Reservist Says “Anti-War” Protesters are Breaking Faith
Rising star columnist Katherine Kersten has written a true jewel of an article outlining the effects of the Cindy Sheehan crowd. Here’s a couple powerful examples:
Vold knows Iraq firsthand. A Reservist from Maple Grove, he returned last March from seven months in Fallujah & Ramadi, the heart of the violent Sunni Triangle. Vold’s view is 180 degrees different from the protesters’. For years, he says, America took a passive approach to extremist threats. We learned the hard way that this emboldened terrorists & ultimately led to Sept. 11.
Abandoning our mission in Iraq now, he says, would be both ill-advised & dangerous. Vold knows the painful cost of aborting a mission midstream. He was in Somalia in early 1994 when America turned tail. “We abandoned the Somali people because we took 18 casualties in October 1993,” he said. “It was a shameful act.” That same year, he sat in frustration on a troop ship off Kenya as hundreds of thousands of people were hacked to death in Rwanda. After the first Gulf War, he says, we left the Shiites to a bloody fate. “In Iraq, we’re going to stay the course against the terrorists & give the people a chance at freedom & a representative government.” Vold ticks off the extraordinary progress underway in Iraq.
Ms. Kersten has done America a great service by interviewing Col. Vold because we get a factual account of what’s happening in all of Iraq rather relying on the limited reporting of the correspondents who don’t venture outside the Green Zone.
Col. Vold, a Marine Corp Reservist, is right, too, in stating what’s at stake. If we follow Sheehan’s advice, we will have emboldened al Qaida & their allies like President Clinton’s ineffective decisions did in the 90’s.
The best anti-terrorist policy is using our military might to squash them while establishing a strong democracy in Iraq. No turning back. No hesitation. Just win.
The anti-war protesters don’t comprehend the power of freedom & the ability to chart your own course through life. Ronald Reagan understood the power of freedom and it changed the face of Eastern Europe. George W. Bush understands it & it’s changing the face of the Middle East.
In Ramadi, he witnessed ordinary Iraqis braving mortar fire to vote in the January 2005 elections. In just two weeks, on Oct. 15, he adds, these courageous people will have another historic opportunity, a chance to vote on Iraq’s new constitution. Across Iraq, Americans & Iraqis are working together to reclaim the country from Baathists & terrorists. They are building or refurbishing schools, hospitals, roads & sewer systems. “The battle with the terrorists left Fallujah in rubble,” says Vold. “But every day, people thanked us. ‘We might have to rebuild our house,’ they said, ‘but you gave us back our city.’”
The people of Fallujah and Ramadi appreciate what the military did. They have a great perspective, evidenced by the quote “We might have to rebuild our house,’ they said, ‘but you gave us back our city.’” The price was expensive but the reward was huge to these citizens.
As the ‘Pro-War’ Protesters’ signs said, “Freedom isn’t free.”
No it isn’t but it’s so worth it.
Cross-posted at Let Freedom Ring
October 13th, 2005 at 9:36 am
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