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By E. Ralph Hostetter
November 02, 2006
Violence in Iraq reached a peak in October. More than 100 brave American Marines and soldiers made the supreme sacrifice for their country.
The Iraqis lost hundreds more and have yet to say, "Let's quit!"
The new democratic government of Iraq, brought into being with three free elections by courageous voters casting ballots under threat of death, realizes a change in course at this moment would be suicidal and lead to the deaths of untold numbers of their own.
Americans are sickened by the violence and loss of life. These same Americans were sickened by the loss of lives on 9/11 and at that time vowed it never would happen again.
That was then. This is now.
Many Americans have slipped into a state of mind that denies 9/11 is part of the same picture the United States faces today.
The advance of terrorism has moved to a larger stage but the characters remain the same. Violence across the planet has increased. America must play its part and remain on the stage. Abandoning the stage to those acting out the part of terrorism could prove disastrous. Becoming part of the audience could mean the end of the peaceful life in America. The lights of Broadway America will be too bright for the terrorists of the Middle East to resist.
Moving our troops over the horizon and waiting for the terrorists to mend their naughty ways at best would require American armed forces to re-invade, at greater loss of life, to correct this disastrous mistake. That was the biggest mistake of the first Gulf War.
History is replete with such examples. France, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands had their chance up to September 1939 to stop Nazi Germany. They didn't, and war came. In the first year of World War II the Europeans moved their troops over the horizon in June 1940 to a place called Dunkirk. In June 1944, four years later, they invaded Europe at a place called Normandy with the help of the United States, at a final cost of tens of thousands of American lives.
The picture hasn't changed. Completing the Iraqi challenge at hand is paramount.
The political bitterness demonstrated in this Congressional election year is the most severe in my memory. Wild accusations, heightened by the drumbeat of the dominant news media, have corrupted the political scene, blinding the electorate to the vital issues facing this nation today.
Homeland security; winning the war in Iraq; detection, interrogation and prosecution of terrorists here at home; energy independence from imported oil; illegal immigration, and laws to keep a vibrant economy moving in America are the vital issues smothered by overheated political rhetoric.
Pushing all these vital issues aside, many Democrats have made the Iraq War and the destruction of the George W. Bush Administration their focal point to change the course of America's government.
Congressional Democrats have offered no plan to fight terrorism. Their voting record tells the story. Of the 206 Democrats in the House, 160 or more (about 79 percent) vote consistently against Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, NSA terrorist detection policies, CIA terrorist interrogation methods, ways to prosecute terrorist detainees, all of President Bush's energy programs to reduce America's dependence on imported oil, and permanent reduction of income taxes. Democrats in the United States Senate vote against the same vital interests of all Americans in the same proportions as those in the House of Representatives.
Islamic terrorists have successfully used increased violence to change the course of governments in other nations around the world.
The terrorist attacks on Spain’s railways a few years ago, at the precise time of a national election, brought about a major change in government. The United Kingdom’s Tony Blair, President Bush's staunchest ally, is stepping aside following terrorist attacks at home and increasing pressure from his own party. France and the Netherlands are backing away as terrorist attacks and Muslim influence become more prevalent. Germany, buckling under the neo-Communist influence of the Green Party and increasingly active Islamic presence, is silenced.
America stands alone.
While "change the course" may seem more clever than "stay the course," changing the course of the United States Government in today's climate may prove disastrous.
The removal of a U.S. presence in the Middle East would be so destabilizing as to thrust an overwhelming power into the hands of a would-be nuclear Iran. The Shiite majority government in Iran could join the Shiite majority in Iraq and subdue or eliminate both the Sunnis and the Kurds. Iran, no doubt, would be joined by Syria, leading to the conquest of partly Christian Lebanon. The Saudi Royal Family would be next, with its Mideastern oil fields.
Israel’s continued existence would be questionable. The United States would lack the will to re-enter a Middle Eastern conflict and, worse yet, without imported Middle Eastern oil, its vibrant economy would be dramatically diminished and its own capability to wage war would be brought into doubt.
On November 7 a pause for reflection may be in order before casting a vote.
E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and publisher, also is an award-winning columnist and Vice Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation Board of Directors. He welcomes email comments at eralphhostetter@yahoo.com.
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