Dear Editors,
The world is governed by the aggressive use of force. Obviously, Dan Hanson’s editorial about deifying soliders shows that he has been terribly impacted by the 9/11 attack on America. To say that Americans have had problems with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is to ignore the events on 9/11, which Hanson does. When was the last time you watched the second plane fly into the World Trade Center?
Our military actions in Afghanistan were justified if that was where our Intelligence Agency led us to believe where the origins of the attack existed. Perhaps our tactics could be improved, as no war is clean and perfectly executed.
Hanson’s notion that our soldiers have not “defended our freedom since WWII” is a farce. Did Germany ever attack America? He ignores the 9/11 attack on our soil but he implies our freedoms were at stake in WWII. Hanson is content that we lost 8,000 American soldiers in one day in Normandy, but I suppose the 4,800 soldiers lost in Iraq over eight years died in vain.
Hanson fails to quote about 20 Democrats who in the 1990s regarded Saddam Hussein as the greatest threat to stability in the Gulf Region and to America. He fails to mention the 17 United Nations Resolutions defied by Saddam Hussein. He fails to mention that Saddam Hussein, and his sons, were in fact weapons of mass destruction themselves. They’re dead now.
President Clinton did nothing after the Feb. 26, 1993 World Trade Center attack. It was America’s inaction after the first WTC bombing that inspired Osama bin Ladin to attack again. Yes, it may be hip to hate George W. Bush’s policies. It may also be a cold day in Hell before The College of Wooster invites a conservative speaker on its campus to defend the Iraq War. However, there is a reason that you do not hear Obama claim that the surge in Iraq failed. It didn’t.
Our military exhibits great bravery. It’s the greatest force in the world. We know it protected Europe from Soviet expansionism for decades. Unlike today’s terrorists, our soldiers wear uniforms and openly show their weapons. Terrorists blend in with their neighborhood and systematically kill innocence and destroy property. Terrorists are cowards.
Our freedom isn’t free. It is not passed on in our bloodstream from one generation to the next, as former president, Ronald Reagan often stated. It must be protected and defended. It is our military, even with some bad apples, that demonstrates bravery so that we may live free.
Regards,
Mike Crowe
Class 0f ’87