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During my first semester at LSU over 20 years ago, I took an American Civics class (or something like that). Our Professor was 40ish, full facial hair and had a very large Santa Clause paunch. He would roam the aisles, up and down, and advocate that the United States had not won a war since 1900. That every war since then either was not won at all (as in Korean stalemate) or we had allies that actually pulled the victory out for us (such as Great Britain winning WWII). Students would challenge him, but he had everything figured out; he would give his pat answer grinning from ear to ear. He especially would get happily animated when he described the chaos and carnage that occurred at the American Embassy in Vietnam during the last days of that war. He described at length how the American military was barely able to get out of Dodge before the Vietcong took over. He was proud of that. Not mentioned were the Vietnamese people who were slaughtered for helping an American in any way.

Before then, I had never come in contact with anyone who was so proud that his country, in his eyes, was such a failure.

The bottom line with him was the idea that the American military was so inept and inherently evil, that they were incapable of winning a war. Ever.

The other night I was thinking a great deal about this guy and his ideas. I am beginning to believe that he may be right, but not for the reasons he listed. We lost Vietnam because the American people believed the war could not be won. Now, I am concerned that we will lose in Iraq and possibly even Afghanistan because the American people have changed their minds and believe the war cannot be won. I believe, whether or not it was intended, that the election of Democrats into power is a manifestation of this belief.

If so, we are a doomed nation.

Osama Bin Laden believes in this as a strategy. It was an approach born out of Somalia (the Black Hawk Down incident). The strategy is this: The United States cannot stomach the idea of deaths in a battle. So kill enough American soldiers in a long enough period of time and the US will withdraw.

If we do leave Iraq before things are stabilized, especially because of our own internal politics, OBL’s strategy will once again be realized. At that point, it will be very difficult for us to win in the future. It will always mean that our soldiers are in danger of being harmed no matter how peaceful things may be because the opposition will know that if you kill enough Americans, the Americans will lose their will for the fight and leave. Also, no other persons in a country will ever want to be our Allies because at some point we will abandon them to the tender mercies of their enemies.

This is a concern for me not just as a citizen, but as a mother. My oldest daughter is seriously talking about going into the military after high school. I am proud of that. Very.

Not long ago, we were out doing the shopping runs. Right in the middle of Walmart she asked me to make a promise, a very solemn vow. I turned to her and said, “of course, what is it?” She asked me to not act like Cindy Sheehan if she were killed in action. She wanted me to instead honor her memory by being supportive and respect her sacrifice in the line of duty for her country. My response was to choke out, “of course”, through a stream of tears (yes, in the middle of Walmart). But there would be an exception: if she were killed in action and the politicians of this country made a decision to “cut and run”, I would be on them like Momma Shehan in a heartbeat (of course, a more cleaned up and well-groomed version that uses deodorant every day). I explained to her that by doing that, I would be respecting her ultimate sacrifice by demanding the politicians do the same.

Elections come and go. All seem dire at the time. The problem I have with this outcome is the War on Terror and specifically the Iraq battle theater. I don’t want it to become the spoils of politics; that makes those brave souls fighting the pawns of politicians. The problem is this is a war that will go on and on, and has gone on and on since the Iranian Hostage Crisis (November 1979). In between now and then we have gone to sleep and gone about our business punctuated by heightened awareness. Whether we like it or not, we are in a war. We can acknowledge it or not. Regardless, the Islamofacist want to kill us; all of us. It is up to us to fight them off or wait for them to kill us with weapons of mass destruction. The problem is Americans seem to have the attention span of gnats for things like this.

Mark my words, they are coming.

In the meantime, my daughter grows older and gets closer to the time of decision for her. I will be proud of her no matter what. I just want her work and sacrifice to be “worth it”.

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It’s Begathon time!

The crack tech services group tries to diagnose HAL 9000’s latest malfunction.

Bill Whittle of Eject! Eject! Eject! is an essayist and a thinker and he writes some fantastic stuff.

Below is an excerpt from his essay on how to respond to the election. It’s the best I’ve seen so far (not counting all the excellent commentary here on LST, of course).

We have to accept the fact that the conservatives we sent to Congress in 1994 became the bloated, earmarking, tone-deaf toads of 2006. They thought they could do whatever they wanted, regardless of what their constituents think, and now they have been reminded of just who is working for whom. Remedying that sense of isolation and disconnect and unchecked power is why we have elections in the first place, and as to the consequences of it, we have no one to blame but ourselves. That imperial attitude is not unique to Republicans or Democrats. That is human nature, and correcting the excesses of human nature only becomes more costly and painful the longer it is allowed to go on. Democracy is error-correcting. Ask John Kerry.

I voted straight down the Republican ticket tonight. I am not happy about this, but I’m determined to take it like a man and use this occasion to let the opposition see what it looks like to lose with honor and grace. That they have needed a lesson in this goes without saying, and a lot of us mean to see that they will need additional instruction along these very lines in the near future. But right now that is bluster; a check folded and stuffed in a shirt pocket for cashing at our leisure. This is their night.

The Congress that the Republicans lost they lost because they abandoned the ideals that elected them in the first place. We must learn from our mistakes. We will have two years to do so.

Remember one thing before you go. The most important election we are ever likely to see in our lives was not this evening’s election. Bush’s re-election in 2004 was the one we HAD to have, and we got it. Be grateful for that, acknowledge that this loss is no one’s fault but our own, congratulate the Democrats on their impressive wins and start figuring out how we can make sure this never EVER happens again. =)

I wish to tell my friends to be cheerful and especially to be of good will. Disappointments come and go, but moments of courage and integrity in dark hours will be there when the stars grow cold. We have lost the election, so let us maintain our determination, our dignity and our sense of humor, and let us take this moment to reflect upon how our actions have fallen short of our ideals. And then, finally, let’s act like the Americans we are, roll up our sleeves and start rebuilding. We who have survived Civil War, the Nazis and the Communists can probably manage to find a way to preserve the Republic in the face of Speaker Pelosi.

America is not only much, much stronger than you imagine; it is stronger than you CAN imagine.

To those who have written me in anger over the years, I say sincere congratulations to you on a big win, and I genuinely hope it will remove some of the bitterness in your hearts and restore some belief in a system that was never broken.

As for me, I pledge to re-enter the fight with more energy, not less, and to continue to try to make the case I think needs to be made. I’ll start on that tomorrow.
“Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” — Winston Churchill

Welcome to the process of exhausting all other possibilities. This is where we separate the men from the boys. Pick a line and stand in it.

Well said.

I also highly recommend you follow that up with another recent essay of his: Seeing the unseen, part I

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