotions. And so does Kerry, after all, he and the media did this same thing almost 30 yrs ago. Amazingly enough, neither time did Kerry have the original idea himself, he took a poll (analyzed the political climate), and jumped on the wagon, only to end up driving it! (he stole the keys from Jane Fonda and Howard Dean)
• Marines in Comabat: Our most recent example of the same thing is our US Marine, now being vilified for shooting terrorist as he tried to play possum. Again, let’s put this into context! With ALL the information this marine had at the time, he didn’t take a poll in order to protect his little hide from being “unpopular.” He chose to protect his Band of Brothers. We can debate all day long weather or not the terrorist “intended” harm. The point and the focus should not be on vilifying an American Hero. Just like not finding WMD, we had EVERY reason to believe Saddam HAD WMD’s. HE MADE it that way. Same, exact scenario. This terrorist was part of a group that is basted in dirty tricks aimed at killing Americans. The other wounded man made all kinds of efforts to show he was not a threat, waving his hands in the air, pulling off his blanket to show he wasn’t hiding anything, etc. The man that was shot was trying to trick us, and given ALL the facts this marine had about the enemy he was fighting, he made a VERY VALID decision. Instead of showing the American people what kind of treacherous conditions these soldiers face every minute of every day, Sykes decides to try and make a political point. He gives no consideration for the collateral damage! And of course, the “OLD MEDIA,” dutifully falls in line, follows the party objectives, and tries to carry the focus away form the REAL issue!
  

The real issue is how do we protect America from an enemy unlike any other we have ever faced. Well, I say:

• Job one- Know who they are, what motivates them, and how they operate.
• Job two- Attack each tactic with a strategy that will shut them down and stop them as quickly as possible.
• Job three- Recognize those people and those groups whom are willing to further their own selfish agenda by any means necessary, including sacrificing innocent people and the chance for peace.
• Job four- Take them down. Take down the enemy. Take down the terrorists with force. Take down the enemies abroad by resisting any of their attempts to make America and Israel vulnerable to terror. Take down the enemies within by forcing them to stick to the valid issues, calling them on the carpet for their duplicitous actions causing collateral damage. And if they won’t stop it, take them down by voting with your wallet, and exposing their twisted spin on everything they touch or speak of.

Do not let the death of over 3,000 citizens be in vain. Do not let the soldiers and their sacrifices be belittled by self-righteous ideologues that could care less about anything other than their own narcissistic agendas.

KNOW THE ENEMY and DEFEAT IT!